Believed to have existed for more than a thousand years, the Mbira has been developed and enhanced over the centuries from a few modest wooden keys tensioned over a sounding block, into the steel multi-keyed instrument of today.Mbira music has been known and performed as sacred music but, from around 1960 it was established as popular music by musicians such as Thomas Mapfumo who experimented with indigenous music and other Western influences. Found in other parts of sub Saharan Africa but more developed in Zimbabwe, the Mbira has survived generations and generations. In effect, the Mbira is a classic instrument of Zimbabwe associated with Shona people, with an entire musical genre developed around it. It is played with two thumbs and the right forefinger to produce hypnotic interlocking melodies found in traditional and contemporary Zimbabwe.The instrument has been passed on through time among Shona peoples, and where it’s found throughout the continent is linked to the migration of Bantu people. The Mbira, constructed by attaching a series of tuned metal strips to a wooden platform, is known in Western circles as the thumb piano, but that description alone is not sufficient for an instrument which is used for spiritual awakening. The complex harmonics and rhythmic vibration of the Mbira is known to produce a trance like state in some listeners.There are several types of Mbira, but the most popular and developed is the Mbira Dzavadzimu, meaning literally “Mbira of the ancestral spirits”. The Mbira Dzavadzimu consists of 22 to 28 metal keys mounted on a hardwood soundboard (gwariva) made from the mubvamaropa tree (Pterocarpus angolensis). Although the metal keys were originally smelted directly from rock containing iron ore, now they may be made from sofa springs, car seat springs, and other recycled or new steel materials. The Mbira is usually placed inside a large calabash resonator (deze) to amplify it. A stick (mutsigo) is used to wedge the mbira securely inside the calabash resonator. The Mbira Dzavadzimu is played with the two thumbs stroking down and the right forefinger stroking up.The Mbira Dzavadzimu is usually used at traditional religious gatherings (mabira), burials, celebrations and giving prayers to ancestral spirits and God which means that it has both musical and ceremonial aspects that are quite unique.As an instrument, the Mbira Dzevadzimu has lived through different cultural climates. According to musical expert and Mbira connoisseur, Hector Mugani, the way that the Mbira Dzevadzimu is tuned has remained relatively the same from past generations until the present.“The intervals between the keys have remained the same, just a difference in micro-tones,” said Mugani who holds a degree in ethnomusicology from the Zimbabwe College of Music (ZCM).“Research has shown that there are deviations that have occurred in time but all the pitch relationships of the keys have continued to give the same mode throughout the generations.” In structure, the bass keys of the Mbira Dzevadzimu are located in the centre of the keyboard and scales ascend outward. The pitch of a Mbira Dzevadzimu is largely a matter of personal preference, ranging from high to very deep. Each instrument has a range of three octaves, or slightly more.According to Mugani, the anatomy of the Mbira Dzevadzimu has also stood the test of time and the instrument is also being exported to other cultures in the world. “Today, cosmopolitanism is one thing that has touched the Mbira. In the US, for example, there are many Mbira players, including whites, who are helping to take our instrument to a new horizon,” said Mugani.He added that the instrument is now studied and played by so many musicians, in the United States and Europe particularly, that there may already be more mbira players outside Zimbabwe than within it. Today, the Mbira Dzavadzimu has gained popularity throughout the world.But, among Zimbabweans, supposedly the custodians of the Mbira Dzavadzimu, there are very few people interested in knowing or playing the instrument. As with other traditional objects or art works, the Mbira is regarded with disdain, and is associated with spiritual evil. Zimbabweans need to reclaim their heritage as expressed in the Mbira Dzavadzimu in order to fashion a new, 21st century inspired sound that will take the Mbira Dzavadzimu to a new, global level.
