**STC/MUS 204: Musical Instrument Case Study—Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa and the Mbira — Transcript & Summary | SozAI**
Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/musical-instrument-case-study-mbira/

Dan Trueman and Tanya Tawengwa explore the mbira's design, cultural significance, and spiritual role in Zimbabwean tradition.

## Key Takeaways

- The mbira is deeply intertwined with spiritual and cultural identity beyond being a musical instrument.
- Colonial history and Christian missionary influence created barriers to traditional mbira practices.
- Understanding the mbira requires knowledge of its design, tuning, and ceremonial context.
- African indigenous knowledge systems are vital to preserving cultural heritage and resisting epistemicide.
- Personal and scholarly engagement with traditional music helps bridge cultural divides and enrich musical creativity.

## What the video covers

- This video is a musical instrument case study for a Princeton course on Musical Instruments, Sound Perception, and Creativity.
- Dan Trueman hosts Tanya Rodzwa Tawengwa, a Princeton alumna, singer, composer, and scholar specializing in the mbira.
- Tanya discusses the mbira’s basic design, musical characteristics, and its deep spiritual and cultural significance in her family and Zimbabwean tradition.
- The mbira is not just an instrument but is tied to spiritual practices such as healing, rainmaking, leadership, and ancestral communication.
- Tanya shares personal experiences of navigating colonial and Christian influences that conflicted with traditional mbira practices.
- The video includes a physical demonstration of the mbira and explanations of its tuning, construction, and ceremonial adornments.
- Tanya highlights the challenges and barriers she faced growing up between traditional and Christian environments.
- The discussion touches on the broader context of African indigenous knowledge systems, epistemicide, and the importance of cultural preservation.
- Tanya recommends additional listening and scholarly resources for deeper engagement with mbira music and its cultural context.
- The video also addresses the evolution of African music scholarship and the role of archives and global indigenous cultural economies.

## Chapters

1. 00:00 Introduction and Overview of the Case Study
2. 03:33 Family Background and Spiritual Context of the Mbira
3. 06:43 Colonial History and Christian Influence on Mbira Practice
4. 09:55 Physical Demonstration and Design of the Mbira
5. 14:30 Spiritual and Ceremonial Significance of the Mbira
6. 21:30 Vocal Training and Musical Expression
7. 27:40 Tuning, Makers, and Instrument Variations
8. 33:16 African Scholarship and Indigenous Knowledge Systems
9. 39:41 Recommended Resources and Further Listening
10. 48:31 Archives, Cultural Economy, and Future Directions

Answers

## Questions about this video

What is the cultural significance of the mbira in Tanya Tawengwa's family?

The mbira is deeply tied to spiritual practices such as healing, rainmaking, and ancestral communication in Tanya's family, reflecting their traditional Shona heritage.

How did colonial and Christian influences affect Tanya's experience with the mbira?

Colonial history and Christian missionary teachings created barriers and stigmatized the mbira as spiritually evil, causing tension between traditional practices at home and education at school.

What aspects of the mbira's design and music are highlighted in the video?

The video explains the mbira's unique tuning system, the placement of notes, its resonator design, and the spiritual importance of its adornments and rattles used in ceremonies.

## Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

00:00

Speaker A

Okay, so this is a musical instrument case study for this course at Princeton, Musical Instruments, Sound Perception, and Creativity. Those of you in the class know who I am, Dan Truman, but some of you may be watching this otherwise.

00:18

Speaker A

so my guest today i'm so pleased to have her as uh tanya rodzwa tawengua she is a princeton alum and a student that i had the immense pleasure of working with when she was a student here she is a singer a composer a

00:38

Speaker A

So my guest today, I'm so pleased to have her as Tanya Rodzwa Tawengua. She is a Princeton alum and a student that I had the immense pleasure of working with when she was a student here. She is a singer, a composer, a

01:00

Speaker A

about the embira it's basic design and music her experiences with it but also it's where it comes from and where it is today um and to suggest some additional listening for us to engage in um and some direction for future

01:16

Speaker A

multi-instrumentalist, and a scholar. Her work brings together classical and music with Western classical music, and she was also recently appointed the Creative in Residence at the Boston-based organization Castle of Our Skins. I've asked her here today to speak specifically

01:32

Speaker A

well that was very thorough uh first i want to say hi again dan it's so wonderful to be in this experience with you even if it's virtual i am very grateful that you thought of me and i absolutely absolutely um respect and

01:52

Speaker A

about the mbira, its basic design and music, her experiences with it, but also where it comes from and where it is today, and to suggest some additional listening for us to engage in and some direction for future

02:08

Speaker A

that you know my beta practice is also through my bloodline and so bira itself you know it doesn't exist as just an instrument it's deeply tied to our spiritual practice uh which is why i came adorned the way i'm adorned today uh

02:28

Speaker A

exploration. So, Tanya Rodzwa, it's very difficult to fully properly introduce you, so please go ahead. Is there anything that should be added that we should know more about you before we dig into the instrument?

