thread.cfm?threadid=51518&messages=22

Subject: RE: Mbira banned? Malcolm Douglas, please
From: Azizi - PM
Date: 15 May 06 - 09:51 PM

I found this thread while "mudcatting" for archived threads that mention African music.

See this information about the mbira:

"The mbira (also known as sanza or thumb piano) is a unique kind of tuned percussion instrument. You produce sound by using your thumbs and fingers to pluck very thin strips or tongues of metal, wood or cane. These strips are attached to a gourd resonator or wooden box, often with sound holes. Sometimes, jingles or beads are added to the keys to create a rich, buzzing tone. You can change the pitch of each key by fixing wax to its free end, or by increasing or decreasing its length.

Among east African peoples, the delicate sound of the mbira is said to create a link between human and spiritual worlds, enabling the trance possession of people by spiritual beings. Depending on the context, these instruments may be played singly or in pairs. Among the Shona nations, ensembles of up to twenty mbira players performed at ceremonial events.

Mbiras travelled with African people to South, Central, and North America and to the Caribbean, particularly during the slave trade. In Brazil, these instruments are called a marimbao. In the Americas, mbiras are a vibrant expression of the rich heritage of the African peoples of these communities."

Information about various folk instruments


-snip-

I'm wondering if attempts to ban the mbira {thumb piano} among the Shona people of Zimbabwe, South Africa might have been like banning drum playing by enslaved African Americans in the US South.

In traditional African societies drums were considered sacred {and may still be considered that way among some modern day Africans}. Traditionally {and still today} mbiras are considered sacred in Zimbabwe and some other African nations.

It is common {among some African Americans and others I suppose} to assert that the reason why drums were prohibited in the US slave states at some point [historians can insert when] was that the drums signaled slave revolts. Maybe this was true, and maybe it was a fear turned into a "rural legend". But even if that reason for banning drums was true, it seems to me that it is too simplistic an explanation of what drums meant to enslaved African Americans.

Could it [also] be that drum playing was prohibited because it served a psychological, spiritual, physical healing, motivating, power giving unifying purposes among enslaved African Americans?

See this quote about Stella Chiweshe:
"Zimbabwe's foremost Mbira player, Stella Rimbisai Chiweshe - " The Queen of Mbira" - blends haunting mbira lines with percussion and call & response singing behind her evocative vocals. She sings and plays songs of liberation, spiritual experience and social commentary. The effect is the mbira dzaVadzimu, the classic Zimbabwean thumb-piano, which is a medium for playing songs handed down from generation to generation for centuries and for maintaining contact with the spirits of the Shona people. The Mbira consists of 22 to 28 metal keys mounted on a hardwood soundboard and is usally placed inside a large gourd resonator (deze). The keys are played with the two thumbs plucking down and the right forefinger plucking up."

http://www.cdroots.com/hm-chiwese02.html


-snip-

I would like to emphasize this sentence from that quote:
"She sings and plays songs of liberation, spiritual experience and social commentary."

Is that enough reason for banning that instrument? In a repressive culture. Yes.

Is that the same thing that happened in the US slave South? Maybe.