Spirit medium trapped in mbira goddess…world marks fifth anniversary of Chiwoniso’s death

29 Jul, 2018 - 00:07 0 Views
Spirit medium trapped in mbira goddess…world marks fifth anniversary of Chiwoniso’s death Chiwoniso Mbira

The Sunday News

Chiwoniso Mbira

Chiwoniso Mbira

Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Correspondent
WHEN the United States of America tweeted that Chiwoniso Maraire was American-Zimbabwean this week, a few eyebrows were raised by some on the social network. May questioned how the North American superpower could lay claim to one of Zimbabwe’s prized possessions on the five year anniversary of her death.

How could Chiwoniso, that woman that played the mbira like she was born cradling it in her hand, be referred to as American Zimbabwean, many wondered?

After all, wasn’t this the same Chiwoniso that had made the mbira a sharp tool for a Zimbabwean awakening? Wasn’t she the same goddess that had proved, in song after song, that the “born free” generation also belonged to the soil and that they could speak with their generation in the language of their ancestors?

From the dreadlocks to the mbira which was more of an accessory than a tool, everything about Chiwoniso screamed Zimbabwean. The mbira was her ID.

It seemed incorrect, even arrogant to try and link this fearsome daughter of the soil to America. But that tidbit shared by the embassy was in fact true.

Born in Olympia, in Washington State in the US, Chiwoniso was the daughter of a celebrated Zimbabwean mbira player and teacher, Dumisani Maraire, who had moved to America to work in the ethnomusicology department at the University of Washington in Seattle. Her mother, Linda Nemarundwe Maraire, known as “Mai Chi”, was a singer.

It was in those early years in the United States that Chiwoniso’s passion for music was ignited.

“Surrounded by music from the day I was conceived, because my parents gave music classes in the house and loved to listen to other people”

James Brown, Michael Jackson, Roberta Flack, the Rolling Stones, Bach and Mozart, were some of the staples that she consumed in those early years. All those artistes, from diverse background on the foreign soil that Chiwoniso was conceived in, seemed a world away from the mbira which was to be Chiwoniso’s closest companion in later years.

It is perhaps to her credit that despite spending her early years in the United States, few could point to that country as a great influence on the person and music that Chiwoniso turned into later on.

The 90s saw Zimbabweans continue their love affair with all things American. While bell bottoms and afros or Jerry Curls had dominated in the 70s and 80s, Zimbabwean youth culture also evolved to mirror the lifestyle changes inspired by Hollywood.

This was the era of hip-hop and many young people were swept away by the culture that was born in the streets of New York.

Chiwoniso, like other musicians, was not spared from this influence. But even during her Peace of Ebony days, the hip-hop fusion group she fronted, Chiwoniso realised that even that marauding genre could be tamed for local tastes. The mbira could dictate terms to the hip-hop beat.

It was in those Peace of Ebony days that Zimbabweans began to see glimpses of the real Chiwoniso. While she was making music in a genre that was considered by and large to be foreign, she made sure that her true roots were not drowned by it.

In all her albums, including the KORA award winning Ancient Voices, Chiwoniso had songs in English. Remarkably, even when the songs were in English, they still felt distinctly Zimbabwean in their flavour.

Lyrically, the woman who was to marry maverick musician Andy Brown later in her life, always seemed to invoke the ancient spirits of Zimbabwe’s legends of lore. In that comforting, buttery voice, she seemed to be in constant conversation with some of the country’s erstwhile spirits.

“Not only did Chiwoniso speak out against torture, pain, and general mistreatment of people, she first and foremost revived Shona mythology,” said Klara Wojtkowska, a Polish-American musician, writer, teacher, director, actress.

“She was enchanted by the stories of the old heroes – ancestors, spirits, mythological war. Chaminuka, Mbuya Nehanda, Sekuru Kaguvi – these were important spiritual and political leaders in Zimbabwean history – so much so that they lived on, not only in mythology, but they were well-known spirits who visited biras (Shona spiritual ceremonies where ancestral spirits communicate with the living) and possessed spirit mediums around the country.”

This yearning for Zimbabwe’s ancient spirits was evident in most of Chiwoniso’s songs, which had a spiritual quality that most music from her peers still lack to this day.

While others seemed to run away from their heritage, she seemed to be constantly running towards it. Indeed, five years after she departed from earth, one can envision her in the studio, plucking notes from her mbira while incense smoke swirled around her dreadlocks.

“Chiwoniso Maraire didn’t just sing about Zimbabwean mythology. She sang to the spirits. She invited them – Mudzimu dzoka…kwaziwayi vakuru wee… kwaziwayi Changamire… (Ancestor come… we welcome you, Ancient Ones… We welcome you, the Big One.)  She wooed them with beauty. The Spirits came and danced with her voice,” Wojtkowska said.

As Zimbabwe mourned her death and celebrated her life this week, her connection to the roots many reject may come to be the most enduring quality of the rebel woman who refused to turn against her own culture.

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