02:48

Speaker A

bit more in depth about this about its context but you know people pick up the instrument for different reasons healing rain making leadership or warriorship seeing as in seeing the future and so in my bloodline uh there are healers and

03:09

Speaker A

Well, that was very thorough. First, I want to say hi again, Dan. It's so wonderful to be in this experience with you, even if it's virtual. I am very grateful that you thought of me, and I absolutely, absolutely

03:33

Speaker A

it was always there but there was a barrier so my family my father's side of the family is chivanu traditionalist my mother's side of the family is christian evangelist and so this ties into you know our colonial history and christian

03:52

Speaker A

respect and enjoy you as a teacher still, so I hope that all your students know that they have a great, great, great teacher in front of them. Yeah, your introduction was wonderful. The one thing that I would add is

04:14

Speaker A

family that had you know different spiritual practices with my parents um and i went to a christian i went to a catholic school and so at school as well when i was in school there was um really you know the

04:32

Speaker A

that, you know, my mbira practice is also through my bloodline, and so mbira itself, you know, it doesn't exist as just an instrument. It's deeply tied to our spiritual practice, which is why I came adorned the way I'm adorned today,

04:49

Speaker A

that they were evil and so yes it was always there because i lived in this uh very complicated space where i would go to school and hear these things and then we would do ceremonies at home on the

05:05

Speaker A

because this is the identity I wear, you know, when I am doing this music. And so for me, it's also something that comes from my grandmothers and my great-grandmothers who channeled

05:20

Speaker A

happened over the weekend and the teacher actually took me outside and said we don't talk about those things here and so in that sense yes music was always available and yes there was a very high barrier to even me

05:33

Speaker A

their healing abilities through this music. So music, you know, we'll talk a little bit more in depth about this, about its context, but, you know, people pick up the instrument for different reasons: healing, rainmaking, leadership or warriorship, seeing as in seeing the future. And so in my bloodline, there are healers and

05:49

Speaker A

called united world college and i think that was when i had the space and the courage to interrogate certain thought systems you know epistemologies that have been part of my education and that was something we were encouraged to do as part of our school

06:04

Speaker A

seers, and so that's also how I come to this space in terms of my indigenous practice. Yeah, wonderful. So how did you— I mean, was it there for you always? That's a very deep question. It seems simple, but it's not.

06:18

Speaker A

to get closer exactly yeah exactly wow yeah wonderful that that's that's an amazing that's a really amazing uh i mean it's it's amazing how fraud it instruments is that way yeah really really really interesting so what what's what's the best way to introduce us to

06:43

Speaker A

It was always there, but there was a barrier. So my family, my father's side of the family is Chivanu traditionalist. My mother's side of the family is Christian evangelist. And so this ties into, you know, our colonial history and Christian

07:00

Speaker A

family that i personally interact with are biracial and nunga so i have them here but before i pull them up and do kind of like a physical demo i'm just going to talk a little bit so specifically means

07:16

Speaker A

missionary history, where for many years mbira music was attacked as spiritually evil and demonic because of its role in terms of ancestral communication and ancestral propitiation. And so that tension existed in my life because, you know, I was born into my

07:36

Speaker A

relaxation in terms of the origins of meera as an instrument it's also deeply tied to our oral literature and so the story uh that we are told is that marimba who was the goddess of all singers the mother of song the mother of

07:55

Speaker A

family that had, you know, different spiritual practices with my parents, and I went to a Christian— I went to a Catholic school. And so at school as well, when I was in school, there was really, you know, the

08:10

Speaker A

and so this was you know the birth of vimbira instrument i it's the story is in this book if you see it it's called indaba my children and i have it um i have it listed later as like

08:21

Speaker A

narrative that again really looked down on cultural practices. And we went through a very Anglicized education system, and when it came to discussing traditional instruments like mbira, all of the rituals and all of the ceremonies surrounding it, we were taught

08:38

Speaker A

you know and its spiritual import and its its character and the role that it has for us that's the story that we heard and so in terms of the physical demonstration this type here i'm going to remove it

08:53

Speaker A

that they were evil. And so yes, it was always there because I lived in this very complicated space where I would go to school and hear these things, and then we would do ceremonies at home on the

