Mushandirapamwe is a Madzimbabwe philosophy meaning “working together as one.” In 1972 George Chirume Tawengwa, built the Mushandirapamwe Hotel in Highfield, Harare, Zimbabwe, Africa. The opening of this space was unprecedented - Sekuru George was an African man living under colonial Rhodesian rule yet he created a business empire worth millions of dollars and built this prolific hotel in the blacks-only township of Highfield.

This space was dedicated to the people of Southern Africa and their struggle for liberation. The hotel was home to many political revolutionaries and freedom fighters, with rooms dedicated to figures who met in secret. The space was also an uncensored home for artists from all over the African continent. Prolific musicians such as the exiled, Grammy-award winning Miriam Makeba, Mahotella Queens, Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi, Thomas Mapfumo, Hugh Masekela, Bakithi Khumalo and Simon Chimbetu describe performing at the hotel as a rite of passage.

The Mushandirapamwe Singers is a group of classically trained singers from the Pan-African Diaspora, singing the music of Southern African tradition and revolution. Founded in 2016 by Tanyaradzwa A. Tawengwa — the granddaughter of George Chirume Tawengwa — with a group of vocal students from the University of Kentucky’s esteemed opera program, the group aims to perform arrangements and original compositions celebrating music from the classical Pan-African tradition as inspired by the legendary Mushandirapamwe Hotel.