"Double Check. Two Sides of Zimbabwe's Mbira Queen" - Stella Chiweshe

• artist:
  Stella Chiweshe
• featured artist:
  Sabah Habas Mustapha
• country:
  Zimbabwe
• release year:
  2006
• style(s): Afro Trance
• formats:
  • audio file
  • CD (Compact Disc)
• record submitted by:
  Piranha Musik
• label:
  Piranha Musik
• publisher:
  Piranha Musik
• 
  buy this record

Born 1946 in Mujumhi, a village in Mhondoro Zimbabwe, the woman now known by her people as Ambuya Chinyakare (Grandmother of Traditional Music) has had to struggle hard every step of the way to becoming her true self, the Queen of Mbira. The colonial power, Britain, had banned the mbira during the first war of liberation, the Church told her that it was the work of the Devil, even her own people told her that it was taboo, an instrument that a woman could never play. Yet by the mid-sixties, she had become recognised as a gifted /maridzambira/, playing at healing ceremonies, weddings, funerals, concerts and parties and her debut single, /Kasahwa/, had gone gold. After Zimbabwean independence in 1980, she joined the National Dance Company and toured throughout Zimbabwe, Mozambique and then Australia, India, North Korea and Europe. Since 1987 she has been on a continual tour of Europe, North America and Zimbabwe. So far she's recorded 22 local singles and 7 international albums, became the first Zimbabwean female mbira player to gain international recognition, been awarded an MA from Harare University, won two ZIMA Awards in 2005 and healed countless troubled souls.

Links

• Stella Chiweshe's Website