09:20

Speaker A

sort of see this angular design and this is because the lowest notes are actually in the middle and then the pitches go out this way that way right so that's this one and then looks like this very sweet

09:44

Speaker A

weekend. And so it was very confusing as a child to do certain things with your family but then be in school and feel like these things weren't accepted. And I remember one day speaking up about it. I was so excited to share what had

09:55

Speaker A

uh and so here we go so i can see too there we go that's what it looks like also in a resonator but this one you can't remove you can't take it out it's sort of built in um i don't have a demo

10:10

Speaker A

happened over the weekend, and the teacher actually took me outside and said, "We don't talk about those things here." And so in that sense, yes, music was always available, and yes, there was a very high barrier to even me

10:54

Speaker A

i see if i can get this one going for you so that's like that um [Music] and i'm gonna play something with a little bit more bass notes so you can hear a little bit of more of the range

11:27

Speaker A

receiving more than just the instrument but also the spiritual implications of playing the instrument. So I would say that that barrier was totally removed actually when I left Zimbabwe to come to the United States. I went to an international school

12:17

Speaker A

and why young is called sparkle sparkle and why nari is you know it has a little bit of growth to it uh deeper yeah yeah it's deeper uh yeah nutty has more keys i will say in terms of the key arrangement for nunca

12:34

Speaker A

called United World College, and I think that was when I had the space and the courage to interrogate certain thought systems, you know, epistemologies that have been part of my education. And that was something we were encouraged to do as part of our school

12:54

Speaker A

on the other side too [Music] and then coming in on the bottom on this side you have and then this side you have [Music] that's so interesting i won't say it but your students should figure out which scale degree they didn't hear

13:16

Speaker A

process, was to interrogate our identities and how we came to be. And I think that was when, you know, everything opened up and freed up for me, and I was about 16 years old at the time. Wow, so you needed to get away to

13:36

Speaker A

the mirroring on those on those higher pitches so why is that why have duplicate pitches well part of it you know it's the power of the circle so much about how if we think about music in shivan who practices circle even how

13:52

Speaker A

get closer. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Wow, yeah, wonderful. That's an amazing— that's a really amazing, I mean, it's amazing how fraught instruments are that way. Yeah, really, really, really interesting. So what's the best way to introduce us to

14:15

Speaker A

terms of philosophies of life um in terms of actually how people are arranged when we form this perform uh this music is not really a performance you know in ritual space people actually sit in a circle and so

14:30

Speaker A

the nitty-gritty, the specifics of the effects of these? Sure, I mean, I'm going to, you know, sort of introduce the names of the instruments. Mbira refers to a family, a group of instruments, and the instruments within the mbira

14:43

Speaker A

circular even how the melodies work in style this is everything is always a circle so that's why i would say it's arranged in this way yeah that's so interesting but you you use both sides mm-hmm depending on which you know depending on

15:01

Speaker A

family that I personally interact with are bira and nunga. So I have them here, but before I pull them up and do kind of like a physical demo, I'm just going to talk a little bit. So specifically, mbira means

15:33

Speaker A

still exactly while the other one is played so yeah that's really beautiful yeah it really does something um the other thing and they're probably slightly sorry they're slightly just maybe just a little bit differently tuned i mean they're not absolutely

15:47

Speaker A

of the ancestors, means ancestors, and this is one of the instruments within the bira family that is dedicated to spiritual practice. Nunga means sparkle, sparkle, and it's a sweet-sounding bira instrument, and it is related more to entertainment and

16:00

Speaker A

numbers and so any key you strike is going to sound slightly different even if it's supposed to be the same pitch so like you heard these two and then they're not really you know you know so yeah that's exactly this slightly

16:26

Speaker A

relaxation. In terms of the origins of mbira as an instrument, it's also deeply tied to our oral literature. And so the story that we are told is that Marimba, who was the goddess of all singers, the mother of song, the mother of

16:42

Speaker A

i guess the trans aspect of the music right where because you're it really does do something to you and it it that's really what kind of gets you in that trance space i believe in addition each instrument has these

17:00

Speaker A

happiness, she was in a war with another god called Nangai, who's the god of the Maasai people in Kenya, and her tears formed this beautiful instrument that had the power to, you know, make all the warriors stand still.

17:18

Speaker A

so you can hear it okay so you're gonna hear this i'm gonna hit here [Music] all right yeah yeah wow so different it's so different so different and then here again the battles that i was talking about and so you know one of the things that a

18:20

Speaker A

And so this was, you know, the birth of the mbira instrument. The story is in this book if you see it. It's called Indaba My Children, and I have it listed later as additional resources to read, but I think it's always beautiful to tie scholarship in with, you know, oral literature, especially when we're dealing with these indigenous knowledge systems. I think both of them should be engaged in tandem.

