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a guitar in his hand and he told me that he was learning to play it although he was finding it difficult. I then asked him why he did not learn to play mbira instead.
He retorted: “What! You must be joking! A mbira is an instrument of torture, which must be played only by people with cotton in their ears.
“It is too primitive and I wouldn’t waste my time learning how to play it.”
Many Zimbabweans identify mbira as one true Zimbabwean musical instrument. In the past, music coming out of this instrument has been classified as Zimbabwean. But is it still a popular instrument today?
It is difficult to trace the origins of mbira music back to pre-Rhodesian times as there is no documented information on musical activities during the pre-colonial period.
What is known for a fact is that there were a lot of musical activities in Zimbabwe long before the arrival of the Europeans into the country.
Africans have always loved music. We can therefore safely say that music as a whole began in Zimbabwe at the beginning of humankind.
The use of drums to celebrate important events was a well-known practice throughout Africa. This practice is still prevalent to this day in rural Africa.
There are documented records of musical activities in Ghana, Tanzania and Nigeria dating back to the 14th century.
If musical activities were in existence in these countries during this period, there is reason to believe that Zimbabwe also had similar experiences.
Zimbabwe’s traditional musical instruments such as chigufe, mbira, hosho, hwamanda and chipendani have been, according to modern scientists, traced back to the 14th century.
If such musical instruments were made during this period, they surely must have served one single purpose – which must have been musical performance.
There is more recent documented evidence of Zimbabwean popular music between the 1930s and the 1950s but it is not about mbira players.
Instead all the documents I have come across refer to zitherists. Zitherists played music, which was based on religion and folklore. (A zither is like a harp).
It is a simple flat stringed instrument, which is placed horizontally and played with fingers. Names of famous zitherists during this period included Simon Chamatembo, Naison Sinakoma, Nhau Nzvenga, Robert Muzengeri and Midas Ngoroma.
An ancient musical instrument, the mbira, used by the Shona people has had an important function in the development of Zimbabwean culture for hundreds of years. But why is it that certain sections of Zimbabwe’s society shun the mbira today?
With influence from Western countries such as Britain and the United States of America in the early 19th century, Zimbabweans began to dump their traditional instruments and replaced them with Western instruments such as the guitar, the banjo, the harmonica and accordion.
In urban centres, those who continued to play the mbira, chipendani, chigufe or the hwamanda were now perceived as primitive by those who believed that it is only things coming from the West that would make one more acceptable, more respectable, more modern and more fashionable.
To a large extent even the traditional drums (ngoma) were replaced by modern Western drum kits with cymbals.
Thus in the 1950s, the death knell had been sounded for traditional Zimbabwean instruments which include mbira.
However, the 1950s saw the beginning of a change in the consciousness of the then Rhodesia.
The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which was set up in 1953, was strongly opposed by the African population and along with their campaign against federation was the resurgence of a respect for culture and the mbira had a revival which continues to this day.
The missionaries tried to discourage and destroy the culture of Africans.
They believed that they worshipped the devil and the possession of mbira was evil and primitive. They confiscated all musical instruments especially mbiras, and banned all music-making except church hymns.
However, many Africans did not yield to the likes and demands of the missionaries. They would go to a traditional bira on Saturday and then go to church on Sunday.
In Zimbabwe’s Shona society, the mbira plays different roles, especially spiritual and social roles.
The functional role of music in the traditional culture has created a direct relationship between the preservation of the music and the preservation of the culture.
Different types of mbira are used in different regions in spiritual ceremonies pertaining to spirit possession on family as well as spirits.
On an individual basis and outside ceremonial contexts, the mbira is used by the player for meditation or deepening one’s contemplation, imagination and depth of thought and conception.
Those who had been sufficiently colonised by Western missionaries started to believe that playing the mbira was a primitive native practice only used by spirit mediums and they began to look down upon anyone who played it.
It was not until the 1980s when the likes of Dumisani Maraire and Thomas Mapfumo popularised the mbira once again that it came back into fashion.
The mbira began to be used for non-spiritual functions or gatherings.
These gatherings were usually done in the evenings when the family or village members gathered indoors to sing along with the mbira for entertainment.
Today the mbira is also played at weddings, funerals and work.
In contemporary Zimbabwe, the mbira is now played at concerts by pop groups such as Mawungira Enharira, Mbira DzeNharira, Mbira Kuyera, Nyamasvisvi, Kuyera Kwa Vahera, Tambawoga and so forth with timed duration periods.
In such social gatherings, mbira is usually played for purely artistic, aesthetic musical reasons and for audience entertainment.
The mbira was originally played by men only. Women were not forbidden but it was the responsibility of the man in the traditional society.
So the mbira was always seen as a man’s instrument. However, due to urbanisation and Western acculturation which led to disintegration of traditional society, there is no longer a division of labour among the sexes hence it is not surprising to find a woman playing the mbira.
As Stella Chiweshe one of Zimbabwe’s leading female mbira players put it: “I counted the number of fingers on a man’s hand, and saw five. I counted the fingers on my hand, they also came to five. So I said to myself, what the hell, if man can play mbira, I can too.”
Dumi Maraire even taught his own daughter, Chiwoniso, to play mbira.
Mbira is now a core subject at the Zimbabwe College of Music and it is taught to both sexes.
Hope Masike, currently teaching mbira to European children in Norway, is one such student of mbira.
Most of the songs played on the mbira are passed down from generation to generation, continuing a tradition of community and emotional connection to the past.
This is why almost every student of mbira learns to play “Nhemamusasa”. The music, however, is not static.
It’s up to the player to play songs in their own way and to change the lyrics to fit the changing times.
However, with competition from urban groovers, jazz musicians and sungura players, the survival of mbira is heavily threatened.
If I were a dictator, I would make it compulsory for everyone in this world between the ages of four and 90 to listen to mbira music for at least 15 minutes a day for the next five years, but I am not. Nuff respect!
l Fred Zindi is a professor at the University of Zimbabwe. He is also a musician and an author of several books on music. He can be contacted via e-mail on [email protected]