"Skokiaan" is a popular tune originally written by Zimbabwean musician August Musarurwa in the "Tsaba-tsaba" big band-style that succeeded Marabi.

Within a year from its 1954 release in South Africa through Gallo Record Company, at least 19 cover versions of "Skokiaan" appeared.

Artists who produced their own interpretations include The Four Lads, Louis Armstrong, Bill Haley, Herb Alpert, Brave Combo, Hugh Masekela and Kermit Ruffins.

"Skokiaan" was originally composed and first recorded as a sax and trumpet instrumental by the "African Dance Band of the Cold Storage Commission of Southern Rhodesia" (the police band of the country now called Zimbabwe) under the leadership of August Musarurwa possibly in 1947 (anthropologist David B. Coplan seems to be the sole source for this date).

The main melodic strain (A) begins with a long held trill... played by the sax on the dominant pitch... followed by an undulating, descending melody.

The A strain is contrasted with sections of riffing that follow the harmonic progression fairly closely... before the main melody returns".

Musarurwa's 1947 and 1954 recordings illustrate how unique the indigenous forms of jazz that emerged in Africa in response to global music trends.

[10] A merengue version was recorded in the Dominican Republic by "Antonio Morel y su Orquestra" in the 1950s, with an alto saxophone arrangement by "Felix del Rosario".

Skokiaan has been recorded many times, initially as part of a wave of world music that swept across the globe in the 1950s, spurred on in Africa by Hugh Tracey and in the United States by Alan Lomax, to name two.

Skokiaan gained popularity outside Africa at the same time as another South African record did: "Mbube", a 1939 song by Solomon Linda also known as "Wimoweh", was later released in 1961 as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" by The Tokens.

In the United Kingdom, vocal versions were recorded by South African singers Eve Boswell and Alma Cogan.

Hodges' version is notable not only because he recorded the tune with Erroll Garner but also for the reason that his band at the time included John Coltrane, in a minor role.

[15] In 1954 Gallotone Records released a version of Skokiaan by "August Musarurwa and the Bulawayo Sweet Rhythm Band".

In 1954 covers of "Skokiaan" appeared on United States charts alongside Bulawayo Sweet Rhythm Band's original.

[25] Ethnomusicologist Thomas Turino points out that Glazer's depiction of the jungle setting is far removed from the topography of Southern Africa.

But its one-size fits "tropical paradise" idea was typical of exotic treatments at the time for songs from Latin America, Asia, and Hawaii.

— Bernie Toorish[27] In August 1954, Louis Armstrong recorded Skokiaan in two parts with Sy Oliver's Orchestra in New York (Decca 29256).

[21][37] Skokiaan's popularity tracked the transition to electronic music when an instrumental version was recorded by moog pioneers Hot Butter in 1973 on the album More Hot Butter (preserved as a novelty item replete with "jungle" sounds on the compilation album Incredibly Strange Music Vol.

The song is included as a full-length performance by Kermit Ruffins, Irvin Mayfield and Troy Andrews in the 2005 documentary film Make It Funky!, which presents a history of New Orleans music and its influence on jazz, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul and funk.

The composer, August Musarurwa, was an ex-policeman, who said that the tune was one played in an illegal shebeen when a police raid was imminent.

The Zulu is an ethnic grouping found in South Africa; composer August Musarurwa was a Shona from Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

An early identification of skokiaan as a Zulu word which circulated in Johannesburg's slums is found in a scholarly article by Ellen Hellman, dated 1934.

However Southern Rhodesian migrant labourers moved back and forth between their home country and the mines of South Africa, located mostly around Johannesburg, making it unlikely, but not impossible, that Musarurwa's tune got influenced by a putative Zulu song.

While Shosholoza has become very popular among South Africans, who often sing it to encourage their sports teams, its origins, like that of "Skokiaan", are Southern Rhodesian.