Heavy Metal Africa – New Book Examining The Scene On The Continent Released
January 6, 2017, 7 years ago
South Africa’s Born-Free generation joins with young people from every corner of the sub-continent, using the staggering power of rock and metal music to destroy the divisions and horrors of the past and write their own African story.
Told partly as travel narrative, with a light academic tone, Heavy Metal Africa introduces readers to young musicians who have been able to flourish amidst the likes of political unrest of Madagascar, the brutal ethnic discord of Kenya, and life under one of the world’s most savage dictators in Zimbabwe.
Author Edward Banchs spent five years traveling to various African countries, meeting bands and experiencing the local rock and metal scenes. There he discovered a side of Africa he had never learned about at university.
Banchs explains that he traveled throughout Sub-Saharan Africa because he wanted to understand for himself exactly how the musicians live and struggle, and experience the passion of rock and metal in Africa. “The book,” he says “is a way of connecting westerners to an Africa they never see, and perhaps, never imagined. For this reason, I feel the book appeals to not only fans of hard rock and heavy metal, but to all who are fans of optimism.”
