Ephat Mujuru (1950–2001), was a Zimbabwean musician, one of the 20th century's finest players of the mbira, a traditional instrument of the Shona ethnic group of Zimbabwe.
Showing clear talent for the rigours of mbira training, Ephat advanced quickly, playing his first possession ceremony when he was just ten.
This irritated Muchatera so much that he withdrew his grandson and sent him to school in an African township outside the capital, Salisbury, present day Harare.
Following that voice, Mujuru began spending time in the village of Bandambira, where he studied with a great old mbira player of the same name.
In the highland corn fields near Mhondoro, beneath Zimbabwe's big skies full of large birds, battleship clouds, and horsetail sunsets, Mujuru reaffirmed his ties to the mbira.
The prongs, often made from flattened bed springs, get clamped tightly onto a laminated slab of hard Mubvamaropa wood.
For amplification, players use sticks to jam the instrument into a large, halved calabash that serves as a resonating chamber.
Renaming his group Spirit of the People, Mujuru recorded his first album in 1981, using only mbira, hand drums, hosho, and singers.
He sang about brotherhood and healing, crucial themes during a time when the nation's dominant ethnic groups, the Shona and Ndebele, struggled to work out their differences.
Back in Zimbabwe, he also released successful pop albums with a revamped, electric version of Spirit of the People.
In 1992, Mujuru's first electric album Hapana Mutorwa made its way to the top of the local charts, edging out Zimbabwe sungura kings Leonard Dembo and John Chibadura.
When Afropop Worldwide last interviewed him in March, 2001, he had just finished two new recordings, one acoustic, traditional session, and one with a new band, members of a Zimbabwe rumba outfit called Eden Boys.
In early September, the electric album, Musiyano, was released and got a very positive review in The Daily News in Zimbabwe, under the heading, "Mujuru back with a bang."
Sadly, Ephat Mujuru suffered a massive heart attack that day in Gatwick Airport and died on his way to a hospital.
[citation needed] During the late 90s, Mujuru was part of facilitators at the National Indigenous Music Festivals hosted by Mambo Arts Commune in Botswana.