Musical instruments in Zambia: one-note xylophone

Musical instruments in Zambia: one-note xylophone. The ilimba consists of a big gourd to which two yokes are attached with hardened plaster made of pounded kasongole leaves¹Not dung as stated by Jones (1949: 29).. The plaster covers the top of the gourd, leaving a hole in the middle. By means of ropes, a wooden bar hangs between the yokes. The player hits the bar with a beater (mucimpu). The beater is topped with a small piece of tyre or wrapped cloth. The position of the left hand affects the sound. This hand covers the opening in the plaster on top of the gourd, or it does not. Or, it pulls away just at or shortly after hitting. The maker tunes the instrument but retuning becomes necessary when the ropes bearing the bar become too loose.

Musical instruments in Zambia: one-note xylophone. The ilimba are played in sets of three instruments of different sizes: small (ice), middle (cibitiku), and big (ikulu). Listen to Music example 39 for an analytical recording of their patterns.

Music example 39

Analytical recording of the ilimba ensemble, played on pieces of wood instead of the real instruments. We hear the cibitiku playing 2-1-1-2: ci-ta-i-la. And the small one 2-4: ndi-ndi, with the player imitating the left hand covering the hole with the voice: mu-mbu. Then the ikulu starts.

Musical instruments in Zambia: one-note xylophone. In former days, people used a special type of ilimba to learn to play the ilimba. It consisted of a calabash with a piece of bamboo passed through it. The player hit the protruding part of the bamboo. And, the left hand covered or did not cover the opening at the top of the calabash.

In the 1980s, the instrument maker Kambele had made most of the ilimba we encountered in Chibale.

Place of the ilimba in the musical and ritual landscape of Chibale

Musical instruments in Zambia: one-note xylophone. In literature, the playing of the ilimba is always connected to hunting and/or mourning rituals.²Volper (2013:8) for the Sanga region in the 1930s: “Grévisse and Roland stress the special near-sacred character of the mbila [ilimba] among the Sanga. It was in no way an instrument for trivial occasions”. In Chibale, the ilimba was also played at important beer parties. This probably amounts to the same thing: literature describes the use of the ilimba long ago, and beer parties may have evolved from hunting rituals after that time.

Ilimba and the drum

Musical instruments in Zambia: one-note xylophone. At a Beer, when the ilimba players grew tired or the people wanted to dance, they started playing the drums. The ilimba never played together with drums. In other words, the ilimba had a complementary relationship with the drum.

The ilimba was played at the funeral wake, at hunting rituals, and especially during the first half of the beer party.
The drum was played at the girls’ initiation, the commemorative ritual (Ipupo), and during the second half of the beer party.
The ilimba was associated with smaller occasions, sitting, indoors, little or no dancing, and texts.
The drum associated with larger occasions, standing, outdoors, heat, and dance.

Possibly, the drum had ‘won’ against the ilimba by the 1980s. A primary factor that helped the drum to become more important is that from the 1940s onwards, women, and later youths, obtained more control over public occasions. A second reason is the rise of public, that is outdoors, occasions themselves. Then there are the factors influencing the decline of the ilimba in the period between the 1950s and 1980s. Firstly, the villages decreased in size: it became hard to gather three skilled players, and the knowledge about building and repairing the instrument was no longer available. Secondly, there was the preponderance of the drum in modern music and on the radio. And thirdly, the national policy changed from stimulating regional traditions in colonial times to an orientation towards integration of the government after Independence.

Why do they still play the ilimba in Chibale?

Musical instruments in Zambia: one-note xylophone. The reason why the instrument was still of importance in Chibale in the 1980s is that in the first half of the 20th century, and perhaps even earlier, it was used by a small group of famous ing’omba in an ensemble very much like the hunters’ ensembles mentioned for south-eastern Congo, such as the Luba buyanga (hunters’ society) ensemble³For instance in Gansemans (1978: 111,112). that played for Kaluwe.⁴In Chibale, hunters’ music is called lyanga by some. However, there is no sign that hunters’ associations like those of the Luba region ever existed in Chibale. Hunters associated with one or two Kaluwe mediums in a rather loose connection. For the Lamba region a century ago, Doke (1931: 351) suggests that the mutual hospitality that hunters offer each other may be a relic of a hunters’ guild.
Although they did not play the instrument very often anymore in the 1980s, the ensemble of three ilimba, was generally seen as typical for Chibale. The cinsengwe ing’omba and, later, chief Chibale Teneshi Njipika deserve credit for this. Most occasions on which we encountered the ilimba ensemble were organised by or for him. And he often played in the ensemble.

Since the 1990s, they have hardly played the ilimba at Beers but it always features at large cultural heritage/identity gatherings.

Chieftainship and the ilimba

Musical instruments in Zambia: one-note xylophone. The relationship between chieftainship and the ilimba has a longer history. Pope Cullen made an account of chief Chibale (Mutende) playing the ilimba⁵Pope Cullen (1940: 246)., and a photo she took of Mutende playing the ilimba features the title page of Artes Africanae: “Chiwali, chef du Balala”⁶Artes Africanae (1937)7.. The one-note xylophone is connected to hunting in a rather large area in South Central Africa. In Chibale, it also had connections with chieftainship; for instance, it was played from dawn in a rain-begging ceremony at the chief’s village (musumba).
This may be related to the, not unproblematic, control that chieftainship acquired over hunting (and the ecological cult) in the 19th century. The chief expected hunters to visit him and make offerings at the chiefly shrine (mpata) before and after a hunting trip. However, I hypothesise that the chiefly cult never succeeded in incorporating hunting. Therefore, it sought a certain hold on hunters’ music. This is in line with my hypothesis on the discrepancy between the linguistic and cultural orientation of the Lala region that Kubik⁷Kubik (1988). brought forward.

The one-note xylophone in surrounding areas

Musical instruments in Zambia: one-note xylophone. As far as I have been able to ascertain, Chibale appears to be the only area within the one-note xylophone region (part of South Central Africa) where the one-note xylophone is (still) played in an ensemble of three instruments.

Map G: Distribution of xylophones in Africa (Meel 1980).

Map G shows Chibale and the Lala region in the middle of the one-note xylophone area. In most of that area, other gourd xylophones also occur.

Musical instruments in Zambia: one-note xylophone. A diffusion of the instrument and its use from the Luba region in a south-south-eastern direction is not unlikely; see Map G.⁸From Meel (1980: 82). The map is not complete as it does not include the Ila, Lamba or Kaonde regions where (historically) the one-note xylophone can be found. A second problem, as with most distribution maps, is that it is not clear whether a white area on the map indicates that no xylophones occur there or that no data exist about the area. In literature, the playing of the ilimba is always connected to hunting and/or mourning rituals.