THE youngest mbira recording artiste in Zimbabwe, 13-year-old Tendai Mavengeni, will tomorrow launch her debut album titled Destiny at the Book Café.
Tinashe Sibanda Entertainment Reporter
The six-track “traditional jazz” album is influenced by a broad spectrum of traditional mbira and other music styles she has encountered in her young life, and lyrics include social concerns about the plight of children and how moral decay impacts negatively on children, especially girl children.
The album is made up of songs like Tununurei, Spirit of My Destiny, Wakaronga, Pfuma, Africa, and a bonus instrumental track.
“The first time I played for the public at Sistaz Open Mic, I felt great, although nervous. Since then I performed often and my nerves went away as I was getting used to stagework,” said Mavengeni.
She said she had received a lot of encouragement from other sisters to keep working hard, and had worked hard for about a year with a backing band to get to this recording stage thus she was glad to have finally reached this far.
Along with appearances at Book Café, Mavengeni has performed at the 2012 Protest Arts Festival, UZ World Theatre Day, Women Arts Festival, Zimpapers (Kwayedza) Poetry Awards, Zimbabwe International Book Fair, Mbira Schools Festival and the Mbare Boys’ Scouts Festival.
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Today she is one of the finest young female nhare mbira players in the country who has drawn her inspiration from famous Zimbabwean women mbira players like Ambuya Stella Chiweshe and the late Chiwoniso Maraire and Claire Nyakujara, to mention a few.
Since 2012 the young artiste has been a regular participant of Pamberi Trust’s Sistaz Open Mic platform, which has significantly helped her by offering workshops and stage performances which have been of paramount importance in shaping her career.
“Tendai is doing great. She still has a lot to learn and go through, in terms of music, so this album launch is the start not the end. We still have a long walk. But she has been so easy to work with,’ said Nyakujara, who has been one of her mentors.
She added that her lyrical content, brain and thinking capacity is greater than her age.
Nyakujara said she encouraged her to keep looking forward, to grow, and believe in herself.
“My first goal was to make more songs of my own then to grow and record, and my next goal is to grow in the music industry and travel around the world because I think I’ve got something to share, and want my music to be listened to the world over,” said Mavengeni.
Her supportive father, Boniface Mavengeni accompanies her to every show since identifying that his daughter was “intelligent and very musical” from an early age.
Her father said he had also been encouraged by her teacher’s comments after her first lesson, realising that he had even once run away from mbira as a child because his fingers were sore. Thus he was very moved by Tendai asking for a second lesson.
“I would never stop her from entering the music industry, after all I have always admired Dorothy Masuka, Miriam Makeba and other local women artistes, especially those who play instruments, whom I feel have moved up a notch,” her father added.
He said in his family members played music in church, and his grandfather Mavengeni was a mbira player too, thus it was encouraging to find it in his own family in this generation.
He added that he did not see anything bad about girls going on stage, if it is God-given, no one could take it away although where there is success one must learn to keep their cool and he would always instil in her the need for professionalism.
Born in December 2000 in the capital, Tendai is a Form One pupil with a passion for music — particularly traditional music — which she grew up listening to. She started performing at pre-school, at primary school her passion led her to start playing mbira at the very young age of 9, taught and mentored by respected mbira players Trymore “Guchi” Jombo and Brezhnev Guveya.
She went on to win a number of awards and medals at primary school level. “I am grateful for my parents’ support, my father has been with me since I started and my mum also encourages me every day to keep working hard and she is happy that I’ve finished recording so I know that I’m lucky and so I am thankful.”
