Presented by the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Theater & Music Theater and the Department of Music at Princeton University
Paivapo ’76
Book, music, and lyrics by Tanaka Dunbar Ngwara
Run Time
Approximately 2 hours with a 15-minute intermission
Program Note
This show is set in Domboshava, Zimbabwe, in 1976. Domboshava is a residential area located 30 minutes outside of Harare in Mashonaland East. 1976 was twelve years into the Zimbabwean Liberation War and three years before the end.
Special Notes
No photography or audio/video recording permitted. Please silence all electronic devices including cellular phones and watches, and refrain from text messaging for the duration of the performance.
Content Advisory
The production does not include depictions of violence but does include ‘war noises.’
Accessibility
The Wallace Theater is an accessible venue with an assistive listening system. The May 5 performance will feature open/live captioning (CART). Both stage and mezzanine levels of the theater are wheelchair-accessible, and up to 5 ADA seating positions are available in all configurations. Visit our Venues and Studios section for accessibility information at our various locations, including Berlind Theatre.
Cast
Mirirai: Sasha Villefranche ’26
Chamai: David Smith ’24
Tarisai: Carrington Johnson ’24*
Anesu: Jeielle Habinam ’26
Blessing: Runnie Exuma GS1
Tonderai: Joshua Nanyaro ’27
Tamupiwa: Whitney Njogu ’27*
Nyasha: Wangari Karani ’25
Svikiro Garikai: Allan Gikonyo ’25
Sekuru Gideon/Pastor: Tony Owens ’24
Tete Bertha: Le’Naya Wilkerson ’25*
Tete Sekai/Svikiro’s Attendant: Kathy Wanjau ’27
RBS Reporter #1: Rupert Peacock ’24
RBS Reporter #2: Tom Law
RBS Reporter #3: Tom Law
Musicians
Drum Kit: Harit Raghunathan ’25
Conga Drums: Ariane Adcroft ’26*
Keyboardist: Gabe Mantegna GS
Bass Guitar: Nicholas Gallegos
Guitar 1: Nandita Rao ’17
Guitar 2: Rodrigo Ascencios
Hoshos: David Smith ’24
Production Team
Director: Sabina Jafri ’24*
Playwright: Tanaka Dunbar Ngwara ’24*
Music Director: Tanaka Dunbar Ngwara ’24*
Choreographer: Kate Stewart ’25*
Set Designer: Erin Macanze ‘24 and Tecla Mafa ’24
Costume Designer: Tanaka Dunbar Ngwara ’24*
Lighting Designer: Sahaf Chowdhury ’26*
Sound Designer: Dominic Dominguez ’25*
Electronic Music Composer: Kasey Shao ’25
Stage Manager: Elena Milliken ’26*
Assistant Stage Manager(s): Nina Shih ’24, Stephenie Chen ’25*, Khalil Benjamin ’25*
Sound Engineer: Ryan Gonzales ’26*
Stitchers: Anne Xu ’26, Charlotte Young ’27, Isabel Yip ’25, Tanaka Dunbar
Ngwara ’24, Wyatt Kim
Run Crew: Andrew Duke ’25*
A2: Raquel Ramirez ’24*
*denotes a certificate student/minor in the Program in Theater & Music Theater
Faculty Advisors
Shariffa Ali, Program in Theater Advisor
Nathalie Joachim, Department of Music Advisor
A Note from the Project Proposer
The seed of this project was planted in my mind on a rainy Saturday morning in 2013. I was living in Harare at the time, and my dad and I decided to take a father-daughter trip to Great Zimbabwe. My baba, Tonderai Ngwara, is quite the storyteller, and the long drive gave him an opportunity to launch into some of his favorites. Baba began to talk to me about the belief system of the Shona people, and on this particular morning, he focused on the fact that so much of it is about preserving and living in harmony with the environment. He explained how some types of spirits protected natural spaces from harm, and other spirits guided humans on their journey — those were your ancestors, like my grandfather. He spoke to me about how spirit mediums had always led our revolutions —people like Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi. I’d heard this all before, but I loved to hear him talk about it — no matter how many times he told me, new details would emerge. And this time, one did. For the first time, he mentioned the Njuzu.
