"Bob Marley of Zimbabwe" to Receive Honorary Degree

Contact: Dwight Woodward, (740) 593-1842 or woodward@ohio.edu, or Stephen Howard, (740) 593-4469 or howard@ohio.edu

Editor's Note: A photo of Mapfumo can be downloaded from the Web at www.ohiou.edu/news/pix/mapfumo_thomas.JPG

ATHENS, Ohio (June 7, 2001) -- Thomas Mapfumo, popularly known as the "Bob Marley of Zimbabwe" and the "Lion of Zimbabwe," will attend Ohio University's 10 a.m. commencment ceremony to receive an honorary degree from President Robert Glidden.

Since the 1970s, Mapfumo has sung about the oppressed people of his native Zimbabwe. His style of music, "chimurenga," is a Shona language term meaning struggle and is the same name as the guerrilla fighters battling the racist regime of former Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith. Mapfumo was jailed in the 1970s for his music and his latest freedom songs with his band Blacks Unlimited have been banned by the current government of Zimbabwe President Robert Robert Mugabe.

Mapfumo performed with Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen at the 1987 Human Rights Concert in Harare, Zimbabwe, is a regular participant at the SunSplash Reggae Show in Kingston, Jamaica, and has played in Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. He has made the thumb piano or "mbira," an African musical instrument, popular worldwide.

"Mapfumo is an icon and symbol for liberty and justice to the oppressed," said Stephen Howard, director of African Studies at the university's Center for International Studies. "His music has always been about liberation and emancipation."

Mapfumo will receive an honorary doctorate of music from the College of Fine Arts.