Zamrock - a fusion of psychedelic rock, funk and traditional Zambian sounds - at it's finest
W.I.T.C.H. (We Intend To Cause Havoc) was Zambia's biggest rock band in the 1970s and spearheaded a new genre called Zamrock. They fused influences from the Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath and James Brown, among others, with traditional African rhythms and bush village songs. At the height of their popularity, the band often needed police to keep the frenzied fans in check, while lead singer Jagari - whose name is an African variation of Mick Jagger - thrilled the audience by stagediving off balconies and dancing manically to the psychedelic rock.
Jagari is the charismatic, only surviving original member of the band. When Zambia fell into political chaos in the mid-1970s when its once-profitable mining industry collapsed, WITCH disintegrated.
Outside Zambia, WITCH remained largely unknown until Now Again Records re-released their entire discography in 2012. This gave Jagari the chance to perform outside Africa for the first time and introduce a new generation of fans to his music. In 2016, he began collaborating with Dutch musicians Jacco Gardner and Nic Mauskoviç, and in September 2017, WITCH departed on their first, highly successful European tour. In 2023, WITCH released Zango, their first album of new material in almost 40 years, with contributions from Zambian artists such as Sampha the Great and Theresa Ng'ambi.