The Sunday News
Lance Chigodo Sunday Leisure Reporter
SHE is beautiful, young and academically gifted but is determined to make a mark not from her academic exploits but in an artistic discipline that is completely divorced from her educational qualifications. She prides herself in being Zimbabwean although she is now based in Canada. She maintains a somewhat spiritual but artistic connection to her roots.
This is the story of Evelyn Mukwedeya who has proudly made local traditional mbira music very popular in Canada while debunking the notion that music especially that which involves traditional instrumentation such as mbira is the preserve of the academically challenged and the old folks.
Unlike the majority of young people her age who move to Europe, Mukwedeya was not quick to forget her roots as she went on to showcase her culture through her talent in playing mbira music much to the delight of the Canadians.
She has the nous and is probably taking up from where Chiwoniso Maraire who was the epitome of mbira music in the country and abroad left.
Mukwedeya did Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto and graduated in 2010. She is a certified supply chain professional and has worked as an analyst for a large Canadian retailer. Despite all her professional expertise she is not one to hide her origins and the things that connect her to her roots.
She has since been travelling the Western world playing mbira music which she said is well appreciated.
In an interview, she said she got much of the inspiration from her mother who encouraged her not to be ashamed of herself and her African identity.
Mukwedeya said as a result of the encouragement she learnt to play mbira dzevadzimu at a very early age when she was still based in Zimbabwe in 2003.
“I started to learn mbira dzevadzimu in my home city of Mutare in 2003. My mother thought it would be valuable for me to learn and gain an appreciation of traditional Zimbabwean music,” she said.
Their migration to Canada as a family in 2004 did not mark the end of her love for mbira or dent her spirits, instead she became more determined and kept on playing mbira at her spare time as there were no more mbira teachers in Canada as they were in Zimbabwe.
She said she started playing mbira professionally in 2008 when she was playing for a group called Masaisai in Toronto which played Chimurenga music.
But when the group split in 2011 she and her former group members Rainos Mutamba and Memory Makuri, a former backing vocalist for the Chimurenga music guru Thomas Mapfumo, formed a new group called Nhapitapi.
The formed band however grew more contemporary and they adulterated pure mbira music with the addition of more band members that included her brother Samuel Mukwedeya on guitar, Tichaona Maredza on drums and Tichaona Gombiro on bass guitar.
Nhapitapi has performed at several events in Canada such as the local television programme Toronto has got talent, Songs of my mother concert and high profile festivals such as the Habari festival. They also took part in a festival in the United States of America called Zimfest.
Besides her performance with Nhapitapi, Mukwedeya also gets hired individually at some occasions and sometimes by artistes who need to incorporate mbira music into their music as evidenced by her recent collaboration with a Sudanese rapper Emmanuel Jal and an Afro-Canadian vocalist Andrew Craig at the Bob Marley tribute concert.
Mukwedeya has shared the stage with big local artistes now based abroad who are also raising the country’s artistic flag high through music and dance such as Stella Chiweshe and Thomas Mapfumo.
“I was quite surprised and honored to be invited to be a supporting mbira player when Mukanya was playing at Afrofest in 2011. The attendance was so good, so encouraging and humbling and we did not dispoint,” she said.
She says her musical inspirations and icons are the local mbira groups Mbira dzenharira, Master Chivero, Jonah Sithole and Bhundu boys. Music from all over the world also influences the lyrical and instrumentation content of her music since Toronto is a multi-cultural city.
Mukwedeya said people who usually attend their shows find mbira music relaxing, entertaining and divine adding that the encouraging attendance by fellow Zimbabweans at their shows also keeps them going.
“It has always been very encouraging to see Zimbabweans attending our mbira shows. There are quite a number of them this side and in other European countries who still identify very well with traditional mbira music,” she said.
She also said some of the Western audiences took the opportunity to hold the instrument for the first time in their lives while most Zimbabweans cannot believe that mbira music is being enjoyed and appreciated outside the country’s borders in countries as far away as Canada.
Mukwedeya has emerged as one young lady who is very passionate about her identity and culture and has set a good example to many young Zimbabweans locally and abroad that culture should be treasured.
She said people should always connect with their roots and be proud of their artistic prowess as it also helps define who they are as opposed to taking pride in other people’s languages and culture at the expense of their own.
