All music is traditional music.

Words by Alex Gwaze (Curator)
Questions by Alex Gwaze and Zaza Muchemwa (Writer & Director)

From Burna Boy to Tyla to Wizkid, the world is obsessed with Africa’s next musical trend that will dominate the airwaves and social media like Amapiano and Afrobeats. This spotlight on Africa has inspired some Zimbabwean musicians to reconnect with their roots, specifically the legendary Queen of Mbira, Stella Chiweshe. Stella’s 1974 gold-selling single “Kasahwa”, released during colonial times, shattered racial and cultural boundaries and challenged gender norms, as the Mbira was considered a spiritual instrument reserved for men. Fast-forward to today, and the mbira’s influence echoes in the music of global superstars like Drake, Snoop Dogg, and Nas, with Google dedicating a doodle to the instrument. Yet, its distinctive sound had faded from popular local musicuntil artists like Hope Masike, Mary Anibal, and Sunni Chi revitalized it.

While Hope reigns as the “Princess of Mbira” and Mary is the “Mbira-bender” extraordinaire (fusing the instrument with diverse genres), Sunni Chi has adopted a more introspective approach, exploring decolonial themes with depth and nuance. Ironically, Sunni is the only one of the three not based in Zimbabwe. Born Tanaka Samantha Chikati, Sunni is currently studying music at Dartmouth College in the United States (she’s a two-time winner of the Dartmouth College Music Department’s Erich Kunzel award). She’s known for her soulful vocals and masterful use of instruments like the mbira, ngoma, marimba, and hosho, combined with modern instruments like the guitar.

Her recent immersive and energetic performances at Zimbabwe’s Mbira Festival, Princeton University, and her debut “Midzi” EP release have piqued the interest of traditional music lovers, who sense the time has come to reinvent the mbira for global audiences. But it’s her exploration of themes like identity, heritage, and self-discovery that has me curious about where she’ll take traditional music next.

AG: I heard you describe your sound as a “reflective soundscape”. Can you can unpack that for us, because when I hear “reflective” I think meditative and deeply thoughtful.

SC: Yes, I am a deep thinker and I want my music to be thought provoking. There are many layers to the music that make it a soundscape – you get lost in the music, and you want to keep listening to it because it is like an earworm – you find yourself humming the tune or singing along. This comes from the simple notes in the songs and chord progressions where you know what to expect and you can sing along easily. I would like people to hear my soundscape and have conversations about their identity, their totem. I grew up and some of my friends didn’t know their totems which I found sad.

AG: The mbira is a contemplative instrument, often associated with peace and healing. As a mbira player, what is about it’s sound that evokes these types of emotions?

SC: I think the texture of the mbira, that metal, and my thumb/nail plucking it, it sounds like water dripping in a cave, and water sounds are always therapeutic.

ZM: I love hearing the mbira in contemporary music, but I feel it’s still not been pushed into the mainstream because that “water in a cave” sound makes it feel like a sacred or traditional instrument.

SC: People often view traditional instruments and contemporary music as mutually exclusive. Mbira can definitely be pushed into the mainstream music there are so many ways we can play this instrument. I’ve played it in a jazz setting, in experimental music, and with a full band backing me up (violins, saxophones, flute, trumpet). It every situation the instrument was still traditional but the setting was contemporary. I think we just need people to be more daring and experimental, like Mono Mukundu was talking about in his article about how we need a Zim sound that is electronic, and our signature, and isn’t borrowed. And that will definitely come from experimentation, which I hope to do with my music in the near future.

AG: I am a big fan of experimentation, especially free jazz – the Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, Charles Mingus and what Miles Davis did in the “Bitches Brew” kind of stuff. You studying free jazz at Dartmouth right? How do you find it compared to the Afro-Jazz we Zim folk are used to?

SC: Sun Ra is out of this world, the music just reflects that, I can’t explain. Charles Mingus, we played “The Shoes of the Fisherman’s wife are some Jive Ass Slippers” and it was awesome! (laughs) You know, for the first two years of my Coast Jazz experience I was very confused, unsure, hesitant, I would shy away because I had no idea what was going on with free jazz. The freedom in sound is crazy, and I was not sure what to do with that freedom. Our Zim-Jazz/Afro-Jazz is kinda structured, makes people dance, is not quite abstract. But here, sounds are meant to be visceral experiences, they are constantly experimenting, re-imagining, re-inventing, and I did not know how to get in that space. But after making the EP, I feel I have an idea of what my original views on music were, and that opened up space in me to learn this new style and really get into it and appreciate it, because I wasn’t holding onto my views and traditions, but I have to push beyond that.

