Hailing from Harare in the mid 1980s, Robson Banda & the New Black Eagles introduced a new sound that mixed the up-tempo rhythms of jit and the more intimate chimurenga music. Mbira-based guitar licks bring a nostalgic feeling to these dance-floor gems championed at the time by legendary English DJ John Peel.

First ever reissue
100% analog direct tape-to-disc cut from the original master tapes

Nyami Nyami Records are pleased to announce the reissue of the classic Zimbabwean album SOWETO, with the same tracklist and original artwork, produced at the peak of jit’s popularity in the mid-1980s. While staying within the chimurenga music framework pioneered by Thomas Mapfumo and Jonah Sithole, Robson Banda and the New Black Eagles produced a crisp, precise and exciting sound, emphasising the upbeat dance music favoured on the dancefloors of independent Zimbabwe’s nightspots and beerhalls.
The band was formed in 1980 and has eight impressive albums to its name. Banda’s roots were foreign, but his music was quintessentially Zimbabwean, as these lively mid-eighties recordings demonstrate; he had previously played with Mapfumo’s short-lived Acid Band and Jonah Moyo’s Devera Ngwena Jazz Band before forming the New Black Eagles.
Born in Petauke, eastern Zambia, in 1955, Robson Banda was an aspiring freedom fighter, but failed to cross into Mozambique and join the Liberation War. He ended up in Kadoma, where he joined the Savanna Sisters as a drummer. There, he met Sipho Skosana, who taught the 17-year-old how to play the guitar and linked him up with Mapfumo. After a short Acid Band stint, Banda headed for Mashava, where Jonah Moyo was assembling a group to entertain the mine community.
Banda joined the band playing bass guitar and was hired as a storekeeper by the mine. After recording Devera Ngwena Zhimozhi as an original member, the adventurous Banda refused to waste away behind a shop counter and left town to form his own group, the Black Eagles. This new band encountered various problems, with band members eventually abandoning Banda and his younger brother, Biggie.
Banda turned to his old acquaintances from Savanna, recruiting Daniel Zande and John Phiri (sometimes credited as Chivere). Also invited was Kadoma guitarist Job Mteswa, and the group became known as the New Black Eagles, based in Chegutu. They released the singles Tambazvako, Dzapasi, and the group’s most successful recording of the time, Hauzomboda. They recorded the albums Sidhudla, the group’s debut, and the chart-topping Dzinomwa MunaSave, before crafting this masterpiece, SOWETO.
Title track Soweto is a hauntingly uplifting declaration of solidarity. The melodious, guitar-heavy track entreats God to help people struggling in apartheid South Africa; this legendary anthem in the Zimbabwean catalogue was symbolic of the prevailing Pan-African sentiment.
A product of its time, Maria is a harmonious plea for a young lady to return home to her mother and father before her beauty fades, elegantly showcasing the band’s guitar style.
Rambai Makashinga is an upbeat dance number that showcases the celebratory, lively jit style popular in the new Zimbabwe, reflecting a deep-seated nostalgia for traditional African life. It is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, reminiscent of Mapfumo’s Ngoma Yekwedu and the Bhundu Boys' Tsvimbo DzeMoto.
Masvingo Netara is a nightclub staple that opens on a pumping bassline. It is part love song, part social commentary, in a style popular among Zimbabwean artists of the time, where the male artist employs a woman’s voice to warn men about social ills and bad behaviour.
Kashiri Kamambo, in the more conventional chimurenga technique of mbira-style guitar licks over a flowing baseline, uses the traditional call-and-response harmonies to craft a danceable ditty.
Farirai Mwana Auya also employs traditional chimurenga rhythms fused with a more experimental, grimier electric guitar sound. After the liberation war ended, many who had sought refuge in towns and cities did not return to their rural homes because they needed to get jobs; this song celebrates the return of a child from work in the big city to the rural areas.
The love song Emmah is a more conventional offering, perhaps indicative of Banda’s influence on James Chimombe’s musical style; he is often credited with helping Chimombe refine his music into a unique jit beat, and this love song closes out the album with a romantic flourish.
The New Black Eagles achieved great success from their base at the Chegutu Hotel and toured the country, including various venues, festivals and Independence Day celebrations in Harare. In 1989, promoter Bob Diener released Zimbabwean albums in the United States; he selected music from just four artists: Thomas Mapfumo, James Chimombe, Jonah Sithole, and Robson Banda. The New Black Eagles were also a favourite of legendary BBC Radio DJ John Peel, who regularly played their music in the eighties. Such was their popularity that they supported London reggae titans Misty In Roots on their 1990 tour.
After the release of SOWETO, the band’s makeup changed, with Mteswa leaving to join Oliver Mtukudzi. The group went on to release the albums Ngoma Ngairire, Mukuwasha, Sango Rinopa Waneta, Gehena, and Regai Nditendeuke. Of the original musicians on this recording, Job Mteswa passed away in 1996 (he is memorialised on Mtukudzi’s Akoromoka Awa), Daniel Zande and Robson Banda followed in 1998, with Biggie Banda passing on in 2000. John Phiri’s fate is unknown; a 2003 report had him playing backup for Mapfumo copycat Robbie Chagumuka, and still living in Chegutu.
In SOWETO, Robson Banda and the New Black Eagles injected a vibrant musical sensibility into the cultural landscape of their homeland, delivering a dance-infused sound that blends the up-tempo rhythms of jit and the more intimate cadence of chimurenga.