Music is a multibillion-dollar generating industry worldwide. Despite the success and long history of the industry, it has kept out women, especially when it comes to documenting female musicians who contribute to the sustenance of the art form. While the music world is waking up to cater to an increasingly diverse audience, the Zambian music industry is waking up to its female talent.
When Sampa the Great – a Zambian-born and Botswana-raised rapper, singer and songwriter – released her second full-length album, As Above, So Below, in September 2022, it featured sounds from an era of Zambian music filled with nostalgia. The album incorporated the Zamrock genre and one of its most famous pioneers Jagari Chanda, lead singer of WITCH, the most successful boyband in the history of Zambia. The Zamrock gene emerged in the 1970s in newly independent Zambia. It fuses traditional African music with rock genres like psychedelic and garage.