User talk:Mushawasha

Esdo Munetsi Chidziva
Esdo Munetsi Chidziva who started playing mbira from age of six and continued to play mbira for over 50 years, it was said by a lot of the elder 'Mhondoro' in zimbabwe that he truely had unique mbira playing ability and there was no living individual that was able to do what he could with that instrument. Passed away 22 November 2008. On this channel, you will find and hear him talk about some of the more famous mbira tracks and share knowledge and skills.

Esdo Munetsi Chidziva was born in Zimbabwe in the area of Chihota, He was raised there by his mother. His father had flown abroad to a trip in Malawi and passed away there. There are no further records of His father Pasihapaori Chidziva apart from he was a wealthy farm owner in 1930s Rhodesia who used to drive his for ford car always carying a kettle of whisky and was dubbed by the nickname chiketero.

Esdo was a bit of a loner a child, he would leave home for days from the age of 7 and go hunting with his two dogs while carrying his mbira instrument. He would spend his time in caves, teaching himself what was to him, this fascinating instrument.

At the age of 7 he found himself at a traditional ceremony (bira)with his mother and other relatives, This was a ceremony where the greatest mbira players (Ma Gwenyambira) would gather and play the instruments in symphony all day and all night for 3 days, so as to summon and call out the great spirit Kuhuruva( which is the spirit which used to possess nehanda, a lot of people genericly mistakenly still call Kahuruva by the name of his vessle nehanda) It is said that only after three days and three nights of playing, Kahuruva would make an appearence by possessing his medium.

On this evening at approximately 3am on the first day, the mbira players took a break, it was during this break and left their mbira on the floor. Esdo made his was a picked up one of these instruments and started to play. Dangurangu it was he started to play. He started playing the smallest piece which is called kushaura, then he started kudaira and Kutsinhira and Bass all at the same time. Within seconds of him playing, a silence broke about the play. The mesmic beauty captured everybodies attention and all that could be heard was the cry of dangurangu echoing into the semi dakness. Within minutes one by one, all mediums that were there began to get possessed by their spirits who all came in tears. the current nehanda, broke the said 3 day rule and immediately made an appearance, as he too had been ensnared by that particular calling of dangurangu. In tears Kahuruva said that never before had he heard something like that and on that day proclaimed that he was going to give Esdo and his family a gift of land. Not long after that night, esdo and his family were allocated their land which was gifted to them and in no time, dwellings were built and it was home.

This was the beginning. Word went round quickly of the boy who summoned nehanda within minutes and made the times rather interesting. All was well, whispers and rumours were carried about how this boy himself was medium and shall be medium to one of the oldest spirits of the country.

Less than 6 months after the Dangurangu night, while playing in the village centre with friends on a typical hot summer sunny day, A powerful whirlwind came from nowhere and started to circle where the kids played, in a town where not much happened, this generally got the attention of many curious eyes as the whirlwind seemed to take increase in power and size, Within seconds, It engulfed the section the kids were playing and it began to grow more narrow concerntrating on where Esdo was standing, At that moment a small white bird flew from the eye of this whirlwind to land on esdos head, a moment later, the wind stopped, the bird had vanished and that was it, It was arrival of a great spirit. One who was to be later known as Shirichena, The Gombwe. The living spirit. Mushawasha (talk) 21:32, 25 November 2008 (UTC)MuZukuru Wa Sekuru