the history of the mbira and its relations with Shona spiritualism…

One of the oldest photos of mbira, circa 1900. Zimbabwe National Archives.
The origin of mbira is unknown. According to the great study about the mbira, "The Soul of Mbira", written by an American professor Paul F. Berliner, the first written reference to the mbira is made by a Portuguese missionary, Father dos Santos, who visited what is now Mozambique in 1589. Archeological evidence also has been found at some ruins. Some examples of mbira date back to 1500-1800 AD. However, many believe that those mbiras cannot be the oldest because European adventurers had looted too many artifacts looking for the gold before archeologists started researching. The Shona people in the past recycled the iron scraps they found and today it is difficult to identify badly corroded iron objects such as mbira keys.

According to the facts, there are similar instruments, so-called thumb pianos in English, among many of the Bantu people (Shona people are from Bantu origin) from Tanzania to South Africa.

The early iron age started in the 3rd Century for Shona people; during which they became highly skilled blacksmiths. The mbira was already a well-established instrument when the first Europeans arrived, and it is likely that the archetype of mbira dates back to more than 1,000 years ago.

Among the Shona people, there are five different types of mbira. The mbira I play is called mbira dzavadzimu, which has twenty-two keys. In general it is made of steel mounted on a wooden soundboard that has small hole to put in right small finger and bottle tops or metal rings to give buzz sounds.

The mbira dzavadzimu means the mbira of ancestral spirits, which highlights the role the mbira plays in the Shona religious system. Before being influenced by Christianity, the Shona believed (many still do) that when somebody dies, the person becomes a spirit that interferes with the life of people on the earth. For instance, when there is no rainfall, the Shona believe this is caused by a wrongdoing by them to the ancestors. When a man has a prolonged illness and proves incurable, Shona believe the spirits want to send them messages. In such occasions, the Shona decide to have a ceremony in which the spirit-medium calls the ancestral spirit with the help of mbira music. In the ceremony, which usually starts after sunset and continuing until the next morning, people gathered sing and dance along with mbira music. Meanwhile, the spirit-medium gets possessed and gives people messages and advice.