The song “Pidigori” (Upside Down in the English Language) is one song created by Thomas Mapfumo and The Blacks Unlimited.

Listen to two different versions, one in the studio and one performed live:

Thomas Mapfumo is a popular artist in the Chimurenga Genre, but in this song The Blacks Unlimited are also involved. They are normally known for the same genre but just add even more diversity to the music and make it even more unique.

Can you hear the quality difference between the two videos?

The concert scene video has a lot worse quality of sound and video which makes sense because they are outside in a larger area causing the timbre of the voice to be affected.

Photo source: http://www.herald.co.zw/mukanya-fails-to-release-new-album/

About Thomas Mapfumo 

Mapfumo started singing in the early 1960s. When ZANU was formed in 1963, he was a teenage musician in Harare Township (now Mbare), an Africans-only suburb in Salisbury (now Harare). By the mid-1970s, he had started experimenting with traditional African rhythms and lyrics. Zimbabwean musician and composer who propelled Zimbabwe toward independence in the 1970s. When many black Zimbabweans were beginning to resist the white minority government, Mapfumo was also effecting a revolution in popular music by writing the lyrics to his songs in the language of the Shona people. One of the key inspirations of Mapfumo’s work was the music of the mbira, an African lamellaphone consisting of a large gourd resonator fitted with a set of metal keys that are plucked with the thumbs.

Map of Zimbabwe

This is the Shona People

This is what a mbira looks like

Behind Thomas Mapfumo Music & Lyrics 

Mapfumo became known as “The Lion of Zimbabwe” and “Mukanya” for his immense popularity and for the political influence he wields through his music, including his sharp criticism of the government of former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe. The intensely complicated rhythms played on the drums were meant to represent the stamping of dancers’ feet. The white minority government saw Mapfumo’s music as a threat and banned it from the state-controlled radio stations. His music was still heard, however, in discos and on radio broadcasts that originated in neighbouring countries. Through that music banner, he continued to taunt the colonial regime, denouncing poverty while advocating for freedom. Despite the colonial system reacting to the music with censure and repression, Mapfumo’s music irresistibly rocked the nation like a Hurricane as it remained unique, melodious, informative and equally gripping.

Some Other Music Sung by Thomas Mapfumo

Kuwanikwa Pano (Found Here) by Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited

Watch Nyoka Musango (A Snake in the Forest) by Thomas Mapfumo

References 

(1)Davies, Joe. “Mapfumo.” Queen’s Quarterly, vol. 128, no. 3, fall 2021, pp. 446+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A682425419/AONE?u=anon~71527a35&sid=googleScholar&xid=4cdade92. Accessed 7 Dec. 2023.

(2)Eyre, Banning. “Lion Songs: Thomas Mapfumo and the Music That Made Zimbabwe.” Duke University Press, April 27, 2015. https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/157/Lion-SongsThomas-Mapfumo-and-the-Music-That-Made.

(3)Eyre, Banning. “Thomas Mapfumo and the Polularization of Shona Mbira.” African Music : Journal of the International Library of African Music. Accessed December 7, 2023. https://journal.ru.ac.za/index.php/africanmusic/article/view/1227.

(4)Fighting for justice and freedom through music: The case of thomas … Accessed December 8, 2023. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02572117.2017.1316927.

(5)Thomas “Mukanya” mapfumo and songs of protest in colonial and post … Accessed December 8, 2023. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Richard-Muranda/publication/359867816_Thomas_Mukanya_Mapfumo_and_Songs_of_Protest_in_Colonial_and_Post-Independence_Zimbabwe/links/6254135e4f88c3119cf2713b/Thomas-Mukanya-Mapfumo-and-Songs-of-Protest-in-Colonial-and-Post-Independence-Zimbabwe.pdf.