Harare — SHE ranks among Zimbabwe's top female gwenyambiras who defied gender limitations by breaking the proverbial glass ceiling to make a name for themselves in an industry widely regarded as a preserve for men.

So deeply embedded in her heart, mind and psyche is her love for mbira that at one time she observed that the instrument possessed therapeutic powers to people's problems by merely listening to it.

But in as much as she exemplifies the ideal of a lasting traditional music icon, her long absence from the local music scene has created a yawning void.

People who witnessed one of her last performances on home soil expressed these sentiments.

This was after her return home from her five-year stay in the United States, when she performed at the Harare International Festival of the Arts in the capital.

So mesmerised were mbira fans that they kept asking for more from the mbira doyen they had been missing.

Her nostalgic performance at the Coca-Cola Green left people asking: "Zvaonekwa asi munomboregerei kutifadza nguva dzese? (We want you to entertain us from time to time)."

Although she had stayed in one of the best civilisations in the world -- the United States -- Mbuya Dyoko's love for her homeland Zimbabwe and its music-loving people, was still deep-seated.

But her American calling and the numerous commitments there held sway, leading to her long detachment from home.

She is one of the local mbira musicians who 'exported' and popularised the music and instrument abroad.

"I love my home and that is why I am here. But all is well in the US where I conduct lessons mostly at universities.

"For your own information, the whites I meet are very intelligent and it doesn't take long for them to grasp the concepts on mbira playing.

"I have been to the US for the past four years and I have never encountered any problems with my students there," she once said in an interview.

Her rise to the top of the local music ladder and eventually to international acclaim was nothing but phenomenal.

The Baba Munyaradzi hit-maker's passion for music started in her teens.

Hers was the story of a determined young girl who had to contend with a family and society that regarded the mbira instrument as pagan and defied Christianity.

"I have always loved mbira but my Christian background was a major drawback to my career.

"I got ill when I was still young . . . and this time around my late mother Firipa volunteered to buy me my first mbiras.

"I became a professional mbira player when I was 25 and I mastered all keys by that age since it was a calling," she once said in an interview.

This gave birth to her debut release, Taireva, in 1970, that talked about the liberation struggle. The song was well received, as it gave an insight into what was happening then.

But this earned her retaliation and persecution from the Smith regime, who tormented her for her music that they regarded counter-active to their colonial mission and goals.

"At one point I used a pseudonym during live shows and had to quit music until 1980," she explained.

The struggle continued for Mbuya and her fellow mbira players who had to suffer a blackout from some leading recording studios who from 1980 were under the mentality that mbira music would not sell after the liberation struggle phase that had come and gone.

It was only in the 1990s that the 'mbira soldier' realised her dream after recording and releasing Munongovhaira, which also did well.

After a string of releases, doors opened up for her as she toured the United States, where she decided to put up base.

The music genre was widely appreciated there, as evidenced by the demands from the white community, who even started attending tutorials on mbira.

This saw her recording some albums assisted by her foreign students.

Unfortunately, some of these never hit the local market. She said she was the country's music and cultural ambassador in the United States, where the likes of Thomas Mapfumo, another mbira music doyen, also stays.

"I am marketing my country when I am away from home . . . Aids is (also) real. I have lost several musicians that I worked with due to the scourge," said the musician.

Born 64 years ago, the mbira granny symbolises how women have made great strides in realms regarded as domains of men.

For her great achievement, she can safely be put in the same class with Stella Chiweshe, the queen of Zimbabwean mbira music.