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Steve Hannington

Kenyan Djungo Chokwe moved to Yugoslavia in 1965 to study at at the local technical school in the medical field and then continued with Psychology at the University of Belgrade. Along with his studies, he was interested in performing arts, in particular in music and acting. In the 1970s, he participated in some music performances with other African students at the Museum of African Art in Belgrade, during which he sang and played guitar.

 

At the same time, he started to get known as Steven Hannington (usually written ‘Stiv Hanington’) as well as Steva Šumadinac through live performances with his band Kayafunga in several Belgrade venues and then some single releases. In the early 1980s, his appearance in a TV commercial boosted his career and led to the release of his first album in 1984, Alulu Songs. Simultaneously, he took minor parts in some popular movies of the time. He explored different music genres – funk and disco, Yugoslav popular music and African influences – with mixed outcomes, as also shown by the track list of his second album, Vama s poštovanjem (1987).

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In 1991, while he was in Kenya for a short stay, war broke out in Yugoslavia, and Hannington remained stuck in his homeland, where he worked for the radio and in the cultural field. He returned to Serbia only in 2016, when he gave several interviews and performed in various venues.
 

Picture of Steve Hannington

Records

Single Retrospection I Alulu Jazz (1977)


Single Malaika / Sisi tunakupenda (1979)


Single Kayafunga – Hej, Afrika (1980)


Single Najlepša si kada ćutiš / Be my love (1980s)


Album Alulu Songs (1984)


Song “Kako nabaciti farbu” on the album Decije pesme i priče (1985)

The Album is also fully available on YouTube.

The song is also available on YouTube.


Album Vama s Poštovanjem (1987)

The songs “Mujo kuje konja po mesecu”, “Najlepša si kada ćutiš”, "Let’s Go to Africa” and “Sonja voli konja” from this album are also available on YouTube.


Album Everybody on a Safari (1980s)


Videotape with music videos: Steven Hannington – Steva Šumadinac (1980s)

Archived Recordings

Archive RTB (now RTS – Radio-Television Serbia)

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Several recordings of TV programs produced by RTB featured Steve Hannington’s performances or interviews, among which: 

  • Episode of the TV program Stranac u Srbiji dedicated to Steve Hannington (2018). also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAr5l_NLsOE

  • Episode of the TV program Omladina pita dedicated to Steve Hannington (year?)

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Archive Radio Beograd

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Some songs by Hannington:

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  • Stiv Hanington i Grupa, “Chama Chama” with band Op-Cup

  • “Kayafunga” with band Steve Hannington

  • “Glas” with band O.P.

  • “Hej Afrika with Kayafunga band

  • “Alulu jazz” with band Op-Cup

  • “Si Si Tuna” with band Steve Hannington

  • “Mpenzi” with band Steve Hannington

  • “Chubacko” with band Steve Hannington

  • “Tangala” with band Steve Hannington

  • “Walk in Door” with band Steve Hannington

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Other recordings, performances and interviews

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Since Steve Hannington became well-known in Serbia and frequently appeared on TV, several of his performances and interviews were filmed and can be found on the Internet. An exhaustive survey is almost impossible to achieve and here are listed the most relevant sources.

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The YouTube channel Steve Hannington J.C. Alulu contains several musical videos, performances and interviews with Steve Hannington.

 

Other videos:

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Written Sources and References

  • Cimardi, Linda. 2024. “Black Popular Musics in Yugoslavia”. In The Routledge Handbook of Popular Music and Politics of the Balkans, edited by Catherine Baker. London: Routledge, 451-461.

  • Cimardi, Linda. 2026. “Engaging for Africa. Popular Songs by African Students in Yugoslavia”. Narodna Umjetnost 63 (1): 209-231. https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/502328

  • Nenić, Iva. 2022. “‘Imagined Balkans’ Meets ‘Imagined Africa’: The Contemporary Practice of Jembe Drumming in Serbia”. Ethnomusicology Forum 31 (3): 429–448. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17411912.2022.2152249

 

References on written media (printed or online) on Steve Hannington are also countless and here a list of the most relevant sources is offered:

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Credits

Website connected to

DFG-supported research project "Black Musics in the (Former) Yugoslav Region"

Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Department of Musicology

Dr. Linda Cimardi

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© 2026 Linda Cimardi / Website setup by Julian Müller

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