Stella Chiweshe

Known as “The Queen of Mbira,” Stella Rimbisai Chiweshe, is Zimbabwe’s foremost mbira player. Following the Rhodesian independence, she was invited to become a member of the newly founded National Dance Company of Zimbabwe where she soon played a leading role as a solo mbira player, dancer and performer. Chiweshe is the only woman in her home country who leads her own band, and is in control of her own equipment and transport, an achievement only those who know under what kind of horrifying conditions female musicians normally work in African can understand. She took a leading role in the formation of the Zimbabwe Musicians Union, and since 1993 is a director of the Mother Earth Trust – Network of Female Artists in Zimbabwe. In traditional Zimbabwe Shona culture, people keep on being part of the community even after their death.