Eyuphuro

In 1989, a group from the island of Mozambique, in the north of the country, took the stage at WOMAD Harbourfront in Toronto¹.

The voice of Zena Bacar, raspy and powerful, carried lyrics in makhuwa — a bantu language that thousands of spectators did not understand, but which moved them deeply. The guitar chords blended Portuguese influences and Arab rhythms, in a mix that had never been heard so accomplished. The group is called Eyuphuro, which means “whirlwind” in macua². Forty years later, their legacy continues to resonate well beyond the borders of Mozambique.

In Brief

Key Dates

Origins: The Voice of a Millennial Island

The Island of Mozambique, connected to the continent by a 3.5-kilometer bridge, has been a crossroads of African, Arab, and Latin civilizations since the 8th century. This cosmopolitan heritage permeates the music of Eyuphuro³.

The traditional rhythms of the Nampula province — tufo, namahandga, masepua, djarimane, morro, chakacha — form the foundation on which the group built contemporary compositions. The authors Zena Bacar and Gimo Remane, both from the island, wanted to preserve this heritage in the face of an emerging globalization⁴.

Zena Bacar, born in 1949, was a former fisherwoman from Illa de Mozambique⁵. Her destiny shifted at the beginning of the 1980s when she founded Eyuphuro with Omar Issa and Gimo Remane. Bacar’s voice, often compared by the press to that of Billie Holiday towards the end of her career, possessed a raw texture, almost worn by life, and which conferred an extraordinary intensity on every phrase. She was not alone: Issufo Manuel, who arrived as a co-singer during the group’s rebirth, shared with her the lead vocals and a vocal harmony that was both rough and delicate.

Their music, sung in makhuwa, dealt with love and social critique. The texts, carried by precise and melodic electric guitars and sometimes hypnotic percussion, offer a sharp view of Mozambican life, particularly the inequalities faced by women in this society⁶.

Rebirth: From Dissolution to Yellela

The first dissolution of Eyuphuro, around 1990, occurred as the group was leaving the international stage under applause⁷.

Mama Mosambiki, the album recorded in 1990 in Toronto as part of WOMAD, was praised by the global press⁸.

The Times described it as “refreshing, subtle, and soothing”⁹.

The Toronto Star read in it a “vibrant music of complex polyrhythm”¹⁰. But in Mozambique, civil war was raging.

In 1998, the singer gathered former members and new talents to reform Eyuphuro¹¹.

The result arrived in 2001 in the form of Yellela, released on Riverboat / World Music Network¹².

The album blends local rhythms, touches of South African afro-jazz, and Congolese soukous¹³.

The American press qualified it as an album “vibrant with magnificent melodic hooks”¹⁴. Yellela also includes non-member musicians, such as singer Mariamo Mussa Hohberg, saxophonist Orlando da Conceicao, and keyboardist Benedito Mazbuko.

In 2006, the group released 25 Anos, followed by a final major international stage in Portugal¹⁵. Zena Bacar continued to sing until the end of her life.

She died in January 2017¹⁶.

Real World Records published a notice highlighting her role as the “golden voice of Mozambique”¹⁷. The Eyuphuro group, with its current members Issufo Manuel, Belarmino Rita Godeiros, Jorge Cossa, Mahamudo Selimane, and Firmina Louis Hunguana, perpetuates the legacy of a sound that made a nation proud.

Major Works

Legacy

Eyuphuro played a pioneering role in the international recognition of marrabenta²⁰.

This genre, born in Maputo as urban dance music, combining Mozambican, Portuguese, and Western influences, owes to the group being one of the first to bring this sound to a global audience²¹.

Zena Bacar’s commitment — for women, for the makhuwa language, for traditional rhythms — makes Eyuphuro much more than a group: it is a political and cultural voice of Mozambique²². Forty years after their creation, the “whirlwind” continues to spin.

Sources and references