zamrock

WITCH (WE INTEND TO CAUSE HAVOC)

"After establishing a following in Zambia as well as in Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Botswana in the 1970s, the band slowly dissolved in the Eighties and eventually stopped playing altogether. Chiseling for amethysts in a dirt pit in Zambia, co-founder Emmanuel “Jagari” Chanda, now 70, thought his days of performing were over." Rolling Stone

Zamrock, the Afro-rock genre that swept southern Africa in the 1970s, was born in the Copperbelt region of northern Zambia, and WITCH was at the center of it all. In the beginning, lead singer Emmanuel ‘Jagari’ Chanda and the band looked for a name to match edgy rock sounds coming from Europe and America. First they tried Kingston Market, which sounded too reggae-ish, then they tried Footswitch, but there was a local artist called Dr Footswitch, so they shortened it to Switch, and then finally WITCH. “The posters were handwritten,” Jagari recalled, “so we would draw somebody on a broomstick.” Hot out of the gate, WITCH signed to Teal Records and began touring in a truck with a canopy emblazoned with the words: “Trespassers will be eaten” The graphic artist who wrote those words also gave the band its enduringm acronym: We Intend To Cause Havoc. Jagari recalls, “There was no hesitation. Everyone agreed” And the rest is history.

Fast forward four decades, and Jagari, along with veteran keyboardist/composer Patrick Mwondela, now lead a new, multi-national formation of the band. Sogolo is their second 21st century release. It’s the follow up to Zango (2021), which was recorded against all odds in the same Lusaka studio that WITCH frequented in the ‘70s—funky and dilapidated, but with a vibe that heralded a reawakening for the band.

All this came as a surprise to Jagari, who had been trying his hand at gemstone mining when filmmaker Gio Arlotta arrived in 2014 – during Zambia’s jubilee independence celebration – to begin work on his 2019 documentary WITCH (We Intend to Cause Havoc). The gemstone quest was a bust, but Jagari recalls, “Sometimes when one door closes, another will open, and that turns out to be WITCH resurrected. Amazing! It has given me a new lease of life.”

* Territory: also UK.

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