The gwenyambira is the holder of everything. The ancestors, our humanity, moral behavior, he holds everything. Everything is in the hands of the gwenyambira. This is because here in Zimbabwe, our playing is for the vadzimu ancestral spirits. For example, both mbira and ngoma are for the vadzimu. Now, when we are playing, we will be looking to deliver our laments to the vadzimu as we play. It is just the same as praying.
Some of the time, you can even take up your mbira right here inside your house, and play the mbira as you think of whatever is troubling you. The spirit will come close, it will draw near to you. Whatever it is that you are seeking can now come to pass. Yes, it will happen. You will play for perhaps two hours, continuously. There, in your heart, you will be reciting what you need to say. When the spirit hears that music, it will come. It sees your suffering, and what you are seeking. So then, the ancestors can give it to you.
The gwenyambira is incredibly rich, but the gwenyambira is also the poorest of the poor. He is called rombe, meaning a destitute fool, and people remark that he has no money. But if you want me to come to your house to play all night, you must pay my bus fare, and give me a reed mat to sit on. I won’t sit just anywhere! I will sit on a mat. If your mudzimu ancestral spirit comes and you have only one mat, your mudzimu must sit on the ground, without any mat. The gwenyambira is the one who sits on the mat. Yes, the gwenyambira is king. You have brought him to your house, and seated him upon a reed mat. So he is king! Yes, he rules over you.
The word rombe means a poor person. The rombe is someone who will never become rich; he won’t ever accumulate wealth. He is poor. When he goes somewhere and plays mbira, he is given mealie meal. Then, he goes somewhere else and plays mbira, and again he is given mealie meal. Yet he is cultivating his fields. What makes him poor?
He is traveling around, playing mbira. If he arrives somewhere – let’s say you go on a Saturday to play mbira, and you play all night long. On Sunday, you return home. And you return carrying a rooster. A rooster! The one who is calling me rombe has no rooster to eat at his house, while I am eating chicken. Every weekend, I eat chicken. So, why are people calling him rombe? That’s why we say the gwenyambira is incredibly rich, yet he is the poorest of the poor. He is just like the flesh of the tongue; he is right there, caught in between two sides.