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In 2010 South African band Freshlyground produced a satirical music video critical of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's 30-year long tyrannical rule titled "Chicken to Change." For eight years after the song's release, the band was barred from Zimbabwe. Using Ngugi wa Thiongo's "enactments of power" concept and Michel Foucault's insights on censorship, this account investigates the cross–border and esthetic censorship dynamics that prevented the band from landing and performing in Zimbabwe. The paper argues that the Zimbabwean state used its national borders and ports of entry as a music censorship mechanism and provides a nuanced appreciation of performance censorship in contemporary postcolonial Zimbabwe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]