Replay Notes: The Healing Power of the Mbira with Mahealani Uchiyama

Hello everyone! Thank you all for joining us, whether you were with us live or are catching up on the replay. We were honored to have a very special guest with us, Mahealani Uchiyama. She is an award-winning musician, composer, author, and one of the most dedicated cultural activists out there.

We had an incredibly powerful conversation about the Mbira—a sacred African instrument—and how it can connect us to our ancestors and bring us peace in turbulent times.

Here are the notes from our beautiful session. I highly recommend diving into the replay and grabbing her book!

The Mbira: An African Musical Instrument is available here: The Mbira: An African Musical Tradition: Uchiyama, Mahealani, Chaitezvi Munjeri, Patience: 9781623176495: Amazon.com : Books

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Meet Mahealani Uchiyama

Mahealani was born in Washington, D.C., and later moved to Honolulu, where she studied Hawaiian culture and Pacific performing arts.
She has lived in the Bay Area for about 45 years.
She first heard the Mbira played at a music venue called the Freight and Salvage by artists Erica Azeem and Forward Kwenda.
Within just 10 minutes of hearing the music, she was completely transported, having visions and conversing with her passed relatives.
She eventually traveled to Zimbabwe, where she learned from grounded elders and attended a traditional bira ceremony that lasted all night until sunrise.

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✨The Magic and Spirituality of the Mbira

In the Shona tradition, the songs played on the Mbira are over a thousand years old and are considered the property of the ancestors.
The music is cyclical, meaning it doesn't have a Western-style beginning, middle, and end; the end of one cycle is simply the beginning of the next.
The Shona conceptualize this music as constantly living and swirling in the universe.
The Mbira player's job is simply to "latch onto" the song, bring it into their fingers for a while, and then let it go back into the universe.
Each song is an intentional prayer used to call in the ancestors and bring the community together.

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A History of Oppression and Resistance

When European colonizers arrived, they realized the Mbira was being used to call upon ancestors for guidance on how to fight back and remain fearless.
Because of this spiritual power, the colonizers labeled the instrument and African spirituality as "evil" and banned it entirely.
Despite the threat of jail, people in rural communities kept playing their Mbira because it was the source of their strength and connection to their lineage.

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Mbira vs. the Kalimba

Mahealani clarified the difference between the Mbira Dzavadzimu (the sacred instrument she plays) and the Kalimba (or Karimba).
The Kalimba was created to teach Westernized music to schoolchildren and was later boxed up and mass-marketed globally in the 60s and 70s.
It is used for entertainment and does not carry the same spiritual weight.
The Mbira, however, is a sacred, ceremonial instrument that must be treated with deep reverence—you don't step over it, and you must protect its spiritual intent.

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The African American Mbira Project

The Mbira was introduced to Western institutions, like the University of Washington, where it became very popular, but it spread primarily among non-Black demographics.
Recognizing that many Black people have never even heard of this instrument, Mahealani founded the African American Mbira Project.
Her initiative exposes our community to this music by providing inexpensive instruction and making instruments available to borrow, with cohorts meeting both in-person and via Zoom.

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Healing, Ancestors, and Overcoming Fear

The Mbira is a profound catalyst for healing; it can act as a meditation that levels out our anxiety and grounds us.
Mahealani shared that the instrument gave her a visceral sense of the beauty of being a woman of African descent, and it cured her of feeling alone by making the presence of her passed family a tangible reality.
When we look at global conflicts today, the Mbira reminds us that our ancestors survived enslavement, colonialism, and Jim Crow—and we can draw on that same ancestral strength to get through anything.
Her closing prayer for us is to be completely unafraid to try something new, and to always remember that we are not alone.

You can learn more about Mahealani at her website: Māhealani Uchiyama - Dancer Choreographer Musician Author and Teacher

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