Besides Patience and Jenny Muchumi, I have now met a woman mbira player, Nyarai. I had the pleasure of playing mbira with her for 30 minutes or so before she was called to help with tea.
Today I am remembering the trip to Fradreck’s village. We arrived after 9 sometime. We had sadza,beans, and canned tuna for dinner and arrived at bedtime at 11:00.
I slept on a mat in the kitchen storage area. I thought surely I would never sleep but I slept until 5:30 then got up to visit the outdoor potty. Difficult in the long skirt.
We went to the area where they held biras. Fradreck’s grandfather was a mhondoro spirit medium. He was executed by the freedom fighters. I had always thought that he was executed by the Rhodesian Government for wanting peace. He was executed because the mhondoro spirit wanted white and black people to walk side by side with equal power not one side over the other.
We stood by the spot where Fradreck watched his grandfather forge nails into mbira keys. Part of his history as an mbira maker.
Lovely kitchen with nice metal rack over the fire for cooking.
We had tea and started back in Fradreck’s car for Harare. They stopped a couple of times at road side stands for produce. We also stopped for Fradreck to point out the mubvamaropa tree that is used for making the mbira.
Erica is starting a reseeding project. The trees won’t mature for 50 years. This is for our grandchildren. Fradreck is part of the project.
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One reply on “Trip to Fradreck’s village.”
Just read all your posts…so nice to see it all from your eyes. I had almost given up checking your blog, and then this morning I get the thrill of reading all of these posts. So interesting! Thanks!