The story

From the top of the Soutpansberg to the Diaz Beach; Belgravia Road to Pafuri; the dusty streets of Matsa, Milaboni, Tshituni villages; the Mufakose township, Mbare, Mabvuku, Mutawawatawa, Gwanda; the Mazowe River in Zimbabwe, the sound of Muvhumbi resonates.

The views of Shashe River at the Vhembe River confluence observed from the deck in Mapungubwe Heritage Site, the distinct sound of Nyamurupa Mbila, paints the entire Vhembe valley stretching to the horizon.

The Mbila music was synonymous to the hours when the early risers returned from tendering the sorghum crops, weeding and calticating during the bygone years. Households in the villages would be playing the same tune of Mbila music from radios placed outside the houses.

The memories of women in the village carrying traditional drums, the dust lingering in the atmosphere from the thumping of the ground and the steady rhythm from the beating of big drum (ngoma) accompanied by congas (mirumba).

The composition of Muvhumbi, the sound, started in year twenty-seventeen. These could be the sounds that my mother sang for me while I was on her back as a baby or perhaps an innocent play song while grassing the goats.

Overtime I learnt that the immersion to music training is one way of knowing oneself. The collaborators and teachers made me aware of my patterns which manifested through my percussive piano approach.

The piano comping and syncopation technique I use occur effortlessly and naturally. Some of my arrangements are difficult to start and even as the composer I must learn my own work over.

My piano teacher Celeste Williams challenged me to explore my modal sound and its origin. On that journey she pointed me to the music of Jabu Khanyile and Themba Mkhize with the task of figuring out how they achieved their distinct sound.

During one of the lessons, Celeste said to me that she could hear the unique sound battling to come out of me and she said; “we will force it”. The song Muvhumbi took me directly down the lane, it was inevitable.

We have learned the famous jazz standards, summertime, Georgia on my mind, take the a train, autumn leaves, and more. The purpose was to enrich my music vocabulary and sharpen my arrangement prowess.

While still at the university, my brother Ndivhuwo bought me the album “Pyramid” by Don Laka. This is the first album that took my imagination to the location though music only. The album carried the sounds from the north.

The desire to learn about Mbila, the sound and its physics led me to acquire one. I visited some of the songs that I have heard as I grew up. I them noticed their modal structure and then interpreted it using the music theory, to intern come up with my own arrangements.

My rhythmic approach follows the Venda traditional dance which I picked while seated in the front row on the dusty ground during the traditional dance events, creating a circle around the dance floor. In that sitting position, my eyes were fixed on the movements of the dancers’ feet.

In general, I treat song writing as a sacred activity and a journey of discovery. I only start writing when I have the reason to write the lyrics and carryout the creative process to conclusion. The writing of Muvhumbi was a one-day process during Easter twenty-twenty five.

For the song to come to life it needs to leave the hands of the composer and allow for interpretation by the masters of the individual instruments. Sam Ibeh the drummer and the music producer, carried out the task with distinction.

The natural sounds in the recording were captured from the streams at the top of the Soutpansberg mountains. I woke up longing to see the origins of one of the major rivers in Vhembe region, the Mutshundudi River. The following month I went down the Diaz Beach in Cape Point to observe the beginning and the end of the ocean.

The lyrics that came to me had the words reflecting on the origins of the rivers, the beauty of nature, the beginning and ending of life. This experience reenforced the idea that the songs are given to us by The Creator.

Muvhumbi and The Creator himself will continue to be our teacher, I will break down the motifs, timbre, rhythms, melodies and harmonic spectrum that made the song as it is today. ❦