User:Smartisan333

Tute Chigamba

Early Life/Background
Tute Wincil Chigamba was born on 1/3/1939 into a family that is known for musicianship, spirit mediums, and healers. His father is a master drummer and dancer in Zimbabwe. While his father was working on the commercial farm in the early 1940s, he has been learning the six key Zambian Karimba with his teacher Kachonda. Tute Chigamba did attend school, but only up to fifth grade, because of the lack of education access under the colonial control in his country. In the late 1950s, he has entered marriage and worked on tobacco farms. In the 1960s, he has actually decided to move into Congo, because he was really interested in learning about the rhumba-influenced guitar music that has been extremely popular across southern Africa at that time period, that didn’t happen for him because his cousin has found him a job, to work in the wholesale shop, to prevent him from leaving the country. After he left the wholesale shop job, he has discovered how to make the mbira instrument by himself, because he dismantled his mbira to fix a broken key, but he was able to put the different parts together, and that has inspired him to create his own mbira instruments and has become renowned mbira maker.

Tute Chigamba was exposed to the culture and music of mbira throughout his childhood, however, it was not until 1965, after seeing and hearing the mbira music performance, he became fascinated and interested in mbira music. In 1968, he purchased his own mbira instrument, and was not good at playing it, so his teacher Mhembere offer to teach him each song for a cost of 25 cents, due to the high cost, Chigamba decided to teach himself, the first three songs that he learned was Chipindura, Nhema musas, and Kuzanga. After he was versed in playing mbira, he has performed in many ceremonies along with his wife that has contributed Hosho and vocal playing to his mbira performance. His daughter, Irene Chigamba under the influence of him, has mastered mbira, hosho, and singing. Now, She is having performances and classes all over the world. However, his daughter was not his only student, he has taught his sons, and his grandchildren, and many other students that came from different parts of the world. After helping Zimbabwe gaining independence, he has been living in the northeastern region of Mount Darwin.

Musical Life
Sekuru Tute Chigamba is a renowned Zimbabwean mbira, composer, and instrument maker. He has toured across Europe, Asia, and North America, and become a role model and inspiration for other musicians, students, and scholars alike. After going to a bira ceremony in 1965, Sekuru Chigamba was so moved by the mbira that he started going to listen every weekend. He then began teaching himself Mbira dzavadzimu, otherwise known as mbira of the ancestral spirits, which subsequently became Sekuru’s primary instrument. Due to his father’s role as an interpreter for a senior clan spirit (mhondoro), Sekuru Chigamba was surrounded by ritual music and gatherings as a child, influencing his focus on ritual music. In 1979 Sekuru began making mbiras. After several years of struggling through feeling as though his work of making mbiras was not valuable, Sekuru became able to provide for his family by selling these handcrafted instruments for thirty US dollars. In addition to making mbiras, in the late 1970s Sekuru Chigamba also began composing songs for the mbira. Chigamba typically gains inspiration for his songs while he works; the sounds of the pounding metal from making mbiras turning into music in his head. He then translates this music from in his head to a whistle, and then continues by plucking it out on the mbira. Tute Chigamba has performed his original songs at bira ceremonies as well as on tours. To learn more and hear first hand accounts of Sekuru Tute Chigamba’s journey, check out Sekuru’s Stories, the public digital humanities project detailing stories of Tute Chigamba’s life.