Zimbabwe Musician Ambuya Stella Chiweshe Recalled By Spirit Mediums From Germany
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Zimbabwe Musician Ambuya Stella Chiweshe Recalled By Spirit Mediums From Germany

Ambuya Stella Chiweshe

Germany-based Zimbabwean gwenyambira (Mbira player) Ambuya Stella Chiweshe who is now nearing her twilight zone has heeded calls from vaDzimu to return to her roots where vaDzimu say another task awaits her.

Her first task was to go out and teach people how to return to their roots after they were brainwashed and made to lose their traditions by the Romans.

This does not refer to Zimbabweans only but to all countries that were colonized by the Romans including the British who also colonized Zimbabwe.

The 73-year-old international performer who has been in and out of Zimbabwe for the greater part of her music career told Gem Nation News that she was happy that she accomplished what she was tasked to do by the vaDzimu of Zimbabwe.

She has been in and out the country touring around the world for concerts in Australia, New Zealand, Mozambique, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, India, China, North Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Slovania, Czech Republic, Norway, England, France, Spain, Ireland, North America in every state, Canada, South Africa, Colombia, Italy, Congo Brazaville, South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania as well as attending to her family in Germany.

“I have done what I was tasked to do and it is now time to come back home and settle here as vaDzimu are saying. I have been asked to go to the countryside.

“As far back as 2003 I was invited to a Bira in Toronto, Canada and I was he only one from Africa. While there, we had a bonfire where everyone was asked to make a wish.

“The bonfire which burns until now is meant for people to like and respect each other. We were all asked to make a wish I don’t know that others wished for I could have wished something for myself but instead I wished for my people to return to their roots.

“And now I am happy that some people are becoming aware bit by bit to like their roots except those who are still following the teachings of the colonisers who taught us to abandon our traditions to make it easier for them to impose their rule on us,” Ambuya Chiweshe said.

Ambuya Chiweshe explained when further pressed about her returning home: “I registered a trust called Chivanhu Trust in 2011 and I want to build that centre in Masembura near Bindura. I am not going to do this for myself but for the eighth generation to come. So we are going to be using stone and not bricks to ensure that it stays for long. The good thing is that I don’t just do things from my own thinking I have vaDzimu who guide me and tell me what to do.”

“One of the key areas of the centre, she said, is to respect manners and gestures as well as to learn other cultures since we are now living amongst each other.

“It’s easy to offend someone if you don’t know their manners and gestures of where they come from, teach would be to allow keep Zimbabwean culture alive,” he said.

She said she was happy that people always consult her on how to go about our traditions.

“I am a gwenyambira and I also consult vaDzimu to guide me and I always call for people to return to their roots for solutions and guidance.

“VaDzimu always advise and guide us mostly when we are asleep which is what we were discouraged to recognize by the British,” she said.

The challenge, however, she said was to raise the funds for the centre.

“Most donors want to change the cause of your aims and objectives. So for now I would want to use my own resources which is not easy at all but I would appreciate it if there could be well-wishers to donate towards the cause. It could companies, it could be individuals or non-governmental organisations who will donate on our terms,” she said.

Germany-based Zimbabwean gwenyambira (Mbira player) Ambuya Stella Chiweshe who is now nearing her twilight zone has heeded calls from vaDzimu to return to her roots where vaDzimu say another task awaits her.

Her first task was to go out and teach people how to return to their roots after they were brainwashed and made to lose their traditions by the Romans.

This does not refer to Zimbabweans only but to all countries that were colonized by the Romans including the British who also colonized Zimbabwe.

The 73-year-old international performer who has been in and out of Zimbabwe for the greater part of her music career told Gem Nation News that she was happy that she accomplished what she was tasked to do by the vaDzimu of Zimbabwe.

She has been in and out the country touring around the world for concerts in Australia, New Zealand, Mozambique, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, India, China, North Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Slovania, Czech Republic, Norway, England, France, Spain, Ireland, North America in every state, Canada, South Africa, Colombia, Italy, Congo Brazaville, South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania as well as attending to her family in Germany.

“I have done what I was tasked to do and it is now time to come back home and settle here as vaDzimu are saying. I have been asked to go to the countryside.

“As far back as 2003 I was invited to a Bira in Toronto, Canada and I was he only one from Africa. While there, we had a bonfire where everyone was asked to make a wish.

