Bringing mbira to your fingertips Trust Mutekwa (above), also known as “Ticha Muzavazi”, makes the connection and declassifies mbira knowledge from the mystic preserve of musicians and academics, to public property
Trust Mutekwa (above), also known as  “Ticha Muzavazi”, makes the connection and declassifies mbira knowledge from the mystic preserve of musicians and academics, to public property

Trust Mutekwa (above), also known as “Ticha Muzavazi”, makes the connection and declassifies mbira knowledge from the mystic preserve of musicians and academics, to public property

Stanely Mushava Literature Today
Ticha Muzavazi’s Nyunga Mbira Handbook
Author: Trust Mutekwa
Publisher: Best Books Publishers (2017)
ISBN: 978-0-7974-7777-3
Mbira songs provided the soundtrack to the fireside poetics of griots, the high octane dances under the full moon, and the rites of family, community and industry in early Zimbabwean society. Easily, the flagship musical innovation of the Iron Age, the thumb piano evolved in several variations across Africa and outlasted subsequent generations of popular culture.Zimbabwe’s mbira bridged the worlds of music and orature but today, despite the instrument’s enduring profile in world music, its literary heritage may be quietly sailing under the radar.

Not all of the songs handed down through the centuries can be readily matched to the stories, rites and events they originally accompanied.

Trust Mutekwa’s 2017 book, “Ticha Muzavazi’s Nyunga Mbira Handbook”, makes the connection and declassifies mbira knowledge from the mystic preserve of musicians and academics, to public property.

Mbira spectra include “nhare, njari, matepe and mbira dzevaNdau”, but Mutekwa, also known as Ticha Muzavazi, exclusively focuses on “nyunga nyunga”, the 15-key thumb piano, as it is more accessible to students.

The handbook features close to a hundred playing exercises and a cursory history of the instrument. This seems quite an unwind for a 60-page project, but Mutekwa makes up for the brevity and minimalist key of his booklet with links to 85 mbira sessions on YouTube.

While this works seamlessly for the electronic version, readers of the paperback edition can still manually redirect for the same multimedia experience.

Having lately deployed social media to reach students outside the country, plugging appendical formats into the book came naturally to Mutekwa.

“This handbook comes after a long time of learning through playing and teaching. It is a gift to all mbira learners who have been waiting for another approach to mastery of patterns, understanding of the instrument and enjoyment of the music,” Mutekwa prefaces his new offering.

Mbira enthusiasts who prefer the listening post to playing may still enjoy colourful descriptions situating “Jari Mukaranga”, “Chemutengure”, “Dai Ndiri Shiri”, “Kusarima”, “Vakarwara Neshanje”, “Nhema Musasa”, “Guva Rangu”, “Sarura Wako”, “Tambarara Ndikutumbure,” “Chikende” and other songs in their traditional contexts.

But the book is primarily written for those who wish to try their hand on the thumb piano, with illustrations outnumbering stacks of text. The clearly tabulated demystification of the “nyunga” keys is meant to bring even the beginner to close-up terms with the in- strument.

Since the release of his handbook early this month, Mutekwa has been on a countrywide itinerary, which will take him to Masvingo, Mutare, Gweru, Bindura, Chinhoyi and Bulawayo with mbira workshops.

His first assignment to the Ancient City pointed him to the need for deep-touring each province, instead of just focusing on the metropolis, so he is currently headed for Gutu, Chiredzi, Chivi and Mwenezi districts before proceeding to Mutare.

The Special Schools Arts Festival director is a fitting “nyunga” mbira guide, having promoted the instrument at Chipawo, Streets Ahead, St Giles Special School, Tafara 1 Primary School, Girls College, Borrowdale Primary School, David Livingstone Primary School and Dominican Convent High School.

Mutekwa, who ably straddles cultural spaces as a visual artist, storyteller, poet, novelist and disability campaigner is adding the handbook to his writerly repertoire which already features “Kafiramberi”, “Bongozozo”, “Yokwira Mutarara”, “Tichakura” and “Roodzai,” to extend his classroom as a mbira teacher.

