# What was this song (about Zimbabwe)?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-song-about-zimbabwe/472247>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 11, 2008, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-song-about-zimbabwe/472247 "2008-11-11T21:27:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-song-about-zimbabwe/472247/1 "2008-11-11T21:27:08Z")

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I vaguely and dimly remember a humorous (?) song from (presumably) the early 1980s which included the couplet:

_South Rhodesia’s now Zimbabwe  
Taken over by Mugabe_

in the spoken-word Tom Lehrer kind of style.

Googling those lyrics or variations thereof gets me nowhere. Anyone know what I’m talking about?

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**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-song-about-zimbabwe/472247/2 "2008-11-12T01:29:35Z")

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Could it be an extra verse someone inserted into [Istanbul (Not Constantinople)](http://lyricwiki.org/They_Might_Be_Giants:Istanbul_(Not_Constantinople))?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-song-about-zimbabwe/472247/3 "2008-11-12T12:35:44Z")

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I’m pretty sure I heard it before that song came out. Plus, the tune’s different.