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been suffering from pneumonia, passed on at South Medical Centre in Chitungwiza last night.
Her manager Cosmas Zamangwe confirmed that Maraire, who was a former wife to the late Andy Brown, was no more.

“She had been in hospital for the past 10 days suffering from chest pains. We are, however, still to ascertain the disease she was suffering from but we suspect it is pneumonia,” he said.
Funeral arrangements will be announced in due course.

An accomplished singer, songwriter, and exponent of Zimbabwean mbira music ,Chiwoniso was born on March 5 1976 in Olympia, United States of America.

She was the daughter of renowned Zimbabwean mbira player and teacher Dumisani Maraire. She spent the first years of her life away from her homeland, Zimbabwe, as her father had moved the family to Washington in the US.

At the age of 15, she returned to Zimbabwe with her family and attended Mutare Girls’ High School for Forms Three and Four before taking Advanced Level evening classes at the University of Zimbabwe where her father was teaching.

Chiwoniso cut her musical teeth with her father’s marimba groups, Dumi and Minanzi and Mhuri ya Maraire.  
In 1991 Chiwoniso met two young hip-hop artists Herbert Schwamborn and Tony Chihota, and formed Zimbabwe’s first Afro hip-hop group A Peace of Ebony. They recorded an album From The Native Tongue in 1992 in Keith Farquharson’s studio, with Keith contributing much of the music and production.

Chiwoniso was honoured with the Decouverte Afrique by Radio France International after releasing her debut album “Ancient voices” in 1998.
The album entered the World Music Charts Europe three times and brought her a nomination in the category Best Female Vocals of Africa for the KORA Award in 1999.

From 2001 to 2004, she was a member of the multinational all-women band Women’s Voice, whose original members were from Norway, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, America, Israel and Algeria.

She also worked on soundtracks for movies and documentaries.
Maraire had several albums to her name and played a role as one of the most revolutionary mbira players crossing all musical borders inspiring young Zimbabweans to play the mbira in a more modern and contemporary way.
She collaborated with various musicians and artistes across the world.