18:38

Speaker A

aesthetically even if it looks like a dormant or embellishment has spiritual import as well and so even what looks like adornment or just like decoration which is these rattles in terms of having spiritual import uh in the ceremonial space as

18:54

Speaker A

And so, you know, that's how, you know, its spiritual import and its character and the role that it has for us—that's the story that we heard. And so in terms of the physical demonstration, this type here, I'm going to remove it.

19:10

Speaker A

so they need a sound to guide them and so these ra this rattling sound buzz is what guides them and also mira is not a solo instrument it it it lives as part of the ensemble and so you hear hosho which is his

19:26

Speaker A

This is [Music], and so it lives inside a resonator that looks like this. It's called, and then the keyboard itself goes inside the resonator like that. And so, you know, just even looking at Miradzawa Zimu and looking at how the keys are

19:46

Speaker A

as part of that baby too you know that the ancestors need this sound so my great grandmother's very famous dancer and i dance in her in her you know shadow i feel sometimes but these these were you know so this

20:04

Speaker A

sort of—see this angular design? And this is because the lowest notes are actually in the middle, and then the pitches go out this way, that way, right? So that's this one. And then it looks like this, very sweet,

20:22

Speaker A

and when you're playing it it just it feels so personal in the sense that you're you're creating this there's this space and and when you're playing it it feels like you're mostly like you're sort of going into that that

20:34

Speaker A

a little higher. Yes, yeah, there we go. Oh yeah, it's quite a bit smaller. Exactly, it's got fewer keys. The other one is about 28; this one is about 15.

20:49

Speaker A

you're playing with and you mentioned earlier it's not you put performance in quotes you know like you know this is not this is not all about like performing for other people and showing off it's about something it's about creating a space it did that

21:03

Speaker A

And so here we go. So I can see too. There we go. That's what it looks like also in a resonator, but this one you can't remove; you can't take it out. It's sort of built in. I don't have a demo.

21:16

Speaker A

chest right it's very i feel i physically receive the vibrations from the instrument and they move through my body you know and that does something to me the player as well you know which is why someone who plays

21:30

Speaker A

I'll do a demo because I'm recording on my end, and you might hear it. So nunga sounds like this. I'm going to angle myself so you can see what's happening with my fingers. Zoom gymnastics. [Music] And then nari has a different quality.

21:46

Speaker A

this knowledge just dedicated and programmed in their dna you know and so that's yeah it's very intimate and that everyone around you is also having this very intimate experience playing uh and then that you can also feel you know

22:01

Speaker A

I see if I can get this one going for you.

22:17

Speaker A

yeah we could do a whole nother session on just the vocal music uh yeah it's very weird yeah we might need to do that the last two labs in the um in this um class focus on the voice

22:33

Speaker A

so um you know well let's maybe we'll we'll set up another time maybe i know yeah it is you know for myself in my doctoral research and voice performance really thinking about southern african vocal performance practice and the aesthetics that we have in our vocal

22:50

Speaker A

music is really important uh and thinking about you know just yeah just what that means where it comes from there's so many things that are done vocally i'll give you a quick example someone like miriam makeba was so famous

23:06

Speaker A

you know the greatest um the first you know african woman to come here african person to win a grammy award she came here in the 60s was produced by harry belafonte uh you know and was part of the civil

23:19

Speaker A

rights movement and she used to start a lot of her songs with this ancestral breath technique which was like you know and that too summons something in the space you know so all of these things i feel it's all connected

23:38

Speaker A

all connected anyway that's that would be a whole other world right but then you're also you are yeah we should do this because you you're also trained in western classes exactly as well exactly yeah and that was a journey too was

23:54

Speaker A

what is voice technique what is vocal technique right and so i did have teachers in the past who said your indigenous singing is a detriment to your western vocal production you need to stop you know and i just i was like there's

24:10

Speaker A

no way you're asking me to stop being myself this is not an option uh and but it took me years to sort of find the right teacher for my voice as opposed to finding a teacher for a genre does that

24:27

Speaker A

make sense yes it took me many many years to find a teacher who could train my voice and what my voice wanted to express and wants to express yeah that's so valuable that's such a valuable perspective especially you know for young musicians

24:45

Speaker A

this is often the most difficult thing where you you're trying like you have certain mentors they might be great mentors but finding the right mentor to match it might not be something you want to understand about yourself right well

24:58

Speaker A

that's why you're one of my favorite mentors dan hello you were my thesis advisor you saw all of this like just when it was all trickling out like a small stream and you encouraged that flow i think that's what a mentor and a great

