MBAVAIRA by EPHAT MUJURU & THE SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE

Reissue of the second of two all-accoustic albums that Ephat Mujuru and his band Spirit of the People released . From 1983, this album was recorded in the dawn of an independent Zimbabwe, a time in which African music culture—long stigmatized by Rhodesian educators and religious authorities—experienced a thrilling renaissance. Using only mbira (a thumb piano), hand drums, hosho and singers, Ephat sang of brotherhood, healing, and unity: crucial themes during a time when the nation’s two dominant ethnic groups, the Shona and the Ndebele, were struggling to reconcile differences.