Making Mbira

I began making mbira in 1979. The first mbira I made was taken. Then I made another, and it was taken by someone else. He gave me five dollars, then took the mbira and left. Then I made yet another one. And once again, before it was even finished, someone else came. He said, “I’ll come back when it’s done.” He came back and saw that it was done. Then he gave me five dollars, took the mbira, and left. I said, “How is this happening?”

And then I made a gandanga instrument. I had seen Sekuru Gora playing gandanga, that mavembe tuning. Sekuru Gora said, “Perhaps you want one.” I said, “I will make one. Once I’ve made it, you can tune it for me.” Then I made it, and he tuned it for me. So I didn’t make that soundboard with the intention of making a nice mbira. I didn’t file the keys on the sides, I only filed the playing surface of the keys.

But someone came again, saying, “Oh, this mbira is nice!” I said, “No, it is mine.” He said, “Oh, sell it to me.” I said, “I can’t sell it to you. If you want me to sell it to you, you should give me seventy-five dollars.” Then he said, “I’ll give it to you!” Yes, he agreed to that, because he said it was very nice!

I said, “No, can’t you see that I’m refusing? I sell my mbira for five dollars each. Shall I sell you this one for seventy-five? No way.” He said, “Oh? Alright.” I said, “I will make another one for you.” So then I made him another. And then I stopped making them for some time.

What happened is that from 1981 until 1983, I was suffering from stomach problems. I went to play for a n’anga, but I left that place because the n’anga refused to heal my stomach. He refused. When I said to him, “Give me medicine,” he would go off and forget. I would come back, and he would say, “I didn’t manage to go get that medicine.” Then I left his place, and I returned back home to Highfield. And once I had returned home, I said, “I won’t go back there again.”

Then I was called to a bira ceremony at a spirit medium’s home in Glen Norah B. He is the one who told me, “You shouldn’t take any medicine, you should drink the tobacco that you take.” So that is what I did. Then I stopped, and I said, “Perhaps it isn’t true.” So my wife is the one who said, “You were told to drink tobacco. So what is stopping you from doing so?” Then I drank that tobacco, and my stomach calmed down. So from that time, if my stomach is paining me, I drink tobacco. And if my head is paining me, I drink tobacco.

When I had returned from the n’anga’s place, I said, “Now, what shall I do?” And then I realized, “What might work is for me to do handiwork.” Then I started making mbira, although they had no buyers, and putting them in the house. Making mbira, no buyers, putting them in the house. Sometimes someone would come along and buy just one, purchasing it on credit for five dollars. A debt of five dollars.

So things were troubling me and I said, “What is going on? I have become someone who has fallen upon extremely hard times. Here none of my children are working. I am not working. All of us are just sitting around, and everyone is expecting something from me.”

So we persevered until I went to Guruve, where the ancestors are. When I arrived they said to me, “You are saying that the work you are doing is worthless work.” I said, “Oh, it is worthless. It doesn’t pay me anything.” They said, “You shall see its value.” I said, “I shall see its value? I am accomplishing nothing. I am making no money. Five dollars! My children need to eat. Can they spend a whole week eating that five dollars?” They said, “You will find it valuable in time to come.”

After they said that, I came here. Then I went to the home of an older woman in Old Highfields. And when I arrived there, I consulted another mudzimu spirit named Seke. The spirit said, “I am unable to interpret your situation.” I said, “Why?” The ancestral spirit said, “I see nothing. Once I begin to see, everything goes dark. I begin to see, and everything goes dark.” Then the spirit said, “The spirit that is upon you is very strong. It requires a spirit equal to it.”

Then a njuzu water spirit came and possessed the same medium, and that spirit was able to explain. It said, “You must have a feast, a party.” Now, I said, “Where will we find the money for that? We don’t have any money.” The spirit said, “Just do whatever you can, no matter how small.” And then I made a mbira, and it was purchased, and we did that. The children helped me. Irene was working with the National Dance Company, and she was now helping us.

So only two weeks after we had done that, Erica Azim arrived. She came with a sewing machine. She said, “I brought you a sewing machine.” We said, “A sewing machine?” She said, “Yes.” Because she had taken some of my mbira and sold them. Then she came with the money for them, and with the machine. I said, “This is a wonderful machine!” And I said, “So what I am doing really is valuable.”

Then she said, “I want thirty mbira.” I started making those thirty mbira, and when I finished she took them. And as she sold them, we began to see things start to change. She was selling one mbira for thirty US dollars. When she brought that money, I said, “I am putting this money in the bank.” And I opened a bank account. So she was selling my mbira over there, and wiring the money to my account.

So the very people who used to laugh at us are now saying, “You have a wonderful gift.” That is what they started doing now. They say, “You have a wonderful gift. Your child is going to Austria, to America, everywhere. She is going to Germany, East Germany, Korea, China. So you have a wonderful gift.” I said, “Weren’t you laughing at us, saying we were marombe?” They said, “Truly, you have a wonderful gift.” Some said, “Yes, we laughed at you. We didn’t know how far this would take you. So now, we see that it has taken you quite far.” I said, “Oh, okay.”

Then we went to our village, and we were living there in the village. When Erica came, she would arrive in our village and stay there for two weeks, there in the village. But my work never dried up. I just kept on working and working.

Then I went so that I could give thanks to my ancestral spirits. I went with twenty five thousand dollars, which I left for them. One of my father’s older brothers used to be possessed by a mhondoro spirit named Dumbu. Then there is the ritual best friend from the Nyandoro lineage. So he is the one who records that money in a book. When that mhondoro returns, when it eventually begins to possess again, it will be shown that money.

I said, “You said this work would be valuable in time to come. So now it has become valuable. I am touring, traveling outside the country and coming back home. My children are also contributing. So this work has become valuable. And as I am working, I am also earning money of my own, more money than I have ever made in my life.”

So this work has become valuable. That is the value that this work has come to have. Sometimes we still run out of money, but we are no longer totally destitute.