RENOWNED mbira musician and author Hope Masike has challenged the notion that mbira has no room in church through her forthcoming album, Anotida, set to be launched this Thursday at Siyekhaya Estate in the outskirts of Harare.
The album is a fusion of gospel songs and the traditional instrument.
The album is Masike’s fourth offering after Mbira, Love and Chocolate released in 2012 and The Exorcism of a Spinster, a 2019 production.
Masike took an adventurous experiment to fuse the traditional sounds of the mbira instrument with some of the much-loved gospel hymns from the country’s Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) and Methodist churches.
In a statement prior to the album launch, Masike said: “This is a very rare and controversial mix, as it is common knowledge that some churches still regard the mbira instrument as pagan. I was inspired to do this album mostly by fans who were asking for it.”
The songstress noted that through a series of social media posts singing different AFM hymns while playing the mbira instrument, it turned out the recordings won the hearts of many as several people began to ask her for an album compilation.
Masike also confessed a strong affection for gospel songs and mbira equally, which has been the bedrock of her music career.
“I wanted to pay homage to two of my favourite music genres that I have deep respect for — the country’s traditional instrument, mbira, and hymns. I wanted to bring the two together because Psalms 81 translated to Shona expressly says ‘…rwiyo, muridze tambureni, ridzai mbira dzinonakidza nomutengeranwa’ (Begin the music, strike the timbrel, play the melodious harp and lyre),” she noted.
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Masike said she was paying tribute to her late parents as well as present the album as a gift to her family while expressing herself in a language she is conversant with — mbira and her voice.
The album has 15 songs plus interludes, the bulk of which are AFM and Methodist hymns accompanied by other western instruments such as bass, drums and saxophone. However, the dominant features on the album are the two types of mbira which are nyunga nyunga and nhare, weaved with the songstress’ vocals.
Last year, Masike embarked on a Piano meets Mbira tour with German pianist Andreas Kern touring countries such as Namibia, Botswana and Zambia. The duo did a song Ave Maria under this project which was spearheaded by an inter-cultural exchange programme supported by the German embassy.
Masike is also the author of four poetry books — Ask Me Again (2020), Dzevabvazera (2022), Die With Me (2023) and Our Sacred Place which was released last month.
