Zamrock is a music genre and scene that emerged in Zambia during the early 1970s. It has been described as a fusion of traditional African music and psychedelic rock, garage rock, hard rock, blues and funk, taking influence from popular bands like Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer, the Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, and Cream.
Rock musician Rikki Ililonga and his band Musi-O-Tunya are widely regarded as the inventors of this style of music. Other notable artists include WITCH, The Peace, Amanaz, Chrissy "Zebby" Tembo, and Paul Ngozi and his Ngozi Family.
Though it is no longer as popular in the country as it once was due to Zambia's economic difficulties in the late 1970s, Zamrock has seen a recent resurgence, led by former WITCH member Emmanuel Chanda, better known as Jagari. Zamrock as a musical movement came of age in the turbulent first decade after Zambia's independence from British colonialism, rising and falling in tandem with the country's economic success. In order to celebrate the culture of the newly independent nation, Kaunda decreed that 95% of music played on radio stations had to be Zambian in origin. When the country offered to shelter refugees, Zambia's power stations were bombed. Once-prosperous cities were at the mercy of blackouts and curfews.
The AIDS epidemic played a huge part in bringing Zamrock to an end. The disease began to spread in the 1980s and has continued to devastate the nation since. It is estimated that between 1.2 million and 1.3 million have died from AIDS in Zambia as of 2019. Every member of WITCH except Emanuel "Jagari" Chanda had died of AIDS by 2001. In the last 5 years since his return in 2017, he has performed in several European cities such as Moscow and Paris, something he never got the chance to do in his band's prime.