Chiwoniso

Born to Zimbabwean artist Dumisani Maraire, vocalist and mbira performer Chiwoniso Maraire cultivated a distinctive strain of African pop steeped in R&B. Professionally known simply by her first name, she entered the world in Olympia, Washington, and remained stateside through her early teenage years before relocating with her family to Harare at age fifteen. Once in Zimbabwe’s capital, she quickly established herself within the local pop community and joined the Afro-pop ensemble Andy Brown & the Storm. Her sweetly girlish vocals evoked the phrasing of R&B figures such as Deniece Williams and Minnie Riperton, yet she later stepped forward as a solo artist; her first album under her own name, Ancient Voices, appeared stateside on the Tinder label in 2000. Alongside her singing, Chiwoniso mastered the mbira, the African thumb piano that remained the province of male players until the 1960s. On July 7, 2013, she succumbed to a suspected case of pneumonia at the age of thirty-seven.