AfricaIs aCountry

Songs for Chipolopolo

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Songs for Chipolopolo

By
Charles Mafa

The Zambian journalist canvassed his friends for a playlist of top Zambian tunes praising their footballing heroes.

Zambian fans (Image: Andrew Codrington, via Flickr CC)

It’s death or glory today for defending champions Zambia, who must beat Burkina Faso to make it to the quarter-finals of the 2013 African Cup of Nations in South Africa. Anything less will be a significant disappointment. Just in case the Chipolopolo Boys, as the team is known, need a confidence booster ahead of the big match and remember what this all means to the fans back home, here’s our playlist of top Zambian tunes in praise of their heroes.

We start with “Vuvuzela” by Shimba Boyd, a captivating song urging the Zambian team to show them how to play the game. It is a popular hit in bars, taverns, nightclubs, and radio and television, especially when Zambia plays.

Next up is “Mad Chipolopolo,” a song by MADD featuring Rearn, thanking God for the beautiful colors of Zambia: orange (mineral wealth), green (vegetation), red (blood during independence), and black for the people.

Here’s MC Wabwino with “Chipololopolo” (a popular title for this). Mkunsha Chembe, the elephant of Zambian music, doesn’t want to be left out as he sings Chipolopolo. (It’s Chipolopolo if you want to dance!).

If your enthusiasm hasn’t been stoked, it will be when you’ve heard Leo Muntu with “Zambia Let’s Go.” It is a famous track in bars, on radios, and television. Top marks for dancing.

We’ll leave it with MC Wabwino to round things off. Here’s “Ona Kayako Chipolopolo,” another beauty from last year praising the dribbling skills of the Zambian players (listen for the name-checks).

  • This is the fourth in a series of national playlists for teams participating in the 2013 African Cup of Nations in South Africa.

Further Reading

Progress is exhausting

Pedro Pinho’s latest film follows a Portuguese engineer in Guinea-Bissau, exposing how empire survives through bureaucracy, intimacy, and the language of “development.”

The rubble of empire

Built by Italian Fascists in 1928, Mogadishu Cathedral was meant to symbolize “peaceful conquest.” Today its ruins force Somalis to confront the uneasy afterlife of colonial power and religious authority.

Atayese

Honored in Yorubaland as “one who repairs the world,” Jesse Jackson’s life bridged civil rights, pan-Africanism, empire, and contradiction—leaving behind a legacy as expansive as it was imperfect.

Bread or Messi?

Angola’s golden jubilee culminated in a multimillion-dollar match against Argentina. The price tag—and the secrecy around it—divided a nation already grappling with inequality.

Visiting Ngara

A redevelopment project in Nairobi’s Ngara district promises revival—but raises deeper questions about capital, memory, and who has the right to shape the city.

Gen Z’s electoral dilemma

Long dismissed as apathetic, Kenya’s youth forced a rupture in 2024. As the 2027 election approaches, their challenge is turning digital rebellion and street protest into political power.

A world reimagined in Black

By placing Kwame Nkrumah at the center of a global Black political network, Howard W. French reveals how the promise of pan-African emancipation was narrowed—and what its failure still costs Africa and the diaspora.

Securing Nigeria

Nigeria’s insecurity cannot be solved by foreign airstrikes or a failing state, but by rebuilding democratic, community-rooted systems of collective self-defense.