A Prodigy's Calling: The Cosmas Magaya biography A portfolio of 21 linocuts by Lucas Bambo

While flutes, drums and plucked string instruments have existed in every culture around the world, the mbira and broader family of thumb pianos (lamellophones) are uniquely African. Originating in the Zambezi Valley, what is today Zimbabwe, they have been used and play a significant role in Shona culture as far back as oral history remembers.

The earliest written account of the mbira is perhaps that of the Portuguese missionary, João dos Santos, who in 1586 spent time among Shona-speaking peoples and described an instrument played in the chief’s court, which he transcribed phonetically as “ambira” with “flat rods of iron about a palm in length, tempered in fire so that each has a different sound,” and played by striking the keys with the thumb “as lightly as a good player strikes those of a harpsichord [producing] altogether a sweet and gentle harmony of accordant sounds.”

Various types of thumb piano are played in Zimbabwe, from the smaller karimba (whence the name ‘kalimba’, more recognisable in the West thanks to the spread of the Hugh Tracey instruments in the 1960s), to the larger mbira dzavadzimu, literally “the mbira of the ancestors” whose sound summons the spirits of the ancestors when played at Bira ceremonies. In this way, the mbira preserves the communities’ heritage and traditional repertoire: musicians must learn to play the old songs that the ancestors would recognise.

Other than the ceremonial use, the mbira is also used in contemporary and popular music in Zimbabwe, and played for entertainment at social gatherings. One of the great modern players was Cosmas Magaya, who died of Covid in 2020.

Paul Berliner and Cosmas Magaya playing mbira together

A great musician and master of the mbira, Magaya was a cultural ambassador, performing internationally with Mhuri Yekwa Rwizi, and the Zimbabwe Group Leaders Mbira Ensemble, and held teaching residencies at North American institutions like Duke University, Harvard University, and the University of Rochester, among others, promoting an understanding of African music and an appreciation for the mbira specifically.

In the 1970s, Magaya met ethnomusicologist Paul Berliner who was doing research in Zimbabwe, then still Rhodesia. Magaya taught Berliner to play mbira, and over the years their relationship grew into a close friendship and one of musical collaboration. Berliner has now published a biography of Magaya through the University of Chicago Press, titled A Prodigy’s Calling: The Early Musical Biography of Cosmas Magaya, Zimbabwean Mbira Master.

The book documents Magaya’s early life from child prodigy to an established expert of the mbira, all the while navigating a changing society as Zimbabwe gained independence. The text is interspersed with QR-code links to audio recordings of musical phrases and patterns demonstrated on the mbira. For readers with some musical background, the book also includes an appendix with more detailed notes and transcriptions of mbira music in both staff notation and tablature.

The text is further illustrated by a series of 21 linocuts depicting scenes from Magaya’s upbringing and life in the rural areas of Mhondoro, by Lucas Bambo, a South African printmaker with whom Julia Meintjes Fine Art has had a long collaboration.

Cover

Cosmas standing with mbira

Chapter 1

Breast milk

Chapter 2

Child looking to play mbira

After being commissioned by Paul Berliner to do artwork for the book, Lucas Bambo travelled to Mhondoro to attend a Bira ceremony, which takes place throughout the night of a full moon. He stayed with Cosmas Magaya’s family, observed daily activities and spoke to Magaya about his upbringing. Bambo created the portrait of Magaya, which serves as the book’s cover, and produced sketches to present to Berliner. After a back and forth between artist and author, the ideas from the visit to Magaya were distilled into to the chapter headers. The linocuts depict Magaya’s rural upbringing, learning the mbira, and the Bira festival. All ages in the village participate in the Bira, during which musicians, playing mbira accompanied by hosho (a gourd shaker) and clapping, summon the spirits of the ancestors. Certain participants go into a trance state and become the mediums for the spirits, and are then able to relay the advice and guidance received to the surrounding community.

Paul Berliner’s remarkable musical partnership with Cosmas Magaya, and his deep knowledge, love of the mbira, and enquiring musicological research make this narrative so much more than a treatise on the documentation of the music. Weaving the narrative, music and Bambo’s images into an academic publication bring the text to life.

Chapter 3

Looking after the goats

Chapter 4

A teacher and a learner

Chapter 5

Mbira, hosho and resonator

Chapter 6

Playing with a motorwire

Chapter 7

Dancing at night

Chapter 8

Attending school

Chapter 9

Ploughing

Chapter 10

Day spirits

Chapter 11

Harvest time

Chapter 12

Children listen mbira

Chapter 13

Location

Chapter 14

Visitors

Chapter 15

Cooking sorghum, beer

Chapter 16

Drinking sorghum, beer

Chapter 17

Playing mbira, hosho and the drum

Chapter 18

Night spirits

Chapter 19

Meeting

Chapter 20

Breakfast

The A Prodigy’s calling portfolio comprises 21 linocut prints, i.e. the cover image of Cosmas Magaya with his mbira plus 20 chapter header images, each in a limited edition of 50, signed and numbered by Lucas Bambo.

It is available to purchase as a complete portfolio or as individual linocuts.

Click on the relevant item below to send us an inquiry. Framing and shipping (at an additional cost) are available on request. For more details contact us on info@juliameintjes.co.za

The full portfolio is on exhibition as part of Compositions (and all that jazz) from 24 March 2026 at Tokara Wine and Olive Farm, on the Helshoogte Pass, Stellenbosch

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