25:14

Speaker A

teacher does and you did that for me so i'm grateful well i'm grateful too i remember that thesis vividly absolutely astonishing and i had just all the students in this class who are watching this i had nothing to do with it i just watched and

25:32

Speaker A

sort of enjoyed as as tanya lodgewood created this room immense piece some of that is online is that running oh it absolutely is i'll share it uh for this that would be great because i think that would be interesting for for our

25:42

Speaker A

students yeah i'll share it and it's it's it's still alive i still perform it i try i rearranged it for recital format so i've toured it in recital format for the last six years amazing yeah amazing see what a thesis can

25:59

Speaker A

actually do it can really can carry on yes it does i'll send you a recording of the record of the recital the most recent recital i did was in february right before we sheltered in place uh in california

26:11

Speaker A

i know it's amazing so i'm gonna go keep going uh through with your questions and so um yeah one one question um um is it would it be useful to also show the keyboard scale layout for the the larger instrument yes yes yes yes

26:34

Speaker A

that might be fun too yeah so for them here we this one i'm going to play up and play this way all right and then i'm trying to wow i know and then [Music] so they are different between the new

27:05

Speaker A

ganuka and this one has a lot more going on [Music] now how how consistent is that from instrument to instrument is the layout uh for a particular style of this instrument is it pretty consistent so you can you could take somebody else's

27:24

Speaker A

instrument and play it right away or is it very personal this is you said two very deep things i'll answer the first one the first one is there has now been developed a level of consistency and so bira makers are you know you will

27:40

Speaker A

you will typically aguinambira will be very intimately connected to a certain maker and that maker will tune in specific keys that that gwen ambeda likes you know so these are tuning tunings that my voice likes so these are my

27:54

Speaker A

tunings and i like this maker so this maker will do things like embellish this is me you know and so all my instruments have me on them if you can see it it's like a dancing yeah it's me

28:06

Speaker A

so so you have a very intimate relationship in terms of connection with the maker and yes they are now really consistent tuning systems like gandanga they'll tune in b-flat you know this there are instruments that are made to really match with the western tuning

28:25

Speaker A

system i i feel different ways about it you know it's it's it's i would ra i love sort of like i said the spiritual import of being a little the few cents off means a lot to me um and so sometimes when it's tuned like

28:43

Speaker A

really like within you know it takes something away from me me personally yeah yeah yeah it loses something and it doesn't feel the same uh the other thing you said was would you take another beat up a player's

28:58

Speaker A

instrument and play it no [Laughter] well you know having heard what you just said about your own instrument there it makes my second question pretty preposterous no you wouldn't for your own safety don't do it i don't mean that

29:23

Speaker A

people because it's like it's a poor it's a portal it opens another spiritual realm everyone has their own personal key i like to think of it as harry potter and the wands you know how the wands choose the wizard

29:34

Speaker A

in harry potter and like you know when harry potter was olivandez trying different wands you can have bad things can happen if you're not holding the right wand so that's how i like to think of it you don't want to pick up

29:46

Speaker A

you don't want to pick up my instrument because you don't know what you're going to open pick it up yeah that's what i said so you don't want to do it for your own good also because the owner will probably be

30:01

Speaker A

very unhappy there's something there's so many things i love about that but it's also in stark contrast to the one of the main impulses between most instrument building in western european music where there is a has been a long push for normalization

30:19

Speaker A

for standardization and for really depersonalization i mean you're talking and one of the instruments that we look a lot at in this course is the piano yeah you know one of the great achievements of western european music but um

30:32

Speaker A

it's like it's very much a normalized instrument it's like it's it's you know you have to you travel and you play on anybody's instrument yeah um and for me like the violin which is also um i would say that it both

30:47

Speaker A

benefited and suffered greatly from that um it became a very narrow uh kind of design and when i discovered you know this instrument on the wall here it was it was mine and totally different than anybody else's and it became

31:05

Speaker A

uh much more of a personal exploration than sort of an engagement with this it's almost like a test like so some standardized tests or something it's a really different it's not even just a different instrument it's just a

31:20

Speaker A

completely different impulse it is and every instrument in sort of the chivano ensemble is personalized um i grew up playing percussion my mangoma which is a drum is personalized and you know it will be personalized with many different things

31:36

Speaker A

we also have totems and clan names my clan is the elephant clan so in our house you'll see a lot of elephant carvings you'll see a lot of elephant figures all over and so you know on different instruments

