Vimbai Zimuto (born 19 October 1983 at

Chitungwiza Chitungwiza is an urban centre and town of Harare Province in Zimbabwe. History As of the 2022 census, Chitungwiza had a population of 371,244. There are two main highways which connect the city to Harare namely Seke road and Chitungwiza r ...

) is a Zimbabwean, musician, dancer and

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

based in Netherlands. Zimuto plays the mbira and marimba, both traditional Zimbabwean musical instruments and also the traditional Zimbabwean percussion. She is a mother of two daughters and was once married to a Dutch national.

Biography

Vimbai Zimuto started playing mbira at the age of 12. She played tambourine in her school’s percussion band at the age of six and also joined a traditional dance group. Studying music in high school, Zimuto sang in the school choir, where they recorded a music album, ''Wedding Bells''. Zimuto worked in several projects and participated in music programmes. She joined Oliver Mtukudzi and his Black Spirits, with whom she toured in the UK, USA and Canada. With the musical theatre show ''Daughters of Africa'' she also toured the Netherlands.

''Discography''

Zimuto has two albums; Her music is often accompanied by a video, which she keeps on he
Youtube channel

Kure Kwemeso
(2015)
Hapana Kwaunoenda
(2018)

Awards

In 2020, Zimuto was nominated for the

Zimbabwe Music Awards The Zimbabwe Music Awards (ZIMA) is an annual award ceremony to acknowledge and honor musical excellence and creativity in Zimbabwean music Zimbabwean music is heavily reliant on the use of instruments such as the mbira, Ngoma drums and h ...

under the Best Alternative category.

Controversy

She has sparked controversy in Zimbabwe for posting nude pictures of herself on social media as she says nudity is her form of art. In 2018, after a Kenya-bound Ethiopia Airlines plane from Ethiopia crashed six minutes after take-off in Addis Ababa killing all on board, Zimuto posted a nude picture of herself and captioned the image: "Ashes to Ashes, dust to dust. May all the people who perished on Ethiopian airlines rest in peace." She received backlash, and responded with another nude picture of herself.

Footnotes

1983 births Living people Zimbabwean women poets Zimbabwean poets Zimbabwean musicians Zimbabwean dancers Female dancers Zimbabwean choreographers Women choreographers {{Zimbabwe-stub