The movement emerged in the 1970s, in a Zambia recently broken free from its British colonisers. The nation was basking in an economic boom and President Kenneth Kaunda had enforced a “Zambia first” policy which, among many other things, meant 95% of the music played by radio stations had to be of Zambian origin.The groundwork was laid for young creatives to forge a bold, distinctly Zambian musical identity.”We were influenced by rock bands like Deep Purple, Grand Funk Railroad, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown,” says WITCH frontman Emmanuel Chanda, better known as Jagari, after Mick Jagger.”But we were Africans. We wanted to play like those rock bands but then the African aspect was also calling: ‘You can’t leave me behind’.”In the 1970s, Zambia’s recording studios were rudimentary and there was no established recording industry.
Regardless, Zamrock thrived.Musicians illuminated stages with bell-bottom jeans, platform shoes and colourful headbands. WITCH, an acronym for We Intend To Cause Havoc, lived up to their name, with fans clamouring outside sold-out venues, hoping to watch marathon shows that sometimes lasted from 19:00 to 02:00.”The fact that they mixed traditional music with psychedelic rock in a conservative country… and to be able to do that and be loud about it – it was something very bold to do in the 70s, let alone now,” says Sampa – who was pleased to recently discover that her uncle, “Groovy” George Kunda, was a founding member of WITCH.But for all of its impact, Zamrock could not last.
The genre crumbled after roughly a decade, when Zambia was hit with a series of crises. The price of copper, Zambia’s main export, plummeted, leading to an economic decline that diminished the ability to tour, record and buy music.Musical piracy also hit Zamrockers, as bootleggers made money by copying and selling their music.And from the 1980s, the country was badly hit by the HIV/Aids crisis, which led to the deaths of many musicians. Five of WITCH’s founding members died from Aids.Zamrock lay dormant for decades.
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Its surviving founders returned to civilian life – Jagari went to work in the mines to support his family. But in the early 2010s, seemingly out of nowhere, record collectors in the West caught on to the genre.US-based label Now-Again Records played a significant part in Zamrock’s revival, sourcing and reissuing albums from some of the genre’s biggest names.”I wasn’t sure if it had a market. I was just sure that it was very cool,” Now-Again label boss Eothen “Egon” Alapatt tells the BBC.”I figured: ‘If I’m curious about this, there’s probably other people who are curious about this’.”Vinyl enthusiasts rushed to buy original Zamrock records, which only exist in small numbers, and their value naturally spiked.”I started getting a lot of requests for original Zamrock records, and I didn’t understand why people were so interested,” says Duncan Sodala, a Zamrock fan and the owner of Time Machine, a record store in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka.Mr Sodala went online and was “shocked” to find that records pressed in the 1970s were selling for between $100 (£74) and $1,000 (£740).In 2011, Now-Again Records released a compilation of WITCH’s music. The ensuing buzz led to a reincarnation of the band, featuring Jageri and Patrick Mwondela from WITCH’s old days, and a number of younger European musicians.WITCH have since released two albums, starred in a documentary, played at the iconic Glastonbury Festival and toured outside Africa – something the original band never managed to achieve.”It’s like a new lease on life I never expected at my advanced age,” 74-year-old Jagari says on a call from New Zealand, the final stop on WITCH’s 2025 world tour.”In Munich, there was crowd surfing, which I had never done before.”Though Jagari is thrilled by a second chance to play Zamrock, new opportunities are a reminder of his sorely missed bandmates.”There are times that I wish the whole band, the original line-up, was there to showcase what it was like in the beginning,” he says.The crowds at WITCH’s shows, comprising fans young and old, are proof of Zamrock’s fresh appeal.
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