“The bonfire which burns until now is meant for people to like and respect each other. We were all asked to make a wish I don’t know that others wished for I could have wished something for myself but instead I wished for my people to return to their roots.

“And now I am happy that some people are becoming aware bit by bit to like their roots except those who are still following the teachings of the colonisers who taught us to abandon our traditions to make it easier for them to impose their rule on us,” Ambuya Chiweshe said.

Ambuya Chiweshe explained when further pressed about her returning home: “I registered a trust called Chivanhu Trust in 2011 and I want to build that centre in Masembura near Bindura. I am not going to do this for myself but for the eighth generation to come. So we are going to be using stone and not bricks to ensure that it stays for long. The good thing is that I don’t just do things from my own thinking I have vaDzimu who guide me and tell me what to do.”

“One of the key areas of the centre, she said, is to respect manners and gestures as well as to learn other cultures since we are now living amongst each other.

“It’s easy to offend someone if you don’t know their manners and gestures of where they come from, teach would be to allow keep Zimbabwean culture alive,” he said.

She said she was happy that people always consult her on how to go about our traditions.

“I am a gwenyambira and I also consult vaDzimu to guide me and I always call for people to return to their roots for solutions and guidance.

“VaDzimu always advise and guide us mostly when we are asleep which is what we were discouraged to recognize by the British,” she said.

The challenge, however, she said was to raise the funds for the centre.

“Most donors want to change the cause of your aims and objectives. So for now I would want to use my own resources which is not easy at all but I would appreciate it if there could be well-wishers to donate towards the cause. It could companies, it could be individuals or non-governmental organisations who will donate on our terms,” she said.

Ambuya Stella Chiweshe

More About Stella:

Gwenyambira Ambuya Stella Chiweshe is in the country where she is among other things building Chivanhu Trust, a centre where she will teach and impart knowledge to people on our culture and roots.

The 73-year-old Ambuya Chiweshe spoke to Gem Nation News on some of the interesting facts about her career and life that most people don’t know. Read on:

  1. She is Frau Stella Reich which translates to Mrs Stella Reich in German. She doesn’t use Frau Stella Reich often because most people don’t know how to pronounce her surname. Her husband is Peter Reich and she is Achihera.
  2. She started playing mbira aged 16 after she was told that her heart problem would be cured only if she played mbira.
  3. She grew up in Mhondoro hearing the playing of drums loud enough to be heard by a person who was 10 meters away but when she didn’t know it was the sound of mbira and ngoma.
  4. Her first husband was Fredrick Mukwesha the footballer, with whom she had two daughters — Charity Mukwesha-Hughes and Virgnia Mukwesha-Hetze.
  5. Whenever she travels she recognizes the vaDzimu of that place “kuzvitura ndisina chandati ndaita” so she says in other words a courtesy call.
  6. Ambuya Chiweshe was given an Island in Orkeney Islands as a present after she was told she was the first Zimbabwean to set foot on the island.
  7. She uses her hands to when having sadza or any meal and very traditional in the way she carries herself.
  8. She says VaDzimu do not accept red apparels and she was told to tell people not to wear any red garments. One time she fell asleep while she wore a striped and Mbuya Nehanda appeared in her dreams.
  9. At one of the PLO solidarity concerts held in the Harare Gardens where the new Theatre in the Park is located, she was booed off stage. At that festival every artist would play 3 songs. As she took to the stage fans booed and verbally abused her because they didn’t understand mbira. “I wanted to cry but I didn’t because that would mean I was offended by the boos but no, I wanted to cry because of the impact that colonization had had on our people such that they had lost their roots. My first song was Nehondo and people kept glued to the stage and then I also played Huya Uzoona the crowd went ecstatic and I closed off the set with ChaChimurenga. By then the security had to move in to control the crowd that wanted to mob me and apologized for the insults. They went sorry! Sorry!” After the show she went back to Germany and upon her returns there were several mbira groups that emerged and she was happy with the development.
  10. ChaChimurenga was first recorded in 1975 then, it was just mbira and she did a remake in 1987 fusing it with guitars and marimba to try and lure the younger generation.
  11. Ambuya Stella Chiweshe makes time to play mbira by the sea or in the forests for the birds.

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