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What started as an unplanned trip to Freight & Salvage in Berkeley for Māhealani Uchiyama turned into a life-changing musical journey, which she details in her new book The Mbira: An Africa Musical Tradition.  

It was the winter of 2001. Uchiyama had already won international recognition as a choreographer, dancer, musician and teacher. She was deeply immersed in hula dance, which was taught by the West Berkeley Uchiyama International Dance Center. One of many traditions in 1993. But all her experience dealing with music from all over the world did not prepare her to be attracted by the interlocking mode played by Forward Kwenda and Erica Azim on mbira.

She recalled that mbira was a traditional musical instrument consisting of a wooden soundboard with hammered metal keys, which provided a gateway to the spiritual level, where Uchiyama began to "have visions, travel, and visit deceased relatives." ". "I got lost in their music in unexpected ways. It was a very powerful personal experience. I signed up for the class the next day."

For the past two decades, Uchiyama has been studying the sacred traditions of the Shona people with Azim and a series of Zimbabwe masters. (Full disclosure: Uchiyama and I serve on the board of MBIRA, Azim's non-profit organization, which supports traditional Shona musicians and instrument manufacturers in Zimbabwe). 

The Mbira: An Africa Musical Tradition introduces the history and practice of mbira and its central role as a tool for healing and spiritual communication in Shona culture.

With reference to musical traditions and wooden instruments with hammered metal keys, mbira can be played solo or duet, usually accompanied by singing, clapping, dancing and percussion. Although Uchiyama's book was written for ordinary readers, it is also part of her ongoing efforts to introduce mbira to African-American readers. Attracted more than a dozen black students through the weekly online courses provided by the dance center. 

Most slavery American descendants trace their African ancestry back to West Africa, at least 2,000 miles from Zimbabwe, but Uchiyama believes that regardless of its geographic origin on the African continent, it is valuable to participate in African heritage traditions. 

"Although there is no direct and obvious ancestral connection with Southern Africa, there is still a feeling that we have been divided into our heritage, deliberately preventing and humiliating the pursuit of any knowledge that can enrich us and empower us," she said.

A grant from the California Traditional Arts Alliance allowed Uchiyama to purchase a new mbira made by Shona musician and instrument manufacturer Salani Wamkanganise, who recently moved from Harare, Zimbabwe, to Richmond. Every student in the Uchiyama mbira class has a Wamkanganise musical instrument at home.

Wamkanganise has a deep connection with mbira. He is a sickly child and he became fascinated by mbira after he said that the healing ceremony ended his stubborn illness. Over the years, he has performed extensively in Zimbabwe, where he found another career as a musical instrument manufacturer. Like many mbira musicians, he has always been curious that most North Americans who go to Zimbabwe to study mbira are white. Now that he is married to an American and lives in the East Bay, he is eager to work with Uchiyama to teach mbira to all those who are sincerely interested.

"Our traditional music is more community-based, and it involves everyone," he said. "Back home, I don’t know about racism. I only see humans. I see the soul. I just want to teach anyone who wants to learn. I don’t look at the colors or how rich you are. If your soul is open, Full of love, you can accept music."

As an African-American woman who has found her main creative path in the Hawaiian hula tradition, Uchiyama is proficient in learning a sacred art form through relationships with native practitioners. Since 2018, as the co-artist of the San Francisco National Dance Festival, she has been enhancing the binding force of dance traditions around the world in the Bay Area. 

She said that she did not intend to teach mbira by herself, but as the only black person in the mbira environment, she often felt isolated. A series of experiences allowed her to see that the main white followers of mbira in North America have created a dynamic that often minimizes the participation of African Americans. 

She released her first mbira album Ndoro dze Madzinza in 2010, "It's not that I'm really great, but I need to do it, but because there aren't enough black Americans making this kind of music," she said . "I want to make this statement: We are here."

For various reasons, the Pacific Northwest has been the research center of mbira since the late 1960s (when Zimbabwe was ruled by a minority of white governments and was called Rhodesia). Since Shona musicologist Abraham Dumisani Maraire landed in Seattle and taught at the University of Washington (and later Evergreen State College), the area has hosted an important mbira event, including the annual ZimFest since 1991. The relatively small black population in the Pacific Northwest is reflected in the demographic data of the event.

Uchiyama participated in her first Zimfest in 2003, and she was disappointed that some teachers were not good enough. "It's not that they are not Shona or African, but that they are not doing well," she said. "I worked for a dance company in the Caribbean/Africa for many years. I could have taught that course. The next year, I submitted an application to teach, but it was rejected."

Her first visit to Zimbabwe in 2007 consolidated her ties with master musicians such as Caution Shonha and Patience Chaitezvi Munjeri, the latter a rare female mbira practitioner who wrote the foreword for her new book. Uchiyama had visited Africa before and spent some time in Senegal, but during her stay in Zimbabwe, she felt that “the spirit of the ancestors was very close, playing music with the people there, eating freshly prepared food, breathing air, and slowing down. The sunset became a thing."

As one of only two people of African descent on this trip, her views have had an impact. A few months after returning home, Uchiyama received an email from Patience Chaitezvi Munjeri's brother Endiby Makope, stating that her role model provided "condemnation" that led him to "return to the way of my ancestors." 

"When everyone else is focused on the technical aspects of mbira music, you live and operate on a higher level-the spiritual level. I watched you and my ancestors in court. You have no language, which brings me to memory. Path."

In 2013, Uchiyama released her second mbira album "The Sky Covering All of Us", and made a second stay in Zimbabwe in 2016. The aftermath of that trip inspired her to write this book because she met an ethnomusicologist who showed considerable ignorance about tradition. Uchiyama said that he believes that “mbira is not a sacred tool”, which contradicts many Shona’s own understanding.

"He said that the most sacred African music is played by a drum and flute ensemble. He doesn't know what he is talking about."

Uchiyama is known for breaking records. Her 2016 "Hawaiian Hula Dance Handbook for Students of Hawaiian Dance" detailed the cultural and spiritual effects of hula dance on the Hawaiian people, and provided non-Hawaiian people with wise ways to respectfully study tradition. She does not position herself as a guardian or gatekeeper, but as a bridge between cultures, a Westerner who is concerned about the continued colonial heritage.

"I have a responsibility to be an interpreter, connecting different communities attracted by the same thing," Uchiyama said. "For all our material wealth, we are so depraved spiritually. We have a lot to learn from these communities."

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