Emanuel "Jagari" Chanda, Patrick Mwondela
WITCH ("We Intend To Cause Havoc") is a Zambian funk/rock band (with a brief dance with disco) regarded as among the most popular/influential of "zamrock" bands of the 1970's, a genre coined via their creations. Formed about a decade after Zambian independence, the band is led/founded by Emanuel "Jagari" Chanda, who also took in influences from Europe, America, and rock/pop music of the West.
Chanda left the band in 1976, after releasing four albums, to pursue teaching. The band went through a series of member/genre switches afterwards until after 1984 when the band quit performing live. The band revived in 2012 when their re-issued records started gaining traction to new audiences, with Chanda making new material alongside new members from the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland (as well as keyboardist Patrick Mwondela, who first joined the band in 1980). They released their first album since 1984 in 2023 with their eighth studio album, 'Zango'.
'SOGOLO' is their newest 2025 release, and ironically I stumbled across this thinking it was a new album from J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.) adjacent side-project 'Witch'. The opening track "Kamusale" and following "Nadi" are the power combo and my favorites, but the entire album is solid. After my introduction to 'SOGOLO', I have good reason to check out their previous eight albums; as mentioned earlier all of their older studio albums have been re-issued.