“I have been conducting mbira workshops for teachers since 2014. I have worked with many musicians, teachers and researchers from Zimbabwe and many other countries around the world,” Mutekwa told Literature Today.

“As I grow in this field, I may not continue to work in the same way. This may be the most appropriate opportunity for me to share my knowledge and skills with students, upcoming teachers and those who may still have time to work with the instrument on a daily basis.”

And, that is what the book is primarily about: on your keys, set, play.

Lately, music-themed books by historians, journalists and biographers have been bringing the world up to speed on the evolution of the mbira.

In swelling the canon with his just-released “nyunga” mbira handbook, Mutekwa is interested not only in the theory, but the practical side of the instrument.

The stories behind the songs make fascinating reading, from didactics to courtship sequences. Believe it or not, Gunguwo (crow), was born white and only became a bureaucrat in a black suit and a white collar after his marriage plot missed the mark.

The story of how Gunguwo became an outlaw to please his in-laws is the inspiration behind the mbira song “Gunguwo Geza Mabori”. It so happened that our Gunguwo was helplessly charmed by a village beauty whose family demanded Njiva’s (dove) children as the bride price.

But Njiva secretly swapped angry bees for her nestlings in Gunguwo’s parcel, put in-laws and out-law and lock and key, and only opened the door in time for a badly stung Gunguwo to be kicked out into the driving rain.

He got his black suit and white collar the next morning when his hosts kindled him coals for warmth.

The song was conceived by his in-laws to taunt him because he could not so much as touch his face let alone wash it. It is not clear what the moral is for the tale, but we can harebrained like Biggie Tembo and say: “This story tells us not to be unkind.”

We may even consider that the ancestors were not always serious after all.

“Jari Mukaranga” and “Chemutengure” capture hysterics of an alienated first wife, while “Tambarara Ndikutumbure” and “Tsvimborume Dzinobayana” sound aloud restless bachelors’ strides for brides.

The closing section of the book plays on this intertexture of music and literature in the mbira tradition.

“Students, musicians, teachers and lecturers who have indicated interest to in the handbook mostly appreciate what it means to have a detailed presentation of the ‘nyunga’ mbira modes and historical backgrounds of traditional songs learnt on the instrument,” Mutekwa said.

A mbira fanatic from his college days in the 1990s, Mutekwa despaired at the obscure profile of the mbira in mainstream media.

Even so, Dzavana Gwenyambira on radio, snippets of Ephat Mujuru and Sekuru Gora on Ezomgido, and Dumi Maraire’s preftory “nyunga nyunga” lines for Today in History, made an early impression on him.

“If we track the impact of the mbira in this country, we will note that our tourism statement cannot be complete without mention of the mbira and practices surrounding it. The instrument has provided employment to teachers, musicians, mbira-makers and researchers,” Mutekwa observes.

“Mbira music enshrines the invaluable wealth in our language, culture and traditional practices. As I look closely at historical backgrounds of traditional mbira songs, I find the wealth that has influenced debate on the need to consider mbira as part of the intangible cultural heritage,” he says.

After searching in vain for mbira notes beyond “Chikende”, “Vamudhara” and “Nhemamsasa”, Muzavazi decided to take matters into his own thumbs and progressively developed the sequence that culminated in the handbook.

Essentially, the book is meant to facilitate Mutekwa’s omnipresence as a mbira teacher. The embedded videos guide learners on pitch, tempo, techniques or and other aspects of the nyunga nyunga.

“As I get more and more occupied with other duties, workshops and the handbook allow me to deal with many students without taking many hours in my schedule. I can work with more than 40 participants in a session and, the handbook has reduced a student’s time with me from 10 sessions to one,” Mutekwa said.

“Ticha Muzavazi’s Nyunga Mbira Handbook” is an important contribution to the presently unwinding canon of mbira knowledge, for making the connection between music, orature and ritual, and for declassifying the keys for public understanding.

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