Mbira

Sekuru Chigamba’s primary instrument is Zimbabwe’s iconic mbira dzavadzimu, or “mbira of the ancestral spirits.” One of many types of mbira played throughout Southern Africa, the mbira dzavadzimu features between 22 and 28 keys mounted on a wooden soundboard, or gwariva. The mbira’s unique timbre is produced by shells, bottletops, or wire beads affixed to the instrument’s soundboard, producing a gentle buzzing sound. During performance, the instrument is often placed inside a calabash resonator, or deze, which amplifies its sound.

The repertory of the mbira dzavadzimu extends to well over a hundred songs. While some are specific to particular regions, families, or individuals, others are widely shared, immediately enabling musicians from different areas to play together. Mbira songs generally feature two interlocking parts, known as kushaura and kutsinhira, which are played simultaneously by two or more musicians. The interplay between these parts produces the complex polyphonic and polyrhythmic musical relationships characteristic of mbira music. Mbira songs typically emphasize triplet groupings, and the metric organization of many songs aligns with time signatures such as 6/8, 9/8, 12/8, and 16/8. Within a typical mbira ensemble, mbira performers are joined by at least one musician playing the hosho shakers, which are responsible for maintaining a steady triplet pulse.

The institution of spirit mediumship is foundational to Zimbabwean ceremonial life, and the mbira’s associations with spirit possession make it an instrument particularly vested with power. Historically, the mbira’s primary performance context has been during ritual events called mapira (sg. bira), during which the vadzimu ancestral spirits are called upon to guide their living descendants. Many elements are involved in holding a successful bira ceremony, including homemade doro beer, ritual bute tobacco, and material objects such as the matemo axes held aloft by dancing spirit mediums. Among them, music places a special role. The sound of the mbira, like that of other ritual musical styles, is considered centrally important in attracting the vadzimu to possess the spirit mediums who serve as their temporary hosts. These mediums, known as masvikiro (sg. svikiro), may also be referred to as homwe, or “pockets,” for the spirit.

Even as the mbira continues to maintain this strong ceremonial role, it has also migrated into new performance contexts since at least the 1960s. Working from traditional mbira music, Zimbabwean popular musicians such as Thomas Mapfumo, Jonah Sithole, Oliver Mtukudzi, and others have pioneered an electric sound often referred to as chimurenga music. Among these popular musicians, Sekuru Chigamba identifies Oliver Mtukudzi as particularly rooted in the music of Zimbabwe’s rural northeast. In a different vein, mbira player Simon Mashoko incorporated his mbira, the njari, into Catholic worship services. Various types of Zimbabwean mbira have likewise begun to circulate in global space, moving into concert halls and modern recording studios, and into the hands of a growing number of students concentrated in North America, Europe, and Japan. Together, these developments have given the mbira a multi-layered cultural identity.

Sekuru Chigamba’s stories about the mbira begin with a particularly interesting account narrating the instrument’s origins, which he heard from the ancestral spirits while attending mapira ceremonies. Following this initial account, Sekuru Chigamba describes the role of the gwenyambira, a word often used to refer to a master mbira musician. He then offers a detailed overview of the mbira’s physical construction from his perspective as an accomplished instrument maker. Sekuru’s stories in this section of the site proceed to engage with the instrument’s name, its associations with the spirit world and the ceremonial context of the bira, and the ritual laws that govern mbira playing. In the last pages of this section, Sekuru Chigamba offers his perspective on the central role of the hosho, and on the importance of the percussive handclapping styles known throughout Zimbabwe as makwa, manja, or kwenje. Finally, a page dedicated to mbira songs, or nziyo, offers Sekuru Chigamba’s explanation of the meaning of several pieces from the instrument’s traditional repertory, as well as many of his own original compositions.

In a concluding essay, I illustrate how Sekuru Chigamba’s narratives point to the need to resist the standardization of many elements of mbira music, including songs, tunings, playing practices, and terminology.