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Bira Ceremony
Bira is an all-night ritual, celebrated by Shona people from Zimbabwe in which members of an extended family call on ancestral spirits for guidance and intercession. Shona people believe that the only ones who can communicate with both the living and God are the ancestral spirits, or ''dzavadzimu''. These spirits are summoned during the Bira ceremonies through the use of music and ritual dance. Bira ceremonies are also held to welcome back the spirit of an ancestor into the home where a family member is a svikiro who is occasionally possessed by one or more ancestors. The attendees at a ceremony participate in singing, dancing and hand clapping. The two mbira players are joined by a player on a pair of gourd shakers ( hosho), which emphasize the underlying triplet beat. The mbira Mbira ( ; ) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal Tine (structur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shona People
The Shona people () also/formerly known as the Karanga are a Bantu peoples, Bantu ethnic group native to Southern Africa, primarily living in Zimbabwe where they form the majority of the population, as well as Mozambique, South Africa, and worldwide diaspora. There are five major Shona language/dialect clusters: Manyika, Karanga, Zezuru, Korekore, Kalanga, and Ndau. Classification The Shona people are grouped according to the dialect of the language they speak. Their estimated population is 22.6 million: * Korekore people, Korekore (northern region of Zimbabwe) * Zezuru people, Zezuru (central Zimbabwe) * Manyika tribe, Manyika (eastern Zimbabwe around Mutare, Buhera, Nyanga, Zimbabwe, Nyanga and into Mozambique) * Ndau people, Ndau (southeast Zimbabwe around Mutare, Chimanimani, Chipinge and into Mozambique) * Karanga people, Karanga (south-central Zimbabwe around Masvingo) * Kalanga people, Kalanga (southwest Zimbabwe, interspersed with the Northern Ndebele people, Ndebele ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zimbabwe
file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia to the north, and Mozambique to the east. The capital and largest city is Harare, and the second largest is Bulawayo. A country of roughly 16.6 million people as per 2024 census, Zimbabwe's largest ethnic group are the Shona people, Shona, who make up 80% of the population, followed by the Northern Ndebele people, Northern Ndebele and other #Demographics, smaller minorities. Zimbabwe has 16 official languages, with English, Shona language, Shona, and Northern Ndebele language, Ndebele the most common. Zimbabwe is a member of the United Nations, the Southern African Development Community, the African Union, and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. The region was long inhabited by the San people, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mbira
Mbira ( ; ) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal Tine (structural), tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and plucking the tines with the thumbs (at minimum), the right Index finger, forefinger (most mbira), and sometimes the left Index finger, forefinger. Musicology, Musicologists classify it as a lamellaphone, part of the plucked idiophone family of musical instruments. In Eastern and Southern Africa, there are many kinds of mbira, often accompanied by the hosho (instrument), hosho, a percussion instrument. It is often an important instrument played at religious ceremonies, weddings, and other social gatherings. The "Art of crafting and playing Mbira/Sansi, the finger-plucking traditional musical instrument in Malawi and Zimbabwe" was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists#Representative list of the Intangible Cu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hosho (instrument)
The hosho are Zimbabwean musical instruments consisting of a pair of maranka (mapudzi) gourds with seeds. They are used as major instruments in many traditional Shona music genres, such as in ''mbira'' ensembles and in ''mhande''. They typically contain hota (''Canna indica'') seeds inside them. Before the hota seeds are added, the hosho is boiled in salted water and the inside is scraped out with a corncob, newspaper plug, or woven wire. Removing the debris inside the hosho allows for a more sharp and percussive tone. The hosho are used to accompany Shona music, especially mbira music. Hosho plays several key roles in Zimbabwean music. Oliver Mtukudzi insists that it’s what keeps musicians on the same page. Hosho doesn't add thickness to mbira performance all due to its dense sound quality. It is also a good start in learning Mbira. This is because it helps beginners to observe patterns and learn from mbira masters by looking over their shoulders. Moreover, hosho has acted as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
