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Tracing the Mbira Sound Archive in Zimbabwe

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Tracing the Mbira Sound Archive in Zimbabwe Tracing the Mbira Sound Archive in Zimbabwe Tracing the Mbira Sound Archive in Zimbabwe analyses the revitalisation and repatriation of historical recordings from the largest sound archive in Africa, the International Library of African Music (ILAM). It provides a postcolonial study on the African sound archive divided into three historical periods: the colonial period offers a critical analysis on how ILAM classifies its music through ethnic and linguistic groups; the postcolonial period reconsiders postcolonial nationhood, new/old mobility and cultural border crossing in present Africa; and the recent period of repatriation focuses on the author’s revitalisation of the sound archive. The main goal of this study is to reconsider the colonial demarcations of southern African mbira music provided by the International Library of African Music (ILAM). These mbira recordings reveal that the harmonic system used in different lamellophones (or mbiras) in southern Africa is musically related. The analysis of sound archives in Africa is an essential tool to envision the new ways in which African culture can be directed not only from postcolonial notions of nationhood or Afrocentric discourses but also for the necessity of bringing awareness of the circulation of musical cultures from and beyond colonial African borders. Luis Gimenez Amoros is a research fellow at the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) at the University of the Western Cape. Previously, he has served as an Ethnomusicology lecturer at the University of Fort Hare and as a Postdoctoral fellow in the Unit of Zimbabwean Studies at Rhodes University in South Africa. Tracing the Mbira Sound Archive in Zimbabwe Luis Gimenez Amoros University of the Western Cape First published 2018 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Taylor & Francis The right of Luis Gimenez Amoros to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Gimenez Amoros, Luis, author. Title: Tracing the Mbira sound archive in Zimbabwe / Luis Gimenez Amoros. Description: New York : Routledge, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018008536 (print) | LCCN 2018010952 (ebook) | ISBN 9780429505539 | ISBN 9781138585102 (hardback) Subjects: LCSH: Mbira music—Zimbabwe—History and criticism. | Shona (African people)—Music—History and criticism. Classification: LCC ML1015.M25 (ebook) | LCC ML1015.M25 G56 2018 (print) | DDC 786.8/5096891—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018008536 ISBN: 978-1-138-58510-2 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-50553-9 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC To the memory of my grandmother, Francisca Gimenez Aguilar (1929–2017) ContentsContentsContents List of Figures ix List of Abbreviations x Foreword xi Acknowledgements xii Introduction 1 PART I Reconsidering the Colonial Archive 13 1 The Mobilisation of Shona Musical Identity During Colonial Times 15 2 Reconsidering the Colonial Creation of Shona Musical Identity and Shona Mbiras in the Sound Archive 22 3 An Attempt to Link Colonial and Postcolonial Narratives: Andrew Tracey’s “Shona Chord Finder” and the Mbira Country Beyond Borders 32 4 Lyrics and Reinterpretations of Shona-Mbira Recordings 46 PART II Reconsidering the Sound Archive and Postcolonial Nationhood 55 5 The Centralisation of Great Zimbabwe and the Multiple Versions of Chaminuka in the Sound Archive 57 viii Contents 6 Chimurenga Music: Mbira Musical Culture and the Subaltern Versions of Postcolonial Nationhood 70 PART III The Digital Return and Revitalisation Project of the Mbira Sound Archive in Zimbabwe 83 7 Digital Return and Revitalisation of the Sound Archive in Zimbabwe 85 8 Revitalising the Repertoire Through Zimbabwean Musicians 95 9 The Digital Return in the Place of the Recordings 103 10 Curricula Transformation in the African Academy Through the Sound Archive 113 References 121 Discography 126 Filmography 127 Interviews 128 Index 129 FiguresFiguresFigures 2.1 Mbira Ndau 23 2.2 Nyunganyunga/Karimba 24 2.3 Njari 25 2.4 Mbira dza Vadzimu or Nhare 26 2.5 Mbira Matepe 27 3.1 Tracey’s “Shona Chord Finder” in F 33 3.2 Mbira Munyonga 44 All figures courtesy of the author. AbbreviationsRunning Head Left-hand: List of AbbreviationsRunning Head Right-hand: List of Abbreviations ILAM International Library of African Music MDC Movement of Democratic Change