"Songs have meanings preserved in their texts: by singing them,
children
learn about the way of life of their ancestors, their history, and their
society." C. C. Chawasarira
Chaka Chawasarira, born in Madziva in northeast Zimbabwe, is a
versatile performer and composer with expertise in a number of indigenous
instruments and drum/dance styles. Mr. Chawasarira recently retired from
the Zimbabwean Ministry of Education after 38 years of service. For the last
two decades, he was headmaster at Zengea School, a farm school that he helped
to build for the children of farmworkers outside the capital city. He taught
and led the school's performing group, Zengea Karimba Ensemble, which
became well known within Zimbabwe and traveled twice to Europe during the
1990s.
The Shona people are well known for the variety and polyrhythmic
complexity of their mbira instruments (played with the thumbs and
forefingers), and Chaka Chawasarira is a virtuoso performer on two
Zimbabwean mbiras. His specialty is the 33-key hera (also called
matepe), played in spirit possession ceremonies by the Korekore people in
northeastern Zimbabwe. In traditional contexts, two or more hera playing
complex interlocking parts are performed together accompanied by vocals
and gourd rattles. Mr. Chawasarira has composed and arranged numerous
songs for the 15-key karimba, the mbira taught in Zimbabwean teachers
training colleges.
An expert craftsman, Mr. Chawasarira builds, teaches, and plays his
own 19-key version of the karimba in an ensemble with three differently
tuned karimbas, vocals, ngoma (drum), and hosho (gourd rattles). He is
also an experienced choir leader and has composed several Shona hymns for
use in the Catholic liturgy as well as a mass for karimba ensemble (Missa
yeMvura, "Mass for the Rains").
Mr. Chawasarira has also traveled on several solo tours that
have taken him to Europe and North America. In 1992 he was invited to
Louisville, Kentucky as a soloist with the Louisville Symphony Orchestra
for their Soundcelebration II, an International Festival of Contemporary
Music. As an mbira master, Mr. Chawasarira was invited by Northwestern
University Professor Paul Berliner to travel to North America with the
Soul of Mbira Group Leaders in 1999. The tour brought his music to the
Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and numerous universities including
Harvard, NYU, and the University of Chicago.
Mr. Chawasarira has several recordings produced by the BBC World Service, WDR, and KUNZWANA Trust. He is also featured on documentary films performing mbira and discussing traditional Zimbabwean music.
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