31:51

Speaker A

and different things using this process you'll see a lot of elephants uh in in the things that i hold because that also has significant social part of identity it's almost like a family crest and so yeah it's it's really beautiful

32:05

Speaker A

to see like i said referring my my colleague in scholar nagara who talks about how even aesthetics and embellishment have spiritual import and so it's really beautiful to even go even these triangles you know so it's even really beautiful to go into

32:20

Speaker A

everything and be able to see this personalization that happens and this attention to detail and also the significance in each detail it's very beautiful it's very thoughtful it makes everything feel so thoughtful um and very special right absolutely and

32:36

Speaker A

invested this this object becomes invested with history exactly exactly uh and so which is why i cry when i go to museums and i see him behind glass cages and i'm like this was taken from somebody's family and

32:54

Speaker A

museums and zoos are very hard for me that's another discussion [Laughter] i will cry but that's another discussion that's another discussion so one of the questions you asked me about to think about was the cultural context of the instrument and where

33:12

Speaker A

it's from originally and you know thinking about answering that one of the things i want to share with the students is you know where i am in my scholarship right now so i am part of i guess you could call

33:26

Speaker A

it a movement of african scented scholars and practitioners uh it's been around honestly since civil rights movement pan-africanism black nationalism where you have writers who are really looking to heal the epistemicide so like the genocide of knowledge systems that

33:50

Speaker A

happen through the colonial encounter by repopulating the archive with african authored narratives and perspectives and yeah so so uh part of the work that we do is to think about centering not only just african scholarly voices but philosophies

34:11

Speaker A

and ideas on of being right how the world is organized and so even the question about like where is the instrument from needs deep thinking because miranda zumu itself transcends our idea of geopolitical borders right so zimbabwe as a construct was born in 1980

34:35

Speaker A

and that's only 40 years old as a practice i mean his date is at least 2000 years old at least 2 000 years old and so how do we explain this when thinking about where is it from uh and so one of the terms that has come

34:57

Speaker A

up is this idea of mad zimbabwe and mad zimbabwe is a term that refers to pre-berlin borders anything pre-berlin when i say berlin i'm talking about the berlin conference where european nations came together and sort of cut up

35:12

Speaker A

the continent of africa into a lot of the geopolitical territories we know today and so that is the space and the time and the world that music comes from it's really this mad zimbabwe space and also zimbabwe transcends just

35:28

Speaker A

the physical boundaries of zimbabwe as we know it today and so mad zimbabwe brings together southern africa central africa because you see these traditions throughout the continent you know and so it's very difficult to say oh it is just

35:42

Speaker A

this xy people from this ex white territory because that is not how we moved through space two thousand years ago so hopefully that's a good enough answer oh well yeah it's so interesting like so the construct of zimbabwe is is just like a

36:00

Speaker A

sliver yeah on the on the front end of this very very long exactly exactly this is because we're talking about very old things we're talking about very old songs and very old instrument and so yes you know the work has been done to try it's also

36:16

Speaker A

like we're saying talking about standardization so we try to standardize language so that it makes sense but sometimes in standardizing we take away actually what's vital and important about the narrative and so how do we use language also

36:31

Speaker A

understanding that english is limited a lot of these things that i'm trying to explain in english are very difficult to explain in english and in fact you know and so what does that even mean when we're thinking about

36:43

Speaker A

what a scholar is and who's writing in what language and so throughout southern africa now and a lot of our university institutions there's a lot of encouraging of writing dissertations and theses uh in our languages right i speak several yeah it's like

37:03

Speaker A

five and so and are they mostly african languages actually it's like half and half you know because of opera i had to study french and german yes yeah yeah but my grandmother used to speak 11 african-american languages 11 yeah

37:21

Speaker A

because of my great grandfather being an evangelist and then moving and traveling and so she spoke 11 languages very yes so just even to preserve linguistic diversity and just languages period this is why a lot of scholars are being encouraged to

37:41

Speaker A

write in our languages and it helps you know because like i said translating these things is hard but we do our best yeah yeah it's uh it's it's hard and you know any kind of translation is gonna be

37:54

Speaker A

incomplete but through through the effort if you've got somebody who is willing to to try to close that gap conceptually like really listen and understand that they're only getting something that's not quite right it seems like it's i mean it's an effort

38:07

Speaker A

that has to happen right i mean it has to happen you know i i remember when i was thinking about these things you know i almost wish there was a discipline called like comparative musicology more than and that we would get rid of

38:20

Speaker A

ethnomusicology right you know and so to really encourage that kind of exchange because that's the beauty of universities is that you have people from all traditions and all walks coming together and and i wish you know there would be kind

