My grandfather’s eldest brother was named Nevanje. Yes, he was the first-born in my grandfather’s family. So he was chosen as a host by the spirit of our ancestor Svembere. Then, the spirit came to a muzukuru, to the child of a muzukuru. The muzukuru’s child was sought out by that spirit. But then, everything ended there.
I bought a long, white cloth. I think it was eight meters long. And after I bought it, I brought it there. So from there, I would just say the beginning of everything was when I dreamed that I was going to where that spirit was buried. I was saying, “I want to see his grave,” the grave of that ancestor. Yes, I said, “I want to see his grave.”
So I dreamed that I was traveling, and then I came across a place where people were on the other side of a stream. They said, “There is something we are looking for here. Help us.” I said, “I want to go over there, where that mountain is.” They said, “No, we said to come and help us here.” Then we sought what they were looking for, but we didn’t find it. We couldn’t get to that place. Then I went back home.
So I think that is when my shave spirit came to me, to enable me to play mbira. That is when that shave spirit for playing mbira appeared, in my dreams. Because it bothered me that I going to see his grave. What did I want with it? So, meaning that is where it came from. Perhaps if I had made it there, upon seeing it I would have been told so many other things. But that didn’t happen.
After that, something similar happened once again. I played mbira, and played mbira, and played mbira. And then I dreamed again, of someone saying, “Let’s go to see Jesus’s grave.” I said, “Jesus’s grave?” That person told me, “I went there, and I saw it.” I said, “Let’s go.” Then we went.
We were told that his grave had been placed inside, rather than outside. So you arrive, and open the first door. Then he refused to open the second door. He said, “I can’t go inside.” Then we went back through the first door. We didn’t go inside.
Oh! After that, I was playing mbira. Then I dreamed again. There was a war between the Egyptians and the Isrealites. They were fighting each other. So during that time that they were fighting, I dreamed that I was there, in the middle of that war, with my black dog.
I said, “I’ve been caught.” Then I was caught, and they said, “You will stay here, in jail, for thirty years.” I said, “Thirty years in jail? By the time I am out, I will be old.” That is when I woke up. When I woke up, it was the middle of the night. I went outside, and said, “Am I really here in Highfield? I am at home. Was I asleep? What is this?” Then I came to myself, and I said, “Yes, truly, I was sleeping.” Then I went back to sleep.
So now, that really happened. Even with all the mbira playing I was doing, I never left Zimbabwe to travel to another country with the mbira. I finally started touring in the 1990s, after I had been playing mbira for thirty years. That is when I started touring now. That is when I arrived in America. I said, “Now I see. In that dream, they said I would spend thirty years in jail. I first started to play mbira in the 1960s, and now it is the 1990s. I have been playing mbira for thirty years. So that is the jail I was in.”