Listen. Watch. AWA. Zimbabwe’s Rap Queen Uses Her Music To Speak Out Against Domestic Violence, Inequality, and More.

AWA Zimbabwe Hip-hop


In this short Noisey documentary, we meet Zimbabwean rapper AWA. The lyricist, who hails from the troubled southern township of Makakoba, uses her music to uplift her community and to encourage women and girls. Throughout several points we see AWA rapping in Ndebele, a language that boasts roughly 2 million native speakers in Zimbabwe, and is closely related to Zulu.