38:38

Speaker A

of like a music education that celebrates that as opposed to feeling very divided between western i.e white and non-western i.e everybody else i i don't think that that's going to work i don't think it works anymore i don't think it ever did uh

38:57

Speaker A

so yeah so all of these things you know things to think about uh yeah yeah i i like i like that i like the future that i i'm sort of glimmering you know because i can see glimmering based on how you're

39:09

Speaker A

talking of all you know these things being taught side by side and people finding their own way yeah do that and yeah yeah that's i'm an ad that's where i stand so that's my point of view that's my

39:23

Speaker A

call to scholarship so now you know me you know now they know me uh and so places you can learn more uh is this something you want me to show or should i share later as links um yeah actually you can share some

39:41

Speaker A

links but if there's like if there's maybe a if there are a couple books or something you want yeah let me pull them up [Music] so this book is called inda by my children i don't know if it's going to

39:51

Speaker A

come out looking reversed okay yeah so this is this is by vusama zulumutwa and zulu he recently actually passed away and he was an art historian and a sangoma sangoma is a healer and he compiled this really incredible

40:11

Speaker A

book which is all well as much as as a sangwoman his job was to know the creation story of our people from generations past and so these are those stories and this is where the story of marimba the goddess of song the mother of all

40:30

Speaker A

singers sort of creating the mira from her tears it exists here this work i think is an essential text it's called african music power and being in colonial zimbabwe so one of the questions you asked me is what's in beta music you know how is it

40:48

Speaker A

where is it performed is it in concert in ritual and ceremony etc and it depends on the player and depends on what the player is called to do and so you'll see even in thinking about you know the

41:01

Speaker A

creation and birth of zimbabwe that nbira was played in different uh with different purposes so say you know mad zimbabwe pre-berlin spiritual import but during the liberation struggle beta music was the music of liberation and because like i told you there was a

41:21

Speaker A

time where christian missionaries and still it still exists this mindset exists where there was really music was attacked so in the late 1800s early 1900s excuse me mira players were beaten instruments were burned you know it was really very violent and

41:41

Speaker A

so it was subversive for the few gonambira who remained to play bitter music during the liberation struggle of 1965 to 1980 and this is where a lot of the musicians that are well known now for zimbabwe and music

41:55

Speaker A

like thomas mafumo who you know people know for his music which is called chimurenga music which means struggle from the name murenga who is one of our great ancestors who's like the god of revolution um he created well then create but sort

42:14

Speaker A

of recast music into a genre in which he was now playing beta on guitar and so that's where someone like thomas mapfumo and chimerenga music came to be and so this book really goes into that it's by moza coiro who is the head of

42:30

Speaker A

history at the university of california santa barbara yeah really really great scholar really great work and so it's through it's written by a historian but it won a lot of ethnomusicology awards which he in his words he said i

42:45

Speaker A

didn't want them [Laughter] but it's like it's it's a great great work great foundational text and i do have links and videos uh that i have ready should i send those so uh these are like performance recordings for them to listen to

43:07

Speaker A

um yeah so you can send those and i will i will basically put these together for them to listen to um and i um so do you want to say anything about any of them yes i do so

43:22

Speaker A

i put together three links three videos of the same song sung by different artists the first artist is chiwoniso is my mentor but also she is the daughter of dumisani maraere who brought mira music to the pacific northwest

43:41

Speaker A

and so you know as we talk about mira music and you know it's where it is is globally doomed was a guiding beer who brought mira music here he studied at the university of washington and then taught at the university of

43:58

Speaker A

washington and so there is a very interesting bira community in seattle oakland california um yeah that's all i will say on that so i find it very you know his daughter his children are still continuing uh in the work of

44:21

Speaker A

playing instrument chioness unfortunately passed away a few years ago but she is an incredible gwen yambira an incredible voice and so she sings this song jichapera which means how did it begin and how will it end right against an old old song and i

44:39

Speaker A

would love the students to hear how she presents that song and then i also have thomas mabfumo who like i said is this great chimerenga artist who sang the music during the liberation struggle and he sings the same

44:52

Speaker A

song some of the you know the lyrics again you know this is music that's call and response and whoever is leading the song has the freedom to add into the text uh just contemporary realities what's going on so he sings the song really speaking to

45:09

Speaker A

the war really speaking about the british occupation in zimbabwe and he presents the song in a different way then the third example is me singing that song so i sing that song i know yeah i wanted to share a little bit of myself i

45:22

Speaker A

actually recorded it in quarantine and a lot of what i'm wrestling with is thinking about um the immigrants us as zimbabwean immigrants zimbabwean diaspora what does it mean and this is what i started thinking about in my thesis what does it mean

