Composing Songs

I am different than other people. Some people write their songs, and other people dream of them. But I don’t. When I dream, I dream of songs I already play. But my own songs just arise while I am working. As I am pounding mbira keys by myself, that is when my songs come along.

Pounding mbira keys makes a sound – “go, go, go, go” When they hear that sound, most people say, “Over there is a mhizha.” Mhizha means a blacksmith, who works with his hands. Yes, “There is a mhizha there.” So when that sound is heard, people say, “There is pounding happening over there, there must be a mhizha.” There are different types of pounding sounds. There is one that sounds like “ko, ko, ko, ko,” which doesn’t mean anything. Then there is “go, go, go, go,” and immediately, everyone knows. Is it an axe being made? A spear? What is being pounded there? They know this is a blacksmith at work.

All of those different sounds enter into my head. And the songs just arise, already sounding in my head. Finally, I end up whistling them. And as I am whistling them I think, “What if I put this on the mbira? How would I do it?” I pick up my mbira and I start searching for the right key to start on. This one, here. If I start with this one, which one do I proceed to? Once I start, I carry on figuring it out. Then I leave it like that, and return to my work. After three days, that song comes back to me, and now I will be playing both the kushaura and the kutsinhira. It will simply have come out like that. So that is how I come up with my songs, except for “Nyatwa.” I adapted “Nyatwa” from the matepe.

Sekuru Chigamba plays “Nyatwa,” from the album Yangu Ndega

Those songs, what I used to do is that when I entered a bira ceremony, we would play “Nhemamusasa” and all those other traditional songs. When I saw that people were tired, and they wanted to sleep, then we would play our songs. As we were playing, you would see someone who had been asleep wake up suddenly, exclaiming. He would start to dance. Some would even become possessed while they were still asleep. You would hear the mudzimu spirit ask, “Where did you get this song?” I would say, “It is mine, from my own head.” They would say, “Oh, it is so exciting, play it again!” We would play. “Play it again!” And we would play. The song which I had a doubt about was “Bembero,” but they said it’s a song which they like. So they said all of the rest of them are also good.