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9780822359081

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In Lion Songs the reader follows Mapfumo's career as a singer/songwriter and uncompromising social critic through the last gasp of colonialism in Rhodesia, the liberation struggle, and the aftermath of independence. A skilled storyteller, Banning Eyre integrates his perspective on these events with his experiences performing as a guitarist in Mapfumo's bands, deftly interweaving his accounts with the perspectives of Zimbabwean, European, and North American observers and interlocutors. Against the backdrop of Zimbabwe's political history and the global flows of the popular music market, Eyre provides an intimate view of the bands' touring musicians and dancers. He explores their artistic practices, their interpersonal relationships, and the relentless challenges they face in Zimbabwe, Europe, and in America where Mapfumo currently lives in political exile. Lion Songs is also the story of the creative genius of Mapfumo himself, and the moral complexities that surround his life. --Paul Berliner, author of The Soul of Mbira: Music and Traditions of the Shona People of Zimbabwe

Thomas Mapfumo, the musical Lion of Zimbabwe, has been fortunate in finding Banning Eyre, a worthy Boswell to his Johnson. --Peter Godwin, author of The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe

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Banning Eyre is a freelance writer and guitarist and the senior editor and producer of the public radio program Afropop Worldwide. He is the author of In Griot Time: An American Guitarist in Mali, Playing With Fire: Fear and Self-Censorship in Zimbabwean Music, and Guitar Atlas: Africa, and the coauthor of AFROPOP! An Illustrated Guide to Contemporary African Music. Eyre is a contributor to National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and his writing has been published in Billboard, Guitar Player, Salon.com, the Boston Phoenix, CMJ, Option, Folk Roots, Global Rhythm, and other publications. He has also performed and recorded with Thomas Mapfumo.

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