Tuesday, October 14, 2025 12 noon-1 pm
Smith Reading Room, 1st floor Olin Library
Charismatic Zimbabwean master musician Samaita Vitalis Botsa creates gorgeous waves of sound with his mbira, connecting the living with the ancestors. “I’m just the car, it’s the spirits doing the driving, making the music,” he says. Visiting from his village in Zimbabwe for a duo tour with Erica Azim, Botsa is presenting mbira, which is both an ancient form of sacred music played by the Shona people for over 1,000 years and the name of the musical instrument it’s played on.
The mbira instrument consists of metal keys plucked by two thumbs and one forefinger, creating calming yet invigorating polyphony and polyrhythm. Musicians play interlocking parts, and the tradition includes live improvisation. Century after century, the mbira instrument and its repertoire of traditional songs have been used in Zimbabwe to heal the sick, and in night-long to week-long ceremonies to summon family ancestors and powerful tribal guardian spirits to earth who help the living. Every time the mbira is played, it is considered a prayer to the ancestors that will result in their protection of the living.
- More about Samaita Vitalis Botsa, including many videos and his biography
- More about Erica Azim, including many videos and her biography
- Video of Botsa & Azim’s duet last year in Zimbabwe
- Video of Samaita Botsa’s solo last year in Zimbabwe
- For more about mbira music in Zimbabwe
Sponsored by the non-profit organization MBIRA (mbira.org), which supports over 300 traditional musicians and instrument makers in Zimbabwe, and by the World Music Archives & Music Library. Contact wma@wesleyan.edu for more information.