Fare thee well Ambuya Stella - a eulogy from a fan

May be an image of 1 person — Ambuya Stella Chiweshe

David T. Hofisi

Mbuya Stella Chiweshe was, I believe, Zimbabwe's first female musical superstar. She successfully toured abroad whilst being a household name in Zimbabwe - paving the way for the likes of Chiwoniso Maraire and Hope Masike.

She is part of that rare breed of musician whose artistry was embedded in, and was an enactment of, African communal values. It was not just the quality of her music, but what it represented. With her long hair, colourful robes and traditional artefacts - she maintained the look of a spirit medium akin to the manner in which Salif Keita holds the gravitas of a village griot. Her connection to her music remained deeply spiritual:

"When preparing myself to go on stage, first of all, I refrain from talking. then I start to listen to sounds. The sound of the mbira for me represents water. It flows over the boundary of our thinking as human beings. As soon as I hold the mbira, my playing is taken into something I cannot control. I cannot stop, and I am thinking 'which song is this? Which song is this?' I am just playing and singing what I'm seeing in my vision at the time. It's not like an old song that you keep playing, like eating stale food. Everything is fresh. It's like I am being driven."

This is part of the dying breed whose works were not external to their routine life, but was so deeply embedded in it that it was an expression of that human essence. There were hardly any selfie moments - with each moment dedicated to the serious business of musicianship. Like Dambudzo Marechera, one cannot extricate her from her artistry.

I only managed to see her perform once, at a Tuku birthday doing a rendition of Dzandimomotera with the late Legend. We grew up listening to her ChaChimurenga and Huya Uzowona.....RIP Mbuya