Midweek Bonus Picks - Students Interview Thomas Mapfumo & Speakeasy Songs
We feature a Pick of the Week every Saturday. Now we've added Midweek Bonus Picks, which are quick snippets of interesting stuff that's worth a look or listen.
Students Interview Thomas Mapfumo
How many renowned musicians can you think of who would spend nearly a half hour being interviewed by student journalists? I can think of one, so far. From 2019.
Speakeasy Songs
As I've been working my way through the music of Thomas Mapfumo, I came across a song I especially liked. It's called ‘Shabeen’ and it first appeared in 1989, on one of the versions of the Corruption album. A shabeen or shebeen is pretty much a speakeasy. The term apparently comes from Ireland and made it's way to South Africa, where women known as shebeen queens made the goods sold in these establishments.
In 2020, South Africa's Vusi Mahlasela released an album called Shebeen Queen, as a tribute to his grandmother, who ran a shebeen. Here's more:
Vusi Mahlasela, the legendary activist and singer-songwriter known as “The Voice” in his native South Africa, released a new live album of traditional township songs, Shebeen Queen. The “shebeen queen” of the title is Mahlasela’s late grandmother Ida (whom he calls Magogo), who raised him in the township of Mamelodi (meaning “mother of melody”), where he still lives today. Following her husband’s murder in 1961, Ida opened a shebeen (speakeasy) and began selling homebrewed beer (umqombothi) to make her living. Her space became known for its lively musical gatherings at night, where the townspeople would use buckets, tins, and plastic drums as instruments, and Ingoma’buksu – music rooted in Mbube culture, meaning “Songs of the Night” – would be celebrated with everyone singing together in full voices. Ida became known as the “Shebeen Queen.” As a boy, Mahlasela saw a man playing a guitar at one of these gatherings and was inspired to build his first guitar from fishing line and a cooking oil can.
On a somewhat related note, an article about the beer gardens of Bulwayo, in southern Zimbabwe. And finally a song by South Africa’s Yvonne Chaka Chaka, about home-brewed beer.