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Tendayi (Samaita) Gahamadze (born July 3, 1959) is a Zimbabwean artist and songwriter.
Tendayi Gahamadze was born in Musengezi on his parents' farm and attended Mkwasha Primary School. He attended secondary school at Moleli.
In 1979, he left for the United Kingdom where he did his A levels.
In 1982, he studied metallurgy in Germany.
Tendayi Gahamadze was a member of a school choir and learned to play instruments when he was in the UK. He was fascinated by the sound of Mbira but did not expect to play the instrument. Whilst in Germany at a seminar in Essen, he and his fellow Zimbabwean students had no option but to sing Ishe Komborera Africa in contrast with the Congolese and Latin American students who played their Rhumba and Salsa music respectively. On returning to Zimbabwe, he was told that it had been prophesied that he would be a prominent mbira player. Being 30, he brushed it aside and wondered how he would learn to play this instrument. A year later, he found himself under the mentorship of spiritual leader Choshata of the Mhara Mbuya Chikonamombe totem. He spent a year living with Albert and Benjamin Gobvu who were respected mbira players in Mhondoro. They assisted in the tuning of the mbiras but never attempted to play since it seemed far beyond his capabilities, according to Gahamadze. Choshata recommended that Tendayi buy his own Mbira, which he did.
With this Mbira, he went to another Mbira manufacturer, Seke, who made two more mbiras of the same tuning for him. He left Choshata's shrine for Norton where his family was. He had in possession a set of three mbiras which he could not play. It happened overnight, as it were, that he started playing the mbira without being directed by anyone. He started teaming up with different mbira players and performing with them at cultural ceremonies and gatherings. Magwimbe Mlambo and Wilfred Mafrika were with him in the beginning. Having had some guitar band experience with college bands during his time at university, Tendayi went on to buy guitar pick-ups and started manufacturing his own mbiras and electrifying them. He formed the group Mbira dzeNharira which had its first recording, Rine Manyanga Hariputirwe, in 1998, which immediately topped the charts.
To date Mbira dzeNharira has won five musical awards. [1] [2]
The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel, the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African and Asian instruments, diatonic in many western children's instruments, or chromatic for orchestral use.
Mbira are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and plucking the tines with the thumbs, the right forefinger, and sometimes the left forefinger. Musicologists classify it as a lamellaphone, part of the plucked idiophone family of musical instruments. In Eastern and Southern Africa, there are many kinds of mbira, often accompanied by the hosho, a percussion instrument. It is often an important instrument played at religious ceremonies, weddings, and other social gatherings. The "Art of crafting and playing Mbira/Sansi, the finger-plucking traditional musical instrument in Malawi and Zimbabwe" was added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2020.
Zimbabwean music is heavily reliant on the use of instruments such as the mbira, Ngoma drums and hosho. Their music symbolizes much more than a simple rhythm, as the folk and pop style styled music was used as a symbol of hope for Zimbabweans looking to gain independence from Rhodesia. Music has played a significant role in the history of Zimbabwe, from a vital role in the traditional Bira ceremony used to call on ancestral spirits, to protest songs during the struggle for independence. The community in Zimbabwe used music to voice their resistance to their oppression, as one of the only weapons they had available to fight back with. In the eighties, the Music of Zimbabwe was at the center of the African Music scene thanks to genres such as Sungura and Jit. However, several performers were banned by state TV and radio leading to the closing of several music venues.
Thomas Tafirenyika Mapfumo is a musician nicknamed "The Lion of Zimbabwe" and "Mukanya" for his immense popularity and for the political influence he wields through his music, including his sharp criticism of the government of former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe. He both created and made popular Chimurenga music, and his slow-moving style and distinctive voice is instantly recognisable to Zimbabweans.
A lamellophone is a member of the family of musical instruments that makes its sound by a thin vibrating plate called a lamella or tongue, which is fixed at one end and has the other end free. When the musician depresses the free end of a plate with a finger or fingernail, and then allows the finger to slip off, the released plate vibrates. An instrument may have a single tongue or a series of multiple tongues.
Shona music is the music of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. There are several different types of traditional Shona music including mbira, singing, hosho and drumming. Very often, this music will be accompanied by dancing, and participation by the audience. In Shona music, there is little distinction between the performer and the audience, both are often actively involved in the music-making, and both are important in the religious ceremonies where Shona music is often heard.
Ephat Mujuru (1950–2001), was a Zimbabwean musician, one of the 20th century's finest players of the mbira, a traditional instrument of the Shona ethnic group of Zimbabwe.
Abraham Dumisani Maraire, known to friends as "Dumi", was a Zimbabwean musician. He was a master performer of the mbira, a traditional instrument of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. He specialized in the form of mbira called nyunga nyunga, as well as the Zimbabwean marimba. He introduced Zimbabwean music to North America, initiating a flourishing of Zimbabwean music in the Pacific Northwest that continues into the 21st century.
The Shona people are a Bantu ethnic group native to Southern Africa, primarily living in Zimbabwe where they form the majority of the population, as well as Mozambique, South Africa, and a worldwide diaspora. There are five major Shona language/dialect clusters: Manyika, Karanga, Zezuru, Korekore, and Ndau.
Stella Chiweshe was a Zimbabwean musician. She was known internationally for her singing and playing of the mbira dzavadzimu, a traditional instrument of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. She was one of few female players, and learned to play from 1966 to 1969, when other women did not.
Chartwell Shorayi Dutiro was a Zimbabwean musician, who started playing mbira when he was four years old at the protected village, Kagande; about two hours drive from Harare, where his family was moved by the Salvation Army missionaries during the Chimurenga. Even though the missionaries had banned traditional music, he learned to play from his brother and other village elders. His mother also encouraged him through her singing of traditional songs.
Andrew Tracey was a South African ethnomusicologist, promoter of African music, composer, folk singer, band leader, and actor. His father, Hugh Tracey (1903–1977), pioneered the study of traditional African music in the 1920s–1970s, created the International Library of African Music (ILAM) in 1954, and started the company African Musical Instruments (AMI) which manufactured the first commercial kalimbas in the 1950s.
Chris Berry is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He plays the mbira and the ngoma drum, from the Shona people of Southern Africa. His records with the band Panjea have gone platinum in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. He has released over a dozen albums; scored the soundtrack for three films; and collaborated and performed with many other artists.
Chiwoniso Maraire was a Zimbabwean singer, songwriter, and exponent of Zimbabwean mbira music. She was the daughter of Zimbabwean mbira master and teacher Dumisani Maraire. Describing the mbira, an instrument traditionally used by male musicians, she said, "It 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. There are many kinds of mbiras. The one that I play is called the nyunga nyunga, which means sparkle-sparkle."
Jonah Sithole (1952–1997) was a Zimbabwean guitarist, vocalist and composer, known particularly for the mbira-inspired style known as mbira-guitar or chimurenga music.
Prince Kudakwashe Musarurwa, was a Zimbabwean African jazz singer, songwriter, producer and musician.
Mbira DzeNharira was formed by Tendayi Gahamadze in 1987 in Norton, a town 40 km west of Harare. To date they have released 11 CD and 3 DVD albums.
Albert Chimedza is a Zimbabwean poet and founder of the Mbira Centre. His only collection of poetry, Counterpoint was published in 1984, together with Hopewell Seyaseya. Over the years, Chimedza has focused his energy on promoting the mbira, a unique traditional instrument that has been played for more than 1,000 years. The mbira is integral to the traditions and cultural identity of the Shona people of Zimbabwe.