Paths Are ManyTruth Is One
← Back to all artists
Artist profile

Musekiwa Chingodza

Shamanism · Mbira dzavadzimu

Zimbabwean mbira master, born in 1970 in Mwangara village, Murewa, into a family of mbira players. He plays the mbira dzavadzimu, the mbira of the ancestors, the instrument of the Shona bira: an ancestral tradition of its own in which the ancestors are called and spoken with through the night. He has played since he was five and is self-taught, learning by ear from the great gwenyambira.

ShamanismZimbabwe
View upcoming events →Watch talks
Visit site ↗
✓This profile is compiled from publicly available sources. Some details (video length, full event calendars) could not be independently confirmed and should be verified before relying on them. Know something about this teacher that belongs here? Please tell me.
About the artist

Musekiwa Chingodza

He sings, dances and plays hosho and drums alongside the mbira, and teaches at Prince Edward School in Harare.

He tours regularly in the United States, Japan and France.

“Our music is both medicine and food, as mbira has the power to heal and to provide for people. Mbira pleases both the living and the dead.”
Musekiwa Chingodza
Upcoming events

Meet Musekiwa Chingodza in person.

Talks, day programmes and retreats currently listed in the Paths Are Many calendar.

No upcoming events are currently listed.

Talks & videos

Watch before you attend.

Short introductions and longer conversations, to hear this artist in their own words.

No talks are published yet.

Path

The wider context.

⟡
Nature & ritual

Shamanism

Ritual, connection with nature and symbolic journeys within living traditions.

Explore the path →
Explore further

Related artists.

View all artists →
Portrait of Ulla Pirttijärvi
Shamanism

Ulla Pirttijärvi

Sámi singer and joiker, born in Inari in 1971 and from the village of Angeli in northern Finland. She began in the 1980s with Angelin tytöt and went her own way after the group's first album in 1992. She sings the joik, the Sámi vocal tradition in which a person, an animal or a place is not sung about but sung: the joik is held to carry the thing itself, and with it a bond to the land and to those who came before.

Portrait of Keali'i Reichel
Shamanism

Keali'i Reichel

Kumu hula, singer and composer from Maui, born in 1962, who carries the Hawaiian oli and the hula lineage he was trained in. Oli is chanted prayer, a way of speaking directly to the ancestors and to the spirit world, and he founded the hālau Ke'alaokamaile to teach it. On stage he sets that inheritance beside his own contemporary Hawaiian songs, sharing what is meant to be shared and keeping the rest where it belongs.

Portrait of Poranguí
The Path of Interconnectedness

Poranguí

Brazilian-born multi-instrumentalist based in Arizona who builds each performance alone and in real time with looping, layering world percussion, voice, didgeridoo and pre-Columbian flutes into music he offers as ceremony.

Portrait of Forward Kwenda
Shamanism

Forward Kwenda

Zimbabwean mbira player from Buhera, known for calling the ancestral spirits during mapira, the Shona ceremonies in which the ancestors are present. The Shona bira is an ancestral tradition of its own, and he describes his playing as not being his own doing.

Monthly selection

Stay connected with our newsletter.

Receive new talks, upcoming events and thoughtful editorial selections in one monthly email.