''Zebu Nation'' is
Razia Said's first album on the U.S. based label
Cumbancha
Cumbancha is a record label, booking agency and music publisher based in Charlotte, Vermont. The company was founded by ethnomusicologist and music producer Jacob Edgar in 2006. In 2007, Cumbancha Music Publishing was established to expand oppor ...
. On the album, Razia sings about the damage
deforestation
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...
has had on the natural environment of her native island,
Madagascar
Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
.
Razia Said engages the
Malagasy style she grew up with
while blending the
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
and
R&B sounds she became familiar with while living in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Razia recorded the album as her way of fighting for the environment and her home land. The title references the reason for Madagascar's destruction: the
zebu, a breed of
cattle
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...
. Madagascar's forests are destroyed by method of
slash-and-burn to create pastures for grazing animals like zebu.
Track listing
Further reading
National Pride
References
{{Reflist
2010 albums