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They are used as major instruments in many traditional Shona music genres, such as in mbira ensembles and in mhande. They typically contain hota ( Canna indica ) seeds inside them. [ 1 ] Before the hota seeds are added, the hosho is boiled in salted water and the inside is scraped out with a corncob, newspaper plug, or woven wire.
Mbira (/ ə m ˈ b ɪər ə / əm-BEER-ə) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe.They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and plucking the tines with the thumbs (at minimum), the right forefinger (most mbira), and sometimes the left forefinger.
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There is also pop music in Zimbabwe and around the world that incorporates Zimbabwean indigenous instruments. For example, mbira player Chris Berry with his band Panjea have reached platinum record sales in Zimbabwe and Mozambique , playing a style of music based on traditional mbira rhythms and melodies, but incorporating various other ...
Zimbabwe has 16 official languages, [3] with English, Shona, and Ndebele the most common. Zimbabwe is a member of the United Nations, the Southern African Development Community, the African Union, and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. The region was long inhabited by the San, and was settled by Bantu peoples around 2,000 years ago.
On March 9, 2008, Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, signed the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Bill into law. The bill was passed through parliament in September 2007 by President Mugabe's party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), in spite of resistance by the opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Chimurenga also refers to a style of music first branded by Thomas Mapfumo, who mixed indigenous African rhythmic patterns and instruments such as mbira (thumb piano), drums, gourd rattles with Western styles (electric guitar) in songs that achieved wide popularity among the protest movement against white minority rule.
[2] [3] Other elements to Zimbabwe dances include isolations, angularity (with the body bent at the waist), asymmetry, improvisation, a swinging quality, and movements outward from the hip. Dances are very self-reflective, evident in the improvisation and emotion expressed, and as with the music of Africa, participation is a key element.