Mokoomba: Tusona – Tracings in the Sand

Mokoomba: Tusona – Tracings in the Sand

Sounds Natural and Human Listening Post 377. The Shona name for Victoria Falls, the great cataracts of the Zambezi, is “Mosi-oa-Tunya”—Smoke that Thunders—and the water’s misty roar can be heard as far as 40 km (25 mi) away. But there’s a sound from the adjacent city...
Black Umfolosi: Washabalal’ Umhlaba / Earth Song

Black Umfolosi: Washabalal’ Umhlaba / Earth Song

Headwaters of Identity Listening Post 291. The Zimbabwean ensemble Black Umfolosi takes its name from a river in South Africa’s Kwa-Zulu Natal Province, whence the group’s ancestors migrated almost 200 years ago. And though the zigzagging riverbed has been mostly dry...
Cris Gera: Music in Me / Nziyo Dziri Mandiri

Cris Gera: Music in Me / Nziyo Dziri Mandiri

Fire on Track Nine Listening Post 279. The singer-songwriter Cris Gera recorded his latest album, Music In Me/Nziyo Dziri Mandiri, in 2016, but more than three years passed before its release. The eight-track collection is a lively Afro-jazz/pop/R&B mix about...
Nobuntu: Obabes beMbube

Nobuntu: Obabes beMbube

Inland Surfing Listening Post 218. Zimbabwe is a landlocked country but in Nobuntu it may have found its waves—warm, rolling a cappella tides that wash over the soul. Nobuntu means “Mothers of Compassion” and Obabes beMbube (Women of Mbube) is the third—and perhaps...
Mokoomba: Luyando

Mokoomba: Luyando

Back to the Sources Listening Post 100. The first album from the Zimbabwean band Mokoomba, released in 2012, was a rock-oriented disk with an urban, pan-African orientation. But tradition was embedded in the group’s name—Mokoomba means “respect for the river”—and...