Njuzu, he said, were water spirits who lived in a world on the other side of the pools of sacred water sites. They were beautiful and terrifying: from the waist up, women with long black locs, sharp teeth or pincers and trade beads piled so thickly that they completely covered their breasts. From the waist down, they were fish-like, with long tails and river reeds sprouting from their skin. They kidnapped humans who didn’t follow tradition and disrespected sacred sites, in order to protect those places from disruption and pollution. Ten-year-old me had long been obsessed with the mermaids and sirens from Greek mythology, and so I was immediately hooked — even more so because these stories were from my own culture. The story also caught my attention because Njuzu spirits in particular are very associated with music. They’re known to sing or drum from the bottom of the pools, audible only to those humans with an Njuzu spirit, who are being called to serve the Njuzu as a medium. During ceremonies to summon the Njuzu or those who have been taken by them, drumming and mbira music is required to attract them to the surface.
Music is very important to Shona culture and has always been at the center of our spiritual and revolutionary action. Mbira music is the pathway to spirit possession for mediums and trance-like states for dancers in biras and other rituals where we try to become closer to our ancestors. For that reason, during early colonial rule in Zimbabwe, there were bans on the mbira. The people learned to subvert these oppressive rulings by learning to play our traditional music on guitars instead, with the plucking of the strings mimicking the plucking of the tabs on the mbira. This association with guitar and mbira continued to be used in music of the Liberation War in the 1960s and 70s. The war, which lasted from 1964 – 1979 was between the post-British Colonial Rhodesian Government, led by Ian Smith, and Zimbabwean liberation groups such as the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army and the Zimbabwean People’s Revolutionary Army. This conflict, which lasted over 15 years, resulted in Zimbabwean Independence on April 18th, 1980. During this period, Zimbabwean musicians like Thomas Mapfumo combined traditional drumming patterns and melodies played on guitar, with rock instrumentation to create Chimurenga Music or ‘music of the revolution.’ Mapfumo in particular is famous for his songs which drew on traditional lyrics and poetry, coding messages of revolution in adjusted lyrics and Deep Shona that would only be understood by listeners with a profound understanding of the language and culture. Alongside Broadway cast albums, this is the music that I grew up listening to, and as a music major, my technical and intellectual question for this project was how to combine those genres and mediums in order to tell this story of the two worlds of tradition and westernization during the war.
This show is a very personal exploration of my own relationship with my Shona heritage and spirituality, and while initially unintentional, it also emerged as a way to process grief around the passing of a friend that occurred in the early days of my planning for this piece. He was also a musician and musical theater writer, and someone who encouraged me on this journey at a time when I was barely confident enough to admit to myself that this was a path I was interested in. I don’t think this project would exist without his influence in my life and for that reason, I am dedicating this show to Aidan Price.
I would like to recognize the immense and beautiful work that the cast, designers and creative team have done in the last three months to make this project, which means so much to me, come to life. Thank you for trusting me, and contributing to my vision in ways that I could have never imagined. I have so much love and gratitude for my parents and friends who read so many drafts and supported me through many ups and downs throughout this process. To the audience, thank you for taking a chance on a new work! I can’t wait to share this story with you.
— Tanaka Dunbar Ngwara
Land Acknowledgement
An estimated 10 million Native Americans lived in North America before the arrival of European colonizers. Many thousands lived in Lenapehoking, the vast homeland of the Lenni-Lenape, who were the first inhabitants of what is now called eastern Pennsylvania and parts of New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware.
Princeton stands on part of the ancient homeland and traditional territory of the Lenape people. In 1756, the College of New Jersey erected Nassau Hall with no recorded consultation with the Lenni-Lenape peoples.
Treaties and forced relocation dispersed Lenape-Delaware to Ohio, Kansas, and Oklahoma. We acknowledge the violence of settler colonialism and pay respect to Lenape peoples past, present, and future and their continuing presence in the homeland and throughout the Lenape diaspora.
For more information, see the websites of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative at Princeton (NAISIP), Natives at Princeton and Princeton Indigenous Advocacy Coalition.
Lewis Center for the Arts
Chair: Judith Hamera
Executive Director: Marion Friedman Young
Director of Program in Theater: Jane Cox
Producing Artistic Director, Theater And Music Theater Season: Elena Araoz
View a list of Program in Theater & Music Theater faculty & guest artists
For a look at all the people working behind the scenes to bring you this event, view a list of LCA staff members.
The programs of the Peter B. Lewis Center for the Arts are made possible through the generous support of many alumni and other donors. View a list of LCA Supporters
