Edition 44: Autumn 2008

It takes strength to speak out in present-day Zimbabwe, but Chiwoniso Maraire – whose messages deal with social responsibility and awareness – refuses to hold back, says Emma Gregg.

“I am like a mirror,” the singer declares. “I basically sing about what I see happening in the world. If someone comes up to me in the street to ask for money… if people are jumping borders because their economic situation is too difficult… if the police are beating people up and intimidating them, I’ll sing about that.”

Born in the US to a professional singer and an ethnomusicologist who taught marimba and mbira, Chiwoniso has been playing the mbira since she was four. Her first appearance on a studio recording came when she was nine. In 1990, she and her family moved to Harare, where she sang with cutting-edge hip-hop band A Peace of Ebony and toured with Andy Brown before striking out on her own, winning the Radio France International Best New Artist award in 1997.

Since then, she has divided her time between looking after her young daughters and making recordings for awareness-raising organisations including CARE, UNDP and the Nobel Foundation. Her new album, Rebel Woman, touches on the struggles faced by ordinary people – economic migration, children’s rights, and the under-empowerment of women.

Musically, the album is a product of her American and African upbringing. It has a powerful jazz feel, and some of the tracks are in English, but the strongest voice of all is that of the mbira. Chiwoniso, who inherited a deep respect for traditional Shona culture from her late father, enjoys the symbolism of the mbira, a simple instrument capable of producing complex, interlocking melodies which have accompanied cultural ceremonies for generations. Quintessentially Zimbabwean, it’s become her signature sound, and it ripples through almost every track.