‘Be proud of your totems’

Arts Reporter
Mbira musician Chiremba Hwesa Masango is on a mission to encourage young generations to be proud of their roots and keep their traditional practices in the face of changing cultural trends due to globalisation.

As one of the strategies to pursue his mission, Chiremba Hwesa Masango is doing a series of songs that celebrate local totems as he tries to show people’s origins through the lyrics.

The project is being done under his Zimtotems banner that is involved in a number of initiatives meant to promote cultural heritage.  He recently released a video to his song that explores the Moyo totem and he reaches out to the different branches of the totem that include Moyo Chirandu, Moyo Ndizvo, Moyo Sinyoro and Moyo Mushoriwa among others.  With visuals that resonate well with the poetic narratives celebrating the totem, the video is an insightful production pregnant with cultural connotations. To enhance the traditional feel of the song, Chiremba Hwesa Masango uses mbira, traditional drum and hosho without any modern fusions.

The musician said the project is meant to encourage people to keep track of their cultural roots so that they do not lose identity.

“Zimtotems is a project I came up with after realizing that people were getting carried away and forgetting their roots. Because of mixture of cultures, travelling and technology, many people are drifting away from their roots, but a tree without roots will not survive,” said Chiremba Hwesa Masango.

“These totems are important because they tell us who we are and make it easy to trace our roots. People should not forget where they came from. As Zimbabweans, we have a unique culture that is envied by other people across the globe and we should be proud of it.”

Chiremba Hwesa Masango is composing songs for many other totems that make up Zimbabwe’s cultural web.

His music is complemented by writings about totems and cultural backgrounds that he regularly distributes to young people to encourage them to trace their lineages and respect their ancestors. He said Zimtotems is also involved in philanthropic work as a way of spreading the culture of caring for each other.