Ray Phiri is dead, long live Chikapa!
Spindly legged, with loose limbs and fluid waist, his pants tightly belted, his dangly ass up in the air, doing the monkey jive, Ray Phiri rocked the world
16 July 2017 - 00:02
Ray "Chikapa" Phiri was many things to many people. He and his band Stimela's discography occupies a key space in the South African, African and global black pop and raw-kin-roll archive.
I won't even begin to name the hits that helped us cope with the barbarism and debilitating effects of apartheid's manufactured hate, orchestrated black-on-black violence and other symptoms of a traumatised people.
I have neither the energy nor the strength of will to name-drop the songs that carry us all through the dark nights . . . songs such as Whispers In the Deep, Zwakala,Tell Me Where Did We Go Wrong and the overwrought Through the Eyes of a Child...
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