Origins: Music from the Ocean

According to what I heard when asking the ancestral spirits, they said that they heard mbira music coming from a rock in the middle of the ocean. So, when they used to pass by there, they would hear that music sounding. So then they thought, “What kind of instrument could we make that would produce the sound of the music we are hearing?” That is how they came to make the instrument called mbira.

This instrument, the mbira, started as a small karimba, with six keys. So once they had played and played, then they added a seventh key. And as time passed, it developed. It goes together with your singing, as you search for new keys that will support your voice. When you raise your voice, you need another key there. If you sing very low, you’ll search for another key that is also low.

So they kept playing. So as they continued playing, they kept adding more and more keys, until the karimba had fifteen keys. And some people added yet more, until it had nineteen keys.

So that is what they called “karimba kakuru,” a large karimba. So that karimba is what eventually became the njari. The njari has thirty-six keys. And some people, who settled in Mozambique, created the matepe. They called the matepe nyunga-nyunga. It has a discordant tone, like the gandanga. So, it produces discord. And it has thirty-two keys.

So here in Zimbabwe, some people kept adding, and they created the munyonga, which takes after the nyunga-nyunga. And here, they call it munyonga. The munyonga can have up to fifty keys. Do you know of David Gweshe? He plays munyonga.

So his munyonga used to have sixty keys, but then he removed some, and was left with fifty keys. So when you play it, those keys are very close together. So when you play, you go from a top key to one on the bottom, top to bottom, top to bottom. So, that is how they play.

So from there, some people created chakwi. Chakwi are the mbira I play, the Nyamaropa tuning. That is chakwi. So, when they created chakwi, they made it with twenty-two keys. Then, to go with their singing, they said, “Let’s add more.” And they added more, and then there were twenty-four. So, they kept on going, adding more, and now it can have up to twenty-eight keys.