Vocalist and saxophonist Zeca Algae wrote "Massotcha" in 1986, which criticised the horrors of the civil war and attacked the danger posed by the military to the people they were supposed to protect. It was recorded among a selection of the band's material that same year, and reached number 1 on the country's singles chart. The group endured harder times after Machel's times in both political and personal senses. For instance, the government withheld their visas in 1987 to prevent them from performing at a European music festival. Later that year though, they played abroad for the first time at the Swaziland independence festival, and in 1990, Ghorwane were able to participate in the WOMAD festival, at the invitation of the festival's founder Peter Gabriel. It was during their trip to play at the festival that the WOMAD-affiliated record label Real World Records offered Ghorwane the opportunity to record their debut album. "Majurugenta" was recorded and mixed at the label's Real World Studios, Box, Wiltshire, in August 1991. Chris Lawson recorded the album, though he is not credited as producer. Richard Evans mixed the album. "Majurugenta" displays the band's unique style of Mozambican pop which combines warm melodies, dance rhythms and soulful horns. The rhythms are in largely the local marrabenta style, though the album incorporates rhythms from throughout Mozambique as well as ones from other countries, like soukous and reggae, as is evident on the title track. Elements of soukous are also prominent in the album's horn section. "Rogue" magazine felt the album's "bewitching slow-lope rhythms" were a particularly Mozambican characteristic. "Majuruengta" also features an East African guitar sound and an undertow of Portuguese and Brazilian music. Jose "Seca" Alage's solo saxophone is breezy playing adds colour to the album's unique sound. "Rhythms" magazine felt the album was a melancholy mix of jazz and local rhythms which exudes a warm, intimate feel, most prominently in the trumpet and saxophone horn section. Music critic Robert Christgau disagreed that the music was melancholy, instead writing that the album is "happy yet principled" Mozambican music that is "soukous-smooth even if the interlocking rhythms show off their seams and the horns are equal parts intricacy and palpable deliberation." "Folk Roots", meanwhile, made note of the subdued percussion, soft vocals, "mild-mannered" guitar and "delightfully floating saxophone."