BY DR TONY MONDA
The tapestry of Zimbabwe traditional music is woven with many colourful, sonoric threads; it is a complex and sophisticated musical heritage. It is the spirit of the people and the most patriotic and nationally conscious indigenous art form, given as it resides in the auditory heritage and memory of the people and the land.
Traditional Zimbabwean musicians created music of staggering scope and imagination, combining mass-appeal with musical sophistication and the technical knowledge of designing instruments and creating sound.
The Mbira, the national instrument, was used to produce music that gave exuberant interpretations of communal life, the cosmos, socio-religion, the land, society and the environment.
The mbira was the crucible of an idealistic living culture. Songs, composed mainly by women, provided poignant melodies and ironic commentary on domestic and national grievances that reflected the emotional state of the indigenous Zimbabwean people who were the victims of colonial land and livestock seizures exemplary in songs such as ‘Mombe mbiri nemadhongi mashanu’ chorus; ‘Sevenza nhamo ichauya’ – meaning “With two cows and five donkeys, work hard, because hardships are upon us.”
The song was in response to the colonial Land Husbandry Act of 1931, imposed on the indigenous pastoralists in order to posses their cattle.
In times of strife, traditional Zimbabwean music ushered optimism and hope to overcome the trials and tribulations of colonial bondage. The irony of the song was that they left them with more donkeys than cattle. Donkeys are symbolic of labour; while cattle were a symbol of wealth. In subtle ways women also sang about domestic disputes and gender oppression.
Zimbabwean traditional music also embodied a gender-specific channel for women to vent their domestic remonstration through women’s protest songs. Some of the better-known songs that have survived the ages include the lyrics ‘Baba Hava chagoni’ and ‘Amwene vano shusha’ which translate to ‘My mother-in-law is nagging’.
The heritage of sound created by traditional Shona Mbira instrumentalists and chanters gave insightful and reflective musical narrations of the socio-environmental and cultural milieu of human habitation in communal existence of the times.
The lyrics in oratorical musical epics also archived the heroic bravery of Shona legends such as Chaminuka and the classic song about a loner, Zindoga – ‘the man without relatives’.
The song explains the reason for the breech in cultural norm when a. man decides to isolate himself from society for irreconcilable reasons.
Most of the content and context of the music makes reference to socio-cultural, religious, political and environmental issues and their final resolution for an idyllic Shona existence. In context, Shona music is perpetually renewing itself with the times and has a relevance and ingenuity that is contemporaneous.
Music regulates the consciousness and morals of Zimbabwean and other Pan African societies. Our contemporary Mbira musicians narrate, in song, ancient wisdom and proverbs that are still relevant in today’s social setting.
The content in Mbira lyrics covers every gamut of life from our relationship with the environment to socio- cultural- politics and family life. While some songs recall historic events such as the First and Second Chimurengas of the late 1800s and mid-1900s, respectively, other songs illustrate heroic folklore that contributed in a powerful way to the smooth and amiable function of ancient communities.
Our well-balanced heritage of sound is stored in the calabash of our indigenous memory.
The indigenous Zimbabwean had an acute ear for the sound and music of nature which they
incorporated in their compositions and articulation of vocables. Like spiritual chants, one often hears vocable sound phrases such as ‘hacha-cha’, ‘aye-aye-we’, ‘aahhowa-howa’, and ‘ehunde- hunde-nde’. Most of these sounds are used to emphasise the exactness and profundity of the message being sung.
In Zimbabwean music there is poetry, orature, literature, history, geography, political science, environmental science and the esotericism of divinity. Traditionally, singing, dancing and even
assonance have been used to reinstate accord within groups of individuals and create connections with the environment. Music reinforced our sense of community, allegiance and continuity with our traditions, Ubuntu/Hunhu and African essence.
Music became a political tool during Zimbabwe’s civil war for independence, used by both protagonists to communicate messages of solidarity to their respective communities, but whereas the settler media could afford to be overt, indigenous Zimbabwean musicians were forced to be subversive.
The natural untethered indigenous wave of musical creativity continues to ring in the calabash of the present-day Maestros of Mbira. In the pantheon of world music, Zimbabwean mbira music will strike a key that will be heard and resonate forever.
The sublime exhortations of mbira music have created an idealistic society that the Shona continue to strive to achieve in their articulation of Zimbabwean Mbira music. Today, Mbira continues to delight in innovation and experimentation and is futuristic in its unending permutations of melodies.
Zimbabwean music provides the link between old traditions and the new; memory and contemporaneity.
Mbira music carries a message of hope that is embodied in the spirit of the Zimbabwean people.
They have an acute auditory knowledge and memory that makes music the pulse of their existence.
Whether playing traditional Mbira music or popular Jit, Rhumba, sungura, Zim-dancehall and Chimurenga dance rhythms, contemporary Zimbabwean musicians continue to contribute to a vibrant world cultural musical heritage and music education.
Dr Tony Monda holds a PhD in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA in Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. For views and comments email: tonym.MONDA@gmail.com
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