The silky curtain is raised steadily. The lights fade. Darkness, stillness, anxiety. The crackling of the mbira. Sound, lights and action!

Clad in all traditional apparel, rich and heavy - like kings they are not - one by one the mbira cast appears on stage with the proud gait of authority. Many other artists join in forming a circle symbolising a kraal, enclosure, a pen for animals.

This is the 90-minutes musical theatrical production Nzou neMhuru muDanga. We are in 7 Arts Theatre, Harare. The cameras are rolling, all seven of them capturing the minutest of action.

But where is the nzou? Where is the mhuru?

The gangly figure of Tuku, with a spring in his foot, storms from the backstage a teaser katekwe dance as he paces round the human enclosure. The production is underway…

The concert concept by Tuku, who was the artistic director of the production, critically celebrated the legacy of music that Tuku is passing on to the younger generation of musicians through collaborations. Youthful musicians made up most of the 25 artists who were involved.

The production pollinated across genres, forms and instruments fusing mbira, acoustics, electrical instruments, contemporary dance, Tuku and Sam Mtukudzi as a duet and with their full separate bands, The Black Spirits and Ay Band respectively as they performed in a human enclosure representing a kraal and nursing pen for the elephant and its baby hence the theme Nzou neMhuru muDanga loosely translated meaning an elephant and its baby in the pen. Tuku is of the nzou (elephant) totem.

What the production sought to project was a simple and straightforward story about life, co-existence, happiness, joy and nurturing but seen largely illustrating the collaborative work that Tuku has devoted time with young artists.

Perhaps the climax was Daisy Mtukudzi (wife to Tuku) when she played ‘the woman we share’ between Tuku and son Sam. Her story was portraying and acknowledging living the life of music with his iconic husband and musician son Sam who is holding his own among the greats.

The production was shot on camera for the production of a DVD.

Below: the production in pictures.