Tracing the Mbira Sound Archive in Zimbabwe

By Luis Gimenez Amoros

© 2018 – Routledge

The CHR congratulates postdoctoral fellow Luis Gimenez Amoros on the publication of ‘Tracing the Mbira Sound Archive in Zimbabwe’ by Routledge. The book analyses the revitalisation and repatriation of historical recordings from the largest sound archive in Africa, the International Library of African Music (ILAM). It provides a postcolonial study on the African sound archive divided into three historical periods: the colonial period offers a critical analysis on how ILAM classifies its music through ethnic and linguistic groups; the postcolonial period reconsiders postcolonial nationhood, new/old mobility and cultural border crossing in present Africa; and the recent period of repatriation focuses on the author’s revitalisation of the sound archive.