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Thomas Mapfumo made revolutionary changes in Zimbabwe's pop music scene by recording a song for which he'd written his own music. Before Mapfumo, songs in the traditional style were always based on tunes that had been handed down for generations. Mapfumo's music, chimurenga ("music of struggle"), became popular during the civil war against white minority rule, but his popularity made the government unhappy. In 1977, he was sent to a prison camp for subversion. To obtain his release, Mapfumo agreed to perform for the ruling party, but at the concert he sang only his most revolutionary songs. "I told them that since I'd been in detention, I didn't have time to write new ones." Mapfumo grew up in the country, went to a British colonial school, and worked as a herd boy, watching over the cattle. After hearing the Beatles and Wilson Pickett in the early '60s, Mapfumo taught himself guitar and started a band that played pop music from African countries, as well as Beatles, Rolling Stones, fu...