Chi: Gone too soon

I would be remiss to not write this piece for professional and personal reasons. I woke up last Friday to see the local newspaper banner ‘Chiwoniso dies’. I was just saddened by the passing away of one of the foremost singer/songwriters of our times here in Africa and beyond. I distinctly remember interviewing her together with her former cohort the late Andy Brown in the year 2001 when I was an arts correspondent for a local paper. It was after the release of Andy Brown and the Storm’s Zindoga single. So I was querying Andy about the lyrical content which was depicting a man going it alone. Chi as we called her, winked at Andy and smiled languidly and weighed in, saying it was just a song and that there is no one who can survive alone in this world. In those days, Chi seemed to subordinate her obvious talent to Andy’s fiery character. Andy was more of an axe man (guitarist) than Chi was more of a front woman. But in those years, she seemed content to let him shine. She loved the man and gave him two children Chengeto and Chiedza. When she hooked up with him, Andy had just returned from a sojourn in South Aftrica. It was in the aftermath of the demise of Zimbabwean super group Ilanga. There was a buzz around the Storm, his new outfit, which was riding on the wave of the Tichangoshaina hit single. I remember Mike Munyati interviewing him on ZTV. Chiwoniso was soon playing with Andy doing back up vocals and shakers alongside Mwendi Chibindi who later left to join Tuku’s band.
But Chi had been a teenage sensation in her teenage years as a high school student in the group Peace of Ebony alongside Herbert Schwamborn and Tony Chihota. They released the Native Tongue album which spawned the hits Pretend and From the native tongue with production by Keith Farquharson (now producer of South Africa’s Freshly Ground). The group had managed to capture the angst and zeitgeist of a generation of wannabe rappers and divas. I was one of those hopefuls willing them to success. Oh but they hardly needed it. They were just that good. The group was Bongomaffin before Bongomaffin ever saw the light of day. They were ahead of their time in the local market and maybe even for the world with their mbira fusion with hip hop. It was the stuff that pop music dreams are made of. Sadly the group disbanded.
Born on March 5, 1976 in Washington, Seattle, to musicologist Dr Dumisani Maraire and Linda Nemarundwe, Chiwoniso began playing mbira at age four. Her first studio recording was with her parents at age nine. From the age of eleven, she was performing with her father and siblings Tawona and Zivanai in the family group Mhuri yaMaraire and Mimhanzi III.
Chiwoniso was to outlive Peace of Ebony, Andy Brown and the Storm and become one of the most respected and accomplished singer/songwriters and mbira exponents of all time in Zimbabwe and quite possibly Africa. She started   her own band Vibe Culture. From 2001 to 2004 she was part of a multinational women’s band Women’s Voice alongside musicians from Israel, Tanzania, America, Algeria and Norway.
She was without a doubt an African princess and musical royalty whose collaborations with the late Andy Brown and the Storm were as potent as they were personally destructive. Andy Brown was the Ike Turner to Chiwoniso’s Tina Turner according to me. When Chi stepped out of his shadow riding on the success of her debut and produced Ancient Voices it was under, albeit stormy circumstances with rumours of violence and weed smoking circling around the celebrity couple. This was around 1997. The album Ancient Voices was one of stunning beauty, and it is possibly her swan song or magnum opus. The debut album went on to win the International Discovery Competition (Decouverte Afrique 98) award presented by R.F.I. (Radio France International) and the French Foreign Office. Andy Brown’s guitar and production sounds truly inspired as if to say, “babe, you need me”. Few could handle guitar like Andy Brown. Just listen to the album Ancient Voices to test my assertion. From a critic’s standpoint they did indeed need one another (musically) and at the same time were better off apart from each other.
At some point Andy’s politics got in the way even of his career and Chi was safe standing at a distance. Her album Rebel Woman was however laden with more strident socio-political commentary. Yes, Chiwoniso was to do other albums such as Timeless and Rebel Woman. But Ancient Voices is the one that got fans enamoured with her. I will also never forget her other works on soundtracks from the movie “Everyone’s Child” directed by Tsitsi Dangarembga.
Her plaintive crystal clear vocals and lyricism on the movie title track are of a hauntingly beautiful quality. Hope Masike and others can only follow in her musical footsteps. This week they will bury my home girl in Manicaland, but it is with a certain pride that she visited this world and touched lives.