Mbira

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Genre

Mbira · Thumb pianos with iron tongues have sounded in the Zambezi Valley for some 1,300 years, and in 1586 the Portuguese missionary João dos Santos described one. Among the Shona in Zimbabwe, the mbira dzavadzimu, the mbira of the ancestors, became the sacred instrument of the bira: nocturnal ceremonies in which players, together with hosho rattles, summon the ancestors. In the 1970s the mbira became a symbol of the struggle for independence, and Thomas Mapfumo translated its patterns to the electric guitar.

Listening

• 
  Nhemamusasa · Muchatera Mujuru, John Kunaka e.a., 1973
• 
  Kasahwa · Stella Chiweshe, 1974
• 
  Ndanzwa Ngoma Kurira · Thomas Mapfumo, 1984

See also

• Stella Chiweshe
• Muchatera Mujuru, John Kunaka e.a.
• Prehistoric music