45:38

Speaker A

you know to be away what is it what what does citizenship mean what does that mean for our children what does that mean for our customs what does it mean for all of this to now have children who are born in

45:51

Speaker A

philadelphia in england etc you know how do we hold this how do we evolve so those are the texts that's kind of the text that i'm bringing to that as well as sort of looking inward and thinking about this current moment

46:06

Speaker A

how how did we get here and how will this end so it's more of a prayer space that i present so those are the examples the other thing that i shared for questions was one an introduction to like i said

46:18

Speaker A

this chimurenga which means sort of like revolution of the mind right and this is something that a lot of pan-african scholars have already been dealing with from the 60s 70s scholars like walter rodney scholars like franz fanon james baldwin

46:36

Speaker A

this has been you know this this these this kind of thinking this kind of writing has been happening in all disciplines you know if you re if you watch a raisin in the sun lorraine hansberry these are all themes that are being tackled

46:47

Speaker A

nina simone in her work and so um the importance like i said it's very important to me to really do this work of repopulating the archive and centering african voices in these discussions because for your students when they do

47:04

Speaker A

go and google books and look up books about better music most of them are going to be written by white men and that's something to reckon with and something to engage with you know so what i have done is uh

47:16

Speaker A

i have linked the article that i wrote for the zimbabwe daily news that i wrote called cultural vampires white exploitation of zimbabwe music and it just shares a little bit of personal reflection of my own story and what it was was in response to

47:33

Speaker A

google's doodle about media music that went up sometime in may so i would like the students to read that correct um and the questions i have for them the other thing i also linked was the facebook post that i did because

47:50

Speaker A

you know it's interesting to think about social media as text and how you trolling or comment sections a lot happens in there but it also reveals again the tensions and the things that we need to engage with as scholars so i don't shy away

48:05

Speaker A

from it so i also put that there so that students could hear other voices of what how people see and feel about my position and so what i would like them to do uh is to pick one comment one point of

48:21

Speaker A

view and sort of engage with it so do a little bit further reading and jot down their thoughts uh and one of i guess one of the questions i want to guide is for them to think about african music

48:32

Speaker A

archives like the international library of african music islam and aluca which i think is is belongs to jstor and think about the role of this global indigenous cultural economy scholarship and exploitation how does this you know these corporatized archives how what is their

48:55

Speaker A

role in this discourse and i think so that's something a scholars that we need to think about fantastic yeah amazing what that's this is great this is it's an amazing uh introduction to this and then i think there's these questions this music to

49:12

Speaker A

listen to and this paper to read um and then i i love that you're you know inviting them also to you know to engage in in in in this discussion like what's been happening on facebook and in response to your position um and

49:27

Speaker A

to actually like say hey let's let's look at this and let's see what we can learn from this that's fantastic um yeah um any any final words for this this one short interview that feels like we could have several more i

49:44

Speaker A

mean i just i i feel um very honored it's such a joy like you said to be somebody who is able to move between these worlds and communicate these things it's something i i'm very humbled and very grateful for i

49:58

Speaker A

know that i stand and represent a larger community of guinea ambiras who you know have been doing this work for a long time but maybe haven't had access to such spaces to share their work and so for me as sort of like a representative

50:16

Speaker A

and maybe sometimes even the first one i think i asked the registrar this and they didn't confirm but i think i'm the first zimbabwean to ever have a degree in music from princeton really i think so yeah yeah yeah we went

50:29

Speaker A

to i went to the restaurant she's like i think so they're still looking to confirm it but you know so that means a lot to me when i think about it you know to be the first one in a space

50:38

Speaker A

first one in department so i i'm very grateful dan that you invited me back to share what really is my heart uh and i really hope that your students learn something and see something from this i really do yeah oh they will

50:53

Speaker A

you know thank you so much for sharing sharing this work of yours and who you are with this with with us and i'm so looking forward to when we can travel again so that we can have you back in person

51:08

Speaker A

you know to perform to meet with our students and and me so um you know so i'm you know my fingers are crossed that that's going to be sooner than later yeah but um yeah i will also share the recording from the

51:23

Speaker A

glee club because that also draws on the vocal practice they didn't you know that's that's where that music came from so i'll share that recording too for the students do you mean just from earlier this year mm-hmm yeah great fantastic

51:36

Speaker A

yes that would be great yeah well tanya rodsworth thank you so much and um i'm looking forward to talking to you more thank you dan

Topics: mbira Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa Dan Trueman Princeton musical instruments African traditional music Zimbabwean culture spiritual music indigenous knowledge musical instrument case study sound perception

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