BY LIFE & STYLE CORRESPONDENT
Mbira maestro, David Gweshe — popularly known as Sekuru Gweshe — has died. He was 74.
Gweshe died on Sunday afternoon.
His first wife Tsitsi Kamupimbiri-Gweshe yesterday said mourners were gathered at 738A Dzivarasekwa 1, Harare.
” We have lost a unifier who worked with a lot of people.
”He has left a big gap in the family,” she said.
Music Crossroads Academy’s head of pedagogy, Emmanuel Mujuru, said the death of the mbira maestro was “a huge loss” to the music industry.
Mujuru said he worked with Gweshe while doing research for the book, Drum Cultures of Chiweshe, last year.
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“His death is a huge loss not only to us, but also to the music fraternity at large. He trained a lot of people in traditional dances and was one of the pioneers of the National Dance Company. All his children are active in this,” he said.
In a Facebook post, producer Mono Mukundu spoke glowingly about Gweshe and how he gleaned a lot of knowledge from their encounter at Mbira Centre in Newlands in 2016.
Gweshe was born in Chiweshe and was educated at Gweshe Primary School and Kutama College. As a teenager, he developed an interest in mbira and spent time on ritual ceremonies.
He then founded the dance troupe, Boterekwa, in 1977 and it toured the world, performing in Germany, Australia, Mexico, Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland, Malaysia and the United Kingdom.
Gweshe was involved with the National Dance Company of Zimbabwe together with the late Ephat Mujuru.
Gweshe was also commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture to teach mbira in some of the country’s tertiary institutions.
