……..MSU Music Masters Class 2025 which includes Guest of Honor and Chihora, Mr Moyo of Lundi Park Primary school and staff
Stephen Chadenga
The 2025 edition of the Midlands Marimba Arts Festival rolled to life last Saturday with participants serenading the city with high quality marimba performances.
The festival held under the theme, Heritage Based Curriculum: Starting From What We Have, saw participants from the community, school bands from Lundi Park primary school and Ascot High school walking away with accolades after performing marimba songs.
The youngest performer award was scooped by Xae Magura and Atidaishe Mlambo clinched the most versatile performer prize. Both are from Lundi Park primary. Uncle Changa was honoured with the most dedicated voluntary marimba coach from the community.
Guest speaker at the even Kingstone John hailed the festival founder and executive director, Tinomutenda Chihora for the annual cultural exhibition which he said showcased rich traditional music heritage and cultural identity. He said Chihora was an inspirational figure, visionary and founder of the festival.
“His dream is clear and unwavering, to create a happy musically literate Zimbabwe that cherishes its musical heritage and uplifts the traditional instruments that connect us to our roots, especially the marimba,”John said.
“Thanks to his leadership and passion we are witnessing a renaissance of cultural pride and educational creativity. The theme, Heritage Based Curriculum: Starting From What We Have reminds us that true education does not begin with what we lack but with what we already have and in this case our instruments, our languages, our rhythms and our stories.”
“It’s a theme that aligns education with identity, that roots learning in culture and that elevates indigenous knowledge systems to the forefront of national development.”
John commended the festival for honouring budding legends who are young performers, composers and creators in the musical journey.
“By recognizing these budding legends the festival loudly says that our future heroes of music are already among us and they are rooted in heritage,”he said.
“This is more than a festival it is a launchpad for Zimbabwe’s next generation of musical trailblazers.”
John said the festival aligns with government’s National Development Strategy 1 by as advancing inclusive, heritage based education, youth skill development, promotion of cultural and creative industries among other goals as well as supporting the Zimbabwe’s cultural policy, driving the digital economy through the arts and supporting the attainment of SDGs goals and Vision 2030 among others.
John who is a farmer as well as founder and director of Kibeth Security Services Pvt Ltd donated two pigs, three goats and 10 chicken to be consumed at the festival’s braai to be held at the end of the year.
Special guest at the event, Gweru Junior Mayor, Joel John said the education curriculum should fuse with cultural identity and heritage based knowledge.
“As a Junior Mayor, l have walked through our schools and seen blackboards filled with Newton’s laws, Pythagoras theorems and Shakespeare’s sonnets,”he said.
“These are beautiful in their own right but l have asked myself, where is mbira? Where is Mbuya Nehanda? Where are the stories of Chaminuka and the wisdom of our rainmakers? Are we not clever enough to build bridges between tradition and technology. In our cultural identity lies creativity and in our traditions lies resilience and in our heritage lies the power to reshape education into something deeply rooted yet boundlessly relevant.”
Midlands Marimba Arts Festival founder and director, Chihora said the arts extravaganza has future plans for philanthropic work.
“Our vision is to visit children’s homes and prisons providing psycho-social support though marimba and mbira music,”he said.
“We would also like to disseminate performance skills as well as the transcription of our traditional music so as to embrace the digital economy and to achieve this goal we appeal to the corporate world for financial support.”
Chihora said the Midlands State University Masters Class played a pivotal role in organinising this year’s edition of the festival.
“The festival’s theme song, Heritage Based Curriculum, Todotangira Ipapo Pane Zvatinazvo, was played at the event and l am part of the Masters Class and we have plans to record this song,”said Chihora.
Last year’s edition of the festival saw various school bands walking away with trophies, medals and certificates after performing marimba songs.