NADA Native Affairs Department Annual SOAS School of Oriental and African Studies ZANU-PF Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front ZAPU-PF Zimbabwe African People’s Union Patriotic Front ForewordRunning Head Left-hand: ForewordRunning Head Right-hand: Foreword Since 2012 the International Library of African Music (ILAM) has been involved in redeeming its “colonial” legacy so that its mission would comply with demands in the public domain for transformation and accountability. By repatriating music recordings first made by Hugh Tracey, to various coun- tries such as Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania, the former Director of ILAM, Diane Thram, initiated the attempts at developing this ethical turn in archival practice. Since then her goal of repatriating the music has been adopted by numerous graduate students conducting research in Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. While the founder of ILAM, Hugh Tracey, may have been privileged in many ways he was at the vanguard of developing an awareness of the value of African music. The attempts at repatriating the music and reviving an interest in it should always gaze back at his pioneering work on African music. Much like Hugh Tracey’s efforts, this book is a collection of essays on the pioneering attempts made at returning the recordings of ILAM to where they originate in Zimbabwe, and to revitalise an interest in the recordings, the music, and the instruments. In pursuing the debates on the “colonial” through the “postcolonial”, the book is an incisive attempt at developing new ways in which the music archive of the twenty-first century in Africa may be imagined. Through its many associates ILAM is providing a lead- ing, ethical voice. This book is a fitting example of the critical role archives have in developing a postcolonial mandate. The postcolonial moment offers the archive many practical and epistemological challenges, of which many are described in this book. I am sure this book will provoke many thoughts, ideas, and new ways of developing the ethical turn in archival practice and inspire others to follow. Lee Watkins International Library of African Music AcknowledgementsRunning Head Left-hand: AcknowledgementsRunning Head Right-hand: Acknowledgements Many people have been involved in the completion of this book—mainly in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. Firstly, I would like to thank to the Unit of Zimbabwean Studies directed by Kirk Helliker (located at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa). I am grateful to Helliker for giv- ing me the opportunity to conduct the digital return project of ILAM’s record- ings to Zimbabwe as a postdoctoral fellow of the Unit during 2015–2016. At ILAM, I would like to thank Lee Watkins, Diane Thram, Andrew Tracey, Elijah Madiba, Liezl Visage, Elisabeth, Jason, and Bert Witkamp from the Choma museum. My special gratitude to the twenty-two Zimbabwean mbira artists that I was able to meet during the digital return project: Ammara Brown, Perminus Matiure, Hope Masike, David Gweshe, Victor Kunonga, Edgar Bera, Hector Rufano, Moses Masasi, Barnabas Nagalanda, George, Chaka Chawasarira, Benita Tarophiwa, Joyce, Jacob Mafuleni, Alexio Kawara, Almon Moyo, Solomon Madinga, Theresa Muteta, Zimba Shangwe, Prudence Katomene- Mbofana, Fungisai Zvakavapano, and Zensuasolo. I must thank all the Zimbabwean scholars that shared with me a mutual interest in the study of ILAM’s mbira recordings such as Barbara Mahamba, Bridget Chinouriri, Maurice Vambe, Innocent Mutero, Ruby Magosvongwe, Perminus Matiure, Sheasby Matiure, Rekopantswe Mate, Renias Ngara, San- dra Bhatasara, Manase Kudzai Chiweshe, Tafadzwa Chevo, Urther Rwafa, Vimbayinashi Chamisa, Farai Chabata, or Victoria Blessing Butete, among others. Special thanks to Edgar Bera for hosting me at the Mbira Republic during July–August 2016 and for the ongoing projects together. IntroductionIntroductionIntroduction From at least 1400 on, southern Africa’s indigenous political traditions devel- oped out of a wider connective process bringing people and ideas together over long distances, Venda, Shona, Sechuana, foreign. There was one big thing, not lots of little things, going on (Landau, 2010: 72) The first time I heard of the International Library of African Music (ILAM) was at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 2003. As a music undergraduate student, one of the graduate students would allow me to enter the “master’s
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