G.V. Series

The records were launched by the British EMI company's His Master's Voice label in 1933, in part because of shrinking demand during the Great Depression.

Thereafter local distributors were able to request, or press themselves, any of the back catalog of these companies for relatively low cost in Africa, making the records affordable to African listeners for the first time.

[7] Of particular note were Cuban artists such as Son combo Sexteto Habanero, Trio Matamoros, Don Azpiazú, Abelardo Valdés, Antonio Machin, as well as big band leader Xavier Cugat, originally recorded in the United States for the American market.

The most notable of these styles is Congolese Rumba ("Soukous") which developed in Leopoldville, Belgian Congo (modern Kinshasa, DRC) in the 1940s and 50s.

series, sold through East African Music Stores in Nairobi as its agents in Lourenço Marques and Dar-es-Salaam.

series quickly had to complete with domestic music produced by EMI and specialist labels like Odeon Swahili.

A G.V. Series (G.V.116) recording of the 1941 songs "El estagiario / Mi refugio" by Argentine Carlos Di Sarli y su Orquesta típica . Thousands of such records were sent to colonial Africa in the 1940s, sparking the creation of new musical styles across the continent.