Dumisani Maraire is a mbira player and singer from Zimbabwe who moved to the USA in the late ’60s, where he popularised the music of his homeland and his people, the Shona, and taught American students how to play the traditional mbira. In 1986, back in the now independent Zimbabwe, Maraire, together with his wife Maichi and daughter Chiwoniso, released the album »Tichazomuona«, on which the traditional instrument takes centre stage alongside the family’s polyphonic singing. The mbira, somewhat haplessly called the »thumb piano« in English, is a musical instrument with a wooden sound box to which metal tines are attached which are struck and plucked with the fingers. The mbira is considered sacred in Shona culture and plays an important role in traditional ceremonies. For the English colonialists, on the other hand, the instrument was associated with »evil spirits«. It was only after the collapse of Rhodesia and Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980 that traditional music received more airtime on radio and television in the country and hence finally regained popularity.
Zig-Zag Band
Chigiyo Music Kings
Analog Africa