Zim’s Chiwoniso Maraire dies at 37

Zimbabwean mbira music exponent Chiwoniso Maraire died on Wednesday at South Medical Hospital in Citungwiza after being admitted with a lung infection.

Renowned to the world, Maraire, has performed using her mbira all over the world including Malawi where she performed at the then French Cultural Centre (FCC) in Blantyre before returning to the College of Medicine during the Blantyre Arts Festival (BAF) two years ago. She also collaborated with Malawi award-winning author Stanley Onjezani Kenani in a 2007 Poetry Africa performance.

Quoting her manager, Cosmas Zamangwe, Zimbambwe’s Nehanda Radio said: “She had been in hospital for the past 10 days suffering from chest pains. We are, however, still to ascertain the disease she was suffering from but we suspect it is pneumonia.”

The radio’s website said Maraire’s death comes just over a year after her ex-husband Andy Brown, leaving behind two children.

Reacting to the death, Malawian artist Lloyd Phaundi aka Agorosso, who shared the stage with Maraire at the FCC, said it was a loss not only for Zimbabwe but Africa.

“She was a flag bearer. There is a lot we learned from her. One thing that is glued to my mind is her encouraging words to us that no matter what, even if success does not come in a bang, we must work hard and persevere to see the light at the end of the day,” said Agorosso.

Kenani, who performed with Maraire in South Africa at the Poetry Africa Festival and the Arts Alive Festival in 2006 and 2007 respectively, said the death was a blow to the arts.

“She was a rare talent and her international career as a musician was beginning to grow deeper roots, especially when her album recently hit number five on the World Billboard of Music. What’s more devastating is that she has died so young, at the age of 37.

“This is the tragedy of Zimbabwean music, because not so long ago we mourned the passing of Oliver Mtukudzi’s son Sam,” said Kenani.

Maraire was born on March 5, 1976.