Chiwoniso: An icon at Hifa 2012

May 1-6 still linger on.
I had originally intended to watch 13 acts in the six days but in the end I just managed six. After perusing through the programme before Hifa began I was determined to watch Liz Ogumbo, Ismael Lo, Tumi and The Volume, Edith We Utonga , Chi Nhai Pfumojena, Publish The Quest, Mokoomba with Gregor Salto, Hope

Masike, Winky D, Willom Tight, Netsayi Chigwendere, Prudence Katomeni-Mbofana and Oliver Mtukudzi.
I was disappointed when I realised that some of my schedules did not allow me to watch everything I had intended. I really regret having missed Hope Masike as I am told she gave an explosive performance during which she launched her latest album titled “Mbira, Love and Chocolate”.
I also missed the Ogumbo, Tight, We- Utonga, Mokoomba, Katomeni-Mbofana and Chigwendere’s performances although I briefly encountered Publish The Quest, WeUtonga and Tight during the closing concert by Oliver Mtukudzi where they appeared as guests together with Ismael Lo whom I had watched the night before.

I could review all six concerts that I watched one by one, but that will take me a whole year. So I will concentrate on only one performance, the Chi Nhai Pfumojena concert by Chiwoniso Maraire and John Pfumojena dubbed “States of Emotion” which took place at the 7 Arts Theatre on Sunday May 6.
The concert showcased the two voices in synchronised polyphony and gave the audience a fresh sound. Chiwoniso dominated the show throughout, although it was titled Chi Nhai Pfumojena. (I wonder if her manager, Tsungi Zvobgo, had a role to play in this.)

They took us through the world of love, pain, darkness, sadness and joy with their delivery of different tunes, which reached a climax with the sad story of “Mai Fambai Zvakanaka”. Halfway through their act, a dreadlocked jembe drummer was introduced and he thrilled the audience with his solid drumbeats in just one song.

At a later stage, Chiwoniso introduced her two fashionably dressed daughters, Amara and Chiedza. Amara was decked in a red dress and see-through tights.
It was impossible to ignore the resemblance to Andy Brown, especially when they came out dressed like real stars and busted some Brown dance moves, and the ghosting was a little unsettling after their mother announced the bereavement in their family as part of the introduction.

They both played mbira with passion.
This was Chiedza’s first time on stage and she did look nervous, but when her mum took over afterwards, Chiedza came dancing like a whirlwind. Chiwoniso then zoomed through a selection of her hit songs “Wandirasa” and “Iwayi Nesu” (Mwari Baba) with the vigour of a woman half her age.

Chiwoniso Maraire, who was born in 1976 in Olympia, Washington, USA, is an accomplished singer, songwriter and exponent of Zimbabwean mbira music.
She is the daughter of famed mbira player and master, the late Abraham Dumisani Maraire.
When the family moved back to Zimbabwe in the early eighties, Chiwoniso also came back with her father who taught her to play mbira.

Together they did gigs in clubs and churches while she attended the Zimbabwe College of Music where she did a National Certificate in Music programme.
She later joined The Storm, an Afro-beat band led by Andy Brown with whom she later had two children.
After she split with Andy, Chiwoniso moved in with a poet popularly known as Comrade Fatso and she formed her own mbira-based band in the early nineties.

She started to do her own recordings and one of her early recordings is dedicated to her late mother, Linda Nemarundwe-Maraire.
In 1995, she recorded an album, “Ancient Voices”, on which she mixed traditional and modern beats, sang in English and Shona, and used both contemporary instruments and traditional African instruments such as the mbira, hosho and ngoma.
She learned how to play mbira despite the fact that, traditionally, women in Zimbabwe were not permitted to play the instrument.

This is Chiwoniso’s description of the mbira she plays: “It is like a large xylophone. It is everywhere in Africa under different names — sanza, kalimba, etc.
“For us in Zimbabwe it is the name for many string instruments. They are many kinds of mbiras. The one that I play is called the nyunga nyunga, which means sparkle-sparkle.”

Chiwoniso has been fronting her acoustic group Chiwoniso & Vibe Culture since 2001. From 2001 to 2004, she was also a core member of the multinational all-women band Women’s Voice, whose original members hailed from Norway, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, America, Israel and Algeria.
Chiwoniso has also been busy in film, having worked on the soundtracks for movies and documentaries by an array of Zimbabwean writers and film producers since

2000.

In February 2006, she joined Busi Ncube, Adam Chisvo, Peter “Mashasha” Mujuru, Louis Mhlanga and many other Zimbabwean artistes in an ad-hoc band called The Collaboration and recorded “Hupenyu Kumusha, Life at Home, Impilo Ekhaya.”
The band performed in Zanzibar’s Sauti za Busara 2007 Festival.

In September 2008, Chiwoniso released her fourth album and first international album in over 10 years, “Rebel Woman”.
The album perfectly mirrors Chiwoniso’s life in the sense that she sings about all her personal experiences and those of others.
From her own spirituality to a passerby on the street, every song in “Rebel Woman” was influenced by a specific event in her life. Recognising that artistes play an important role in society, this masterful album speaks out in support of every issue Chiwoniso has witnessed, regardless of the consequences.

She blends ancient, African soul, with modern spirit accompanied with the melodies of the mbira and deep grooves.
In late 2008, Chiwoniso moved back to the United States where promoters arranged a tour of Europe and Canada for her. She returned to Zimbabwe in 2010.
I enjoyed Chiwoniso’s show at Hifa. So did the rest of the audience I later interviewed. What more can I say?

After the 7 Arts show, I went over to the Main Stage where Oliver Mtukudzi was performing.
The master of ceremony at Hifa’s closing concert claimed that Oliver Mtukudzi was celebrating his 60th birthday.
Oliver did not say that, neither did he dispute this claim.

I have been following Tuku since the early 1980s and have even written volumes of material on him.
One thing that has always been consistent is the fact that he was born on September 22 in 1952.
I have attended several of his birthday bashes on this day. I am not sure who gave Hifa that information, but he is not 60 yet. He will be in September.