Echoing one of Africa’s most common twentieth-century stories, Sekuru Chigamba migrated to the colonial capital as a young man in search of employment in 1962. Initially, Sekuru Chigamba planned to journey to the Congo, where he hoped to pursue a career as a rhumba musician. Instead, a relative helped him secure a job in a shop owned by Albert Amato, a Jewish refugee from Rhodes Island. Sekuru Chigamba continued in this position for the next fourteen years, until Amato’s retirement in 1977.
In his time off, Sekuru Chigamba continued to participate in the type of ceremonies familiar from his childhood. Yet music at these ceremonies differed greatly from the music played in his home district of Guruve. In the predominantly Zezuru areas around the capital city, ngoma drumming such as dandanda replaced Korekore styles such as humbekumbe and mangwingwindo, which Sekuru Chigamba had heard his father play. Likewise, the mbira dzavadzimu predominated over the two types of mbira familiar from Sekuru Chigamba’s childhood, known as the njari and karimba.
Sekuru Chigamba recalls being inspired to take up the mbira dzavadzimu only after hearing it played in the ritual context of an urban bira ceremony held in Highfield, in 1965. As the primary performance context for the mbira dzavadzimu, bira ceremonies generally feature full mbira ensembles, with at least two players performing the interlocking parts known as kushaura and kutsinhira, and a third musician on the hosho shakers. Other participants often join in with complementary musical parts that include several types of vocal lines, makwa handclapping, rhythmic dance steps, muridzo whistling, mhururu ululation, and sometimes drumming.
As played at bira ceremonies, mbira music is richly textured, timbral complex, and sonically immersive. It is thus not surprising that Sekuru Chigamba would feel motivated to learn the instrument only after hearing it in this ritual context. At the same time, his stories describe many everyday contexts for mbira performance during the 1960s, 70s, and early 80s. These include funerals, radio broadcasts featuring the legendary mbira player Bandambira, informal performances at musicians’ homes, and the mbira’s integration in the National Dance Company shortly after independence. As a result, Sekuru’s oral histories portray the mbira as vibrantly alive and intimately woven into the fabric of everyday Zimbabwean life.
Since this time, everyday contexts for mbira music have expanded even more. The mbira dzvadzimu is now taught in many schools, appears in music videos broadcast on Zimbabwean television, and has a strong online presence. At the same time, it continues to be played in all of the contexts described by Sekuru Chigamba. His stories are thus a reminder of the mbira’s flexibility, and its ability to move into new social spaces even as it maintains close associations with the bira ceremony.
Despite his increasing interest in the mbira dzavadzimu, Sekuru remained reluctant to pay for lessons even after purchasing an instrument for himself to play. Following a familiar pattern from childhood, he instead taught himself to play several kushaura parts from listening to radio broadcasts featuring Bandambira, an especially influential 20th-century mbira dzavadzimu player. He was subsequently taught how to play kutsinhira parts by Bandambira’s brother-in-law, VaMukwani.
As Andrew Tracey has noted, oral histories hold particular promise in understanding how mbira music has developed in a context where “Personalities, players, mediums and their contributions are often remembered” (2015: 132). Indeed, Sekuru’s stories are populated by numerous individual mbira players. Among them, Sekuru Chigamba pays particular attention to his relationship with the legendary mbira players Sekuru Thomas Wadharwa Gora, who quickly became one of Sekuru Chigamba’s regular playing partners.
While some of the musicians in his stories remain anonymous, Sekuru Chigamba identifies many others by name. Among them are ordinary players such as Ham and Shame, as well as famous musicians such as Bandambira, Ephat Mujuru, and Fungai Mujuru. Sekuru Chigamba also identifies several musicians who performed at the important ceremonial center of Nyandoro. These include his own teacher, VaMukwani, as well as Maichesa, Mutinhima, Mukwenha, Gwenzi Gwanzura Gumboreshumba. Finally, Sekuru Chigamba’s wife Laiza Muchenje and children Irene and Garadziva also figure in this growing list of names.
Sekuru Chigamba’s early experience was thus of a thriving mbira scene that included performances in various contexts spanning both urban and rural areas. As a result, his stories neatly illustrate ethnomusicologist Thomas Turino’s observation that “Zezuru mbira music began to flourish from the early 1960s through the early 1990s, in various waves and within specific social circles” (1998: 88).
More importantly, Sekuru Chigamba’s narratives suggest that this thriving mbira scene supported musical creativity, innovation, and change. Reflecting this spirit of innovation, Sekuru Chigamba began composing original songs for the mbira in the late 1970s. He also taught himself to make instruments, which would soon prove a steady income stream. Yet Sekuru Chigamba was deeply affected when his employer retired in 1977, marking the end of his formal employment. In the last account in this section, he describes his family’s suffering during this time.