AG: When you were working on the “Midzi” EP, you left the American producers, musicians etc, to work with the very talented local producer Rayo Beats. Why?

SC: (laughs) That’s a great question! In America (and probably many places but I’ll talk about my American experience), when people are trying to get to know you they ask what music you listen to. And when you are an international student, you are often asked what music from back home sounds like. So, I wanted this EP (my first EP) to be my answer to that question. It sounds like this mbira, guitar, ngoma, Shona lyrics, harmonies made in Zimbabwe by Zimbabweans.

ZM: The first track of your EP (and your band name) “Hanga naBonga”, is a reference to your parents totems? How important do you think such traditions as totems and rural homesteads are in today’s society?

SC: Yes, ndiri muera Hanga (laughs). Our totems are so beautiful, they keep us connected to our ancestors, and to people who share our totems. It is a way of building community. If you know that the person you are talking to is the same totem as your grandmother then you will treat them as you do your grandmother (at least that’s what my parents taught me). They are people who lived in the rural areas, and moved to the city, they kept those ties and that’s so important because I know where I come from. In America many African-American people’s ties were broken and some people spend their whole lives trying to piece together who they are and where they come from. We are so blessed when we have all the puzzle pieces we need.

AG: Talking about treating people like family, I love how you used your old high school teacher Richard ‘Uncle Richie” Matimba in your band. As well as allowing Melanie (a Dominican Covent student) to perform at your EP launch. And how you shared the stage with fellow ‘Gwenyambira’ Mary Anibal, and the Classic263 radio presenter Nicole Jamu (#selfless).

SC: Aww thank you so much! I honestly believe we can’t go anywhere unless we work together to build each other up. I would not have been half the artist I am today if people like Mpiwa Gwindi didn’t ask to perform with me when we were at ALA, or when the amazing Dr. Tanyaradzwa asked me to join her on a stage at Princeton University. Moments like those for me gave me so much confidence in my craft, in the work I do, and in myself. At Convent we used to sing a song called “I am standing on the shoulders of the ones we came before me”. Hhow else will we learn from those who came before us if we don’t work together? There’s also a big capitalist thing of competition, but at the heart of our culture is collaboration, “Mushandirapamwe”. I love embracing that, there is more than enough room for all of us at the table.

ZM: You were in the marimba band at Dominican Convent? Do you think the marimba has the potential to create popular music in the future like the log drum in Amapiano?

SC: Marimba definitely has a future in popular music! I play marimba in a jazz band, and it is an instrument that brings a nice flavour to the music. Marimbas are also found in different countries like Mali, and in South American countries, (it is the national instrument of Guatemala). With this instrument being a common element across these countries and cultures, it definitely will carry a mainstream genre in the future.

ZM: You play several instruments from the mbira, to the guitar, piano, drums, xylophone, glockenspiel, and vibraphone. Which instrument do you often write your songs to?

SC: On the one instrument you didn’t mention, my voice. I am a singer, I have been one since I was 9. I start my writing process from humming melodies, singing some phrases over and over, or sometimes I just get a ‘stream of consciousness’ like when I’m about to sleep, or really happy, or in a very relaxed state, I just start singing. And then we move to the instrument to find out which chords match my voice. That’s how I wrote “Unonzani”. I just started singing, recorded myself on my phone, and then grabbed the mbira right after singing for 4 minutes, and matched the chords to what I had just sung.

AG: Your lyrics often explore loneliness and being homesick. So we would like to know, do you have a special someone in the USA? Can we expect love songs from you in the near future?

SC: (laughs) My special someone is actually sadly in Zimbabwe, so definitely expect some “crying over long distance” songs (laughs). What I can tell you though is he is such an amazing person and he plays ngoma on one of my songs. If you are really curious you’ll find out his name (laughs).

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Follow Sunni Chi @sunni_chi