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The Zimbabwean Music Festival was held in Canada for the first time, May 16 to 18, 1997, on the campus of the University of Victoria. Dumisani Maraire, the man who brought Zimbabwean music to North America nearly thirty years ago, was our honoured special guest! Guest Zimbabweans Sydney Maratu, Benita Tarupiwa, Bajabulile Zikalala-Ndlovu, and Black Umfolosi also taught and performed.

The Festival Village was set up in and around the Student Union Building, where workshops, concerts and accommodations were all within easy walking distance. Everyone shared in a real community with ethnic foods, an outdoor Village Market, morning Village Meetings, and music throughout.

Concerts showcased more than 30 acts ranging across the spectrum of Zimbabwean music, from the deeply traditional to the jumping electric guitar driven dance grooves of more recent years. On Saturday there was a Pungwe-style jamboree with music from noon to midnight, right in the heart of our festival village. On Sunday evening, the Zimbabwean a cappella vocal and dance ensemble Black Umfolosi took to the stage.

Workshops at all levels of experience offered hands-on instruction in marimba, mbira, dance, drumming, singing, hosho, chipendani, instrument building and other topics. Approximately 300 people participated in 60 workshops.

See also:
1997 Festival Program, for complete details.
Photos of the 1997 Festival (365K).

1997 Guest Zimbabweans

Dumisani "Dumi" Maraire

Almost 30 years ago Dumisani Maraire brought a musical seed from Zimbabwe and planted it in the Pacific Northwest, where it germinated and grew to unforeseeable proportions. Dumisani taught and performed Shona marimba music, nyunga nyunga mbira, singing, drumming, and dance in Seattle from 1968 to 1982 and from 1986 to 1990. His presence and activities have attracted numerous fans and students to Shona music; he is the founder of the ever-increasing community of North Americans playing Zimbabwean music in the Western US and Canada.
      (Abraham) Dumisani Maraire was the first Zimbabwean musician to bring his music to North America. In 1968, the Ethnomusicology Division of the University of Washington hired the talented young Maraire as a Visiting Artist. Dumi taught at the UW for 5 years, and continued to reside in Seattle until 1982, teaching hundreds of people to play Zimbabwean music. Dumi's marimba ensembles became renowned throughout much of the Northwest, performing at fairs and festivals, in schools and clubs, and releasing several albums.
      Dumi arranged dozens of traditional Zimbabwean pieces for marimba ensemble and for the nyunga nyunga mbira, and composed many more. In the process, he created an exciting and infectious style of marimba music, a style both distinctive and assertively Shona. It's hard to sit still when Dumi is playing.
      In 1990, Maraire earned his Doctorate from the UW School of Music and returned home to teach at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare. Dumi's legacy lives on in the Pacific Northwest and continues to spread throughout North America as Dumi's students and students of his students perform and teach music of Zimbabwe.
      We were thrilled to bring Dr. Dumisani Maraire from Zimbabwe as our special guest, to teach and perform at the Festival, and to experience the effects of his work in full bloom!

Sydney Maratu

Sydney was born and grew up in Harare, Zimbabwe, surrounded by the music of mbira, marimba, drums, guitars and hosho. Sydney played mbira with Ephat Mujuru, Sekuru Gora, Mondrek Muchena, Mude Mhuri YekwaRwizi, Rising Power, and with his family band The Maratu Brothers. His own band, Mambakwedza, recorded and traveled to Mozambique, Angola, Zambia, and London. Sydney taught part-time at the Zimbabwe College of Music in Harare with Ephat for 5 years. The school of Ethnomusicology was subsequently formed from this College. For the 6 months leading up to the Festival, Sydney was living and teaching with Neck of the Woods Marimba Ensemble in Nelson, B.C., and survived the deepest snow fall in the town's recorded history! Well done, Sydney!!

