Thomas Mapfumo and The Blacks Unlimited

Thomas Mapfumo is a Zimbabwean singer and bandleader born in 1945 in Marondera, Zimbabwe. Before forming The Blacks Unlimited, he sings with several other groups, including The Zutu Brothers, Hallelujah Chicken Run Band and the Acid Band.

He forms The Blacks Unlimited in 1977, when he and Jonah Sithole merge their bands. The group develops a style known as chimurenga music, a politicised electric form of traditional Shona mbira music. Its songs address the colonial government in Rhodesia and later Robert Mugabe. Mapfumo lives in exile in the United States.