Musician Chiwoniso Maraire, who succumbed to a chest infection, will be buried at her rural home in Chakohwa Village in Mutambara, Manicaland, next week.
Her aunt Ellen Maraire-Shitenderu said mourners will leave the family house at Number 19 Campbeltown Road, Bluffhill on Sunday for Mutare ahead of the burial on Monday.
Chiwoniso was the daughter of renowned Zimbabwean mbira player and teacher Dumisani Maraire. She was born in 1976 while her father was a lecturer at Washington University.
At the age of 15, she returned to Zimbabwe with her family and attended Mutare Girls’ High School for Forms Three and Four before taking Advanced Level evening classes at the University of Zimbabwe where her father was teaching.
Chiwoniso cut her musical teeth with her father’s marimba groups, Dumi and Minanzi and Mhuri yaMaraire. In 1991, she met two young hip-hop artists Herbert Schwamborn and Tony Chihota and formed Zimbabwe’s first Afro hip-hop group A Peace of Ebony.
They recorded an album From The Native Tongue in 1992 in Keith Farquharson’s studio, with Keith contributing much of the music and production. Chiwoniso is survived by daughters Chengeto and Chiedza.
