The Bhundu Boys were a Zimbabwean band that played a mixture of chimurenga music with American rock and roll, disco, country, and pop influences.
[2] The name came from bhundu (meaning "bush" or "jungle"), in reference to the young boys who used to aid the nationalist guerrilla fighters in the 1970s war against the white minority government of what was then Rhodesia.
Between 1982 and 1986,[3] The Bhundu Boys thus reached the top of the Zimbabwean music scene, with four number one hits ("Baba Munini Francis", "Wenhamo Haaneti", "Hatisitose", and "Tsvimbodzemoto").
They attracted the attention of Owen Elias and his colleague, musician Champion Doug Veitch, who released an EP on their Discafrique label in the UK under licence from Shed Studios in 1985.
Given the attention of Peel and Kershaw, under further licence from Shed Studios, their first UK album, Shabhini, was released on the Discafrique label in 1986.
The band travelled to UK in 1986 for a live tour organised by Elias, and Scottish graphic artist Gordon Muir[4] became their manager.
After touring the UK for a year, basing themselves initially in Hawick, Scotland with Muir and travelling relentlessly, the band appeared to be on the brink of a major commercial breakthrough.
Controversially, much of their £80,000 advance from WEA was spent buying a house in Kensal Rise, West London that as of 2006 was still a source of dispute.
Returning to Zimbabwe in the early 1990s, he tried to self-produce some more music at Shed Studios including two albums (Baba of Jit and Out of Africa).
Tembo became ill with depression, became a practising Christian, eventually hanging himself in a psychiatric hospital in 1995, where he had been sectioned for violent outbursts.
[10][1] The band finally called it quits in 2000 after bassist Washington Kavhai was jailed in the UK on an aggravated assault conviction.