Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said ,“Music is the universal language of mankind”.
Indeed it is true. You can never feel music’s sweetness until you take your time to let it in. The beauty of music can unfold in different ways. And as it unfolds it exerts a magnificent healing power which sensationally connects with people of different race, tribe, culture, religion, age, as they listen to it.
Zimbabwean artists like Hope Masike have raised our country’s flag high and have been successful in conveying the beautiful message in music in both Zimbabwe and abroad in countries like Norway, Iceland, Austria, Germany and France.
The Zimbabwean Afro-fusion musician Masike who is known for playing the historically male-dominated mbira (thumb piano) recently released a new album titled ‘Exorcism of a Spinster’
The album is Hope’s third in her 12-year glittering music career and sees her speak from the heart about the country that she loves and the changing roles of women.
Her previous albums include Love, Mbira and Chocolate released in 2012, and her 2009 debut project, a self-titled album Hope.
She has also taken part in a number of regional and international music festivals and projects, including being incorporated in the famed Mahube — a collection of top southern African musicians and vocalists — late last year.
Masike fuses jazz, blues, samba, reggae and Afro-pop derived from the music of Chiwoniso Maraire and Stella Chiweshe to create her own unique sound and has done collaborations with foreign artistes, including Ibou Cissokh of Senegal, Sheila Massungue of Mozambique, Anthony Maina from Kenya, French DJ Oiland Bokani Dyer of South Africa.
Truly we can never be ashamed to call her our own!