Benita Tarupiwa

Benita was born in 1971 in Mhondoro, Zimbabwe, and now lives in Harare. She started playing mbira when she was four years old, and when she was about six years old she knew that she was an mbira player. The first mbira that Benita played on was her great uncle's, and as he died before Benita was born, she has only known him through his mbira. As a young girl Benita would play at Shona ceremonies, then in 1987 she was hired to play for an old people's group where her talents were very much recognized. This experience then led to a series of competitions, firstly in the Murambwa district, then in the Ngezi secondary school, on to a stadium in Kadoma and a stadium in Kariba. She finished 1st place in each one of these competitions. Benita then joined a group called Vanhu Vamwe, whom she played with until the end of 1989. At this time Benita took time off from performing and focused on her school work, until 1991 when she joined a group called Vanganga. She played with this group until the middle of 1992 when she left and began playing with Sekuru Gora. Benita played with Sekuru until 1994 when she began to play with Beauler Dyoko. For one year Benita left playing with Beauler to perform with Mazama Movement. In 1996, Benita returned to playing with Beauler and toured with her to Mozambique and Holland. On returning to Zimbabwe Benita started her own group called Negombwe Mbira Group. In January, 1997, she went to Switzerland by herself and ended up doing a solo recording which resulted in the release of her first CD titled Ndotamba Ndega. It was not Benita's ambition to record without her band, but at that time the recording opportunity came up and she was not able to fly her band over from Zimbabwe to Switzerland. The 1997 Zimbabwean Music Festival was Benita's first time in Canada.

Bajabulile Zikalala-Ndlovu

Born in South Africa, exiled to Swaziland with her family in the early sixties, Bajabulile Zikalala-Ndlovu developed an early passion for dance, and had the honour of dancing for the king at the sensational annual Swazi reed dance. She lived with her family in Libya and West Germany before moving to Switzerland for four years, then returned to Germany to join Sounds of Soweto, a splinter group from Ipi Ntombi, the South African musical which toured the world in the late seventies and early eighties. Sounds of Soweto toured extensively, performing in places such as Las Vegas, Broadway and London's West End. After an intensive auditioning session in 1985, Jabu won a role in Ipi Ntombi's special tour of West Africa, where she was able to study West African dance first hand.
      She followed that up with work in the German film industry, acting and doing soundtracks; a stint as a DJ for Hamburg's OK Radio, and workshops across Europe on Southern African singing and dance. During this period Jabu composed two songs that became hits in Zimbabwe: "Meet me in Zimbabwe" and " Will you miss me (Imi munosara nani?)"
      Bajabulile returned to Zimbabwe in 1990, where she has recently initiated "Women in Arts," a pressure group lobbying for support for gender awareness in the arts. She has also set up Giga Media Inc., a media consultancy, artists agency and management group focusing on women in the arts. Jabu continues to conduct workshops on traditional and modern dance in the region, as well as working as a choreographer and designer of traditional stage attire.

Black Umfolosi

Black Umfolosi is an eight man group that performs a powerful mix of traditional Zulu war dances and jaunting "imbube" songs from Southern Africa. The group is renown for their versatility, athleticism, harmony and the sheer energy that goes into a performance. The traditional war dances are dazzling - shields, spears and stamping feet all fly to the insistent rhythms of drums and chants. The contrast between the energetic frenzy of the dances and the serene beauty of their a cappella are truly wonderful. Since coming into international acclaim with their album "Unity" in 1990, Black Umfolosi has been on a sell-out world tour.
      The idea for Black Umfolosi came when a group of boys at the George Silundika School near Bulawayo decided to put on a show of traditional songs and dancing. The name of the group comes from a river, one of two which flow through the Kwazulu region of South Africa, the White and Black Umfolosi. Based in Bulawayo, the capital of the Ndebele-speaking region of Zimbabwe, Black Umfolosi's repertoire is based on the Ndebele tradition that uses song as a kind of newspaper; for reporting and commenting on contemporary events. This tradition carries into the community work that Black Umfolosi began back in 1990, and continues today with a 900 member choir that meets weekly and sings traditional music. Members also act out plays, perform comedy routines, write and perform poetry and design clothes. Black Umfolosi is now working to establish a cultural center in Bulawayo for the teaching of administration and technical skills to young performing artists and to further research into African music, dance, theater and poetry.

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