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In an interview by Hope Masike at a Mbiravolution night at the Book Cafe this week, the mbira exponent said the spirit calls some people to play the instrument.
“In reality, mbira is a spirit, not a set of wooden bars secured to a wooden board. Mbira calls you if you feel like playing it and for me, I feel refreshed as it completes my life,” she said.
She said this while responding to a question on how she felt after playing mbira.
The completion was born out of the need to heal herself after enduring a lot of pain.
“I experienced a ball of fire in my chest during the days and after visiting a healer it was revealed by the spirit that mbira dzangu hadziridzwe nevana vedzimwe harahwa. Mbira dzangu dzicharidzwa nevarimuno with the fingerpointing at me,” she revealed.
This led her to seek lessons on how to play it after realising that by playing it would get healed.
“Two years lapsed with the pain and I started to experience as if the instrument was being played in my head. I went to Mhondoro where I was taught to play with my grandfather Maveto.
“When I played Mahororo and Mukatiende the pain eased,” she smiled.
However, Chiwoniso Maraire’s journey to mbira stardom took a slightly different route.
“It was a family thing since my father Abraham Dumisani Maraire was the first to play it. I started at the tender age of four years playing some meaningful melody,” she recalls.
Maraire said that she ventured into the industry with her parents and were later joined by other musicians.
She first recorded a track titled “Aaron” at the age of nine.
The two experts said that the new generation should observe certain protocols in preserving the instrument.
“The first thing is never allow anyone to touch your mbira and that people should learn to respect each other people’s mbira since it is spiritual and extension one’s self,” they said.
Online Reporter