Reinvenções criativas dos/das vachayi va timbira em Maputo: transmissão das artes musicais

Abstract

The reconstruction of mbira music in Mozambique (Maputo), once stigmatized in African societies, has been asserting itself since the beginning of the 21st century due to various movements and personalities. This thesis seeks to understand the practicalities and strategies applied to the reinvention and maintenance of vachayi va timbira in Maputo (Mozambique), as well as their inter-relationship with integrated musical arts. The research was based on an ethnographic research, consolidated in fieldwork that, between 2019 and 2022, provided an interaction with the vachayi va timbira. In this context, people train themselves through active and reflective listening, trial and mistake, gestures and sound, collaborative work, especially by looking, listening, feeling, imitating, and repeating patiently. The collecting of these processes was possible thanks to the dialogue of references from the Gestual, Oral and Practical Empirical Field, as well as the theoretical bases, from African Musicology, Ethnomusicology, History, Anthropology, and Music Education. The results indicate that mbira music is a repository of information for the re-education of the African people in their names, languages, dances, songs, musical instruments, religions, environment, heritage of struggle, unity and capabilities, making this people take its past as a field of constructive achievements for humanity. Being open to people, processes, strategies and characteristics of mbira music means developing democratic emancipatory practices that go beyond the music itself, inter-relating it with society, culture, language, creativity, innovation, and more.