Chiwoniso Maraire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chiwoniso Maraire (Born in 1976 in Olympia, Washington, U.S.) is an accomplished singer, songwriter, exponent of East African and Zimbabwean mbira music.
On the album Ancient Voices (produced 1995) she melds the conventional and modern, sings in English and African languages, and uses contemporary instruments and traditional African instruments such as the mbira. She learned how to play the instrument despite the fact that traditionally, women in Zimbabwe were not permitted to play the instrument. The mbira, she says, "Is like a large xylophone. It is everywhere in Africa under different names: sanza, kalimba, etc. For us in Zimbabwe it is the name for many string instruments. They are many kind of mbiras. The one that I play is called the knuwga-knuwga, which means brilliance-brilliance." [1]
Chiwoniso has been fronting her acoustic group Chiwoniso & Vibe Culture for the past four years. From 2001 to 2004, she was also a core member of the multinational all-women band Women’s Voice, whose original members hailed from Norway, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, America, Israel and Algeria. Chiwoniso has also been busy in film, having worked on the soundtracks for movies and documentaries by an array of Zimbabwean writers and film producers in the last ten years. [2]
In February 2006, she joined Busi Ncube, Adam Chisvo, Peter "Mashasha" Mujuru and many others Zimbabwean artists in an ad-hoc band called The Collaboration and recorded Hupenyu Kumusha, Life at Home, Impilo Ekhaya. The band performed in Zanzibar's Sauti za Busara 2007 Festival.
Contents |
[edit] Speaking out against Police brutality
While on tour in Denmark Chiwoniso spoke out against police brutality and Violence in Zimbabwe.
She said,“To beat people, to threaten people, to put a person in a situation where they have to think for the next five hours about whether or not they are going to be okay — is a very, very bad thing to do.'[3]
[edit] Discography
- Ancient Voices (released 2001)
- Timeless (released 2004)
- Hupenyu Kumusha, Life at Home, Impilo Ekhaya. The Collaboration: Volume 1. (2006)
