Zimbabwean Artist Hope Masike Revives the Traditional Mbira

The World

For the Global Hit Tuesday, we are featuring music from a young lady named Hope Masike.

Masike is a Zimbabwean artist whose gliding Afro-jazz makes use of her skills on the traditional African thumb piano, the mbira.

Masike says it hurts her to see the mbira being tied down to obsessions with tradition or colonial mentalities that label it as pagan or unchristian.

So, she has taken the mbira from traditional levels to higher levels by putting it into Jazz.

The track “Inyoni” from her album Mbira, Love, and Chocolate calls upon African women to rise to the highest highs of politics, business, whatever aspects of life.

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