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Arts Reporter
Mbira music lovers will be in a for a treat tomorrow night when mbira groups come together for a night to celebrate culture at Alliance Francaise.The event will be spiced up with traditional dancers that will take turns with gwenyambiras to showcase cultural styles. It will be a night to celebrate culture and young marimba band will set the ball rolling. It has been dubbed “Mbira and Traditional Dance Winter Warmer Bira”.

Leading performers will be Chikwenya Mbira Group, Gwenyambira Doubt and Lazarus Mukanya. The event will start at 6pm and run until late. The opening act will be a traditional ceremony showcasing our culture and will be punctuated with traditional beverages and traditional snacks.

After the ceremony, marimba players will take to the stage and take people through various folk songs while traditional dancers will join them, performing various types of local traditional dances.

Mbira groups will then come on stage to present acts that are linked to various traditional ceremonies where gwenyambiras enhance rituals with their different styles. Organisers of the event said they have invited a respected traditional leader who will bless the proceedings to give the event a real traditional feel.

Babi Bonde who is putting the programme in place said the event was meant to uphold cultural values through music and dance. “This is a cultural bira. We want to bring various aspects of our traditions through song and dance.

“Mbira music has a big significance in our culture, but the genre is slowly dying,” noted Bonde. “We want to keep it alive and this show at Alliance Francaise is one of the many that we want to organise. We are choosing venues that will bring together local mbira followers and foreigners based in the country that want to learn about our culture.

“We are inviting people from all walks of life to come and enjoy as well as embrace the feel of our culture.” He said they will auction mbira and marimba at the concert for those that want to possess the valuable artefacts of our culture.