Stella Chiweshe To Be Buried In Chiweshe On 24 January
The late mbira music icon Mbuya Stella Rambisai Chiweshe is set to be buried at Masembura village in Chiweshe, on Tuesday, 24 January 2023.
Stakeholders in the arts sector said Chiweshe deserved national heroine status but the government has instead granted her a State-assisted funeral.
In a statement issued on 21 January 2023, Misheck Sibanda, the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, said:
The Acting President, Dr Constantino Dominic Guveya Nyikadzino Chiwenga, after consultation with His Excellency President, Dr Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, has announced that Government has granted the late music icon and Mbira Dzavadzimu player, Mbuya Stella Rambisai Chiweshe, a state-assisted funeral.
This means all the costs related to her interment will be assumed by the state.
His Excellency the President, who is on leave, and the Acting President extend their deepest, heartfelt condolences to the entire Chiweshe and Reich families on this, their saddest loss.
The late musical icon epitomised Zimbabwe’s cultural excellence through the Mbira Dzavadzimu genre which she successfully took to the international stage.
May her soul rest in eternal peace.
She was born Stella Rambisai Nekati Chiweshe on 8 July 1946 in Mujumi Village, Mhondoro, Zimbabwe.
Chiweshe succumbed to brain cancer at her Kuwadzana home in Harare on Friday.
She was married to Peter Reich, a German national at the time of her death. | NewsDay
