Musical instruments in Zambia: bellows

Musical instruments in Zambia: bellows (muuba). In former days, the iron industry was important, with a trade in hoes and axes from the Lala region existing over long distances.

The iron smelter (kengulula) –who was not necessarily the same person as the blacksmith (kafula)– led the process. Eight to twelve men from the households in the village that needed something made of iron participated in the smelting. They brought along iron ore, assisted with the bellows, and at the end received a piece of iron.
They built a circular furnace (nyumbi) outside the village, measuring 2 metres in diameter and one metre in height. This furnace, including the surrounding space for the bellowers, stood in a large dugout hole. Within the furnace, they laid layers of charcoal and iron ore (malamba or motapo). At the underside of the oven, there were 4 to 6 holes for the hand bellows. The bellowers worked in shifts of one to two hours. Women were not permitted to be present, so men handed food to the bellowers.

Song 123

A smelter song, wrapped in an account of the smelter ensemble by Mika Mwape Chungwa, whose father had been a smelter, 1986.

Text of Song 123 ∵ What a husband who doesn’t …

Wayumfwe nsapa ku citenge
Ciceleka!
Ndimushukile umulume utaya ku citenge
Ndimushukile umulume utaya mu kunonka
Ndimushukile umulume utaya ku masembe

Hear the master bellows in the smelter
Does it make salt from burnt grass?
What a husband who doesn’t go to the smelter
What a husband who doesn’t go to seek wealth
What a husband who doesn’t go for axes

Sung by the bellowers, the song is the complaint of the wives of those men in the village who did not join in the smelting.

Iron smelting in the Congo Lala area in the 1930s

Lambo¹Lambo (1946: 333). Original in French, translation by Jan IJzermans. describes the iron smelting in the Congo part of the Lala region in the 1930s.

“The Lala used to work iron in former days. Laterite abounds, and in certain places, iron ore is found. They built a furnace with many openings at its base for the goatskin bellows. They prepared great quantities of charcoal, and placed iron ore and charcoal alternately in the furnace. The blacksmith, who was an important person in the village, was generally helped by the men of the village, mainly the young people. All went away for weeks from the village; the women kept a strict distance, regularly putting baskets of mealie meal near the place of work. It was understood that the iron would be polluted if any of the women who remained in the village commited adultery.
They forged spears, axes, and hoes. The blacksmith gave a tenth to the mfumu, the chief of the village. He kept a part for his assistants and exchanged the remainder.
The Lala and the Aushi were very skilled in forging. In his work In the Heart of Bantuland, Dugald Campbell quotes Arnot, who wrote in 1886 that for more than one generation, the hoes forged on the east side of the Luapula, and consequently in Masenga and Ilala of the Lala, had superseded the copper hoes in Uganda.”

The iron smelter ensemble

Musical instruments in Zambia: bellows (muuba). The bellowing began early in the morning, accompanied by the singing of songs. Together, the bellows (myuba, singular muuba) formed a rhythmical ensemble. The leader of that ensemble was the master bellows (nsapa), played by the iron smelter.

Music example 58

In this recording, we hear the oral notations of four of the bellows patterns in the iron smelter ensemble, followed by that of the master bellows (nsapa).

At some point in the long process, bad (‘watery’) iron began to trickle down to the bottom. Towards the end of the day, the iron smelter stopped and checked whether there was a clump of good iron in the centre of the oven. When he found a good clump, all started ululating. The smelter divided this clump among the participants. Each brought his piece to the blacksmith, who could then make the utensil that they needed.³For a description of iron smelting in the Lamba region at the beginning of the previous century, see Doke (1931: Chapter XXI). Besides other differences with smelting in Chibale during the same period, Doke does not describe being made during the smelting, though he mentions ‘boisterous shouting (ingwele)’ when the oven worked well.

Musical instruments in Zambia: bellows (muuba). The sound of this industrial ensemble consisted not only of the bellows but also of the fire reacting rhythmically to them and of the sound the pipes of the bellows made. After approximately eight hours of work, the ‘iron water’ began trickling down, adding a sa-sa-sa-sa-sa sound, like a simple version of the cibitiku pattern. Listen to Music example 58 for the oral notations of the bellows patterns in the iron smelter ensemble and to Music example 57 for the oral notations of various master bellows patterns.

The bellows patterns could express messages

Music example 57

Three patterns for the master bellows (nsapa) – separated by one second of silence.

Kubuko ikanga bantana
At my in-laws they refuse me a guinea-fowl.

Umwana atomfwa nyina mbatumufulamine omfwe
A child that doesn’t listen to the mother: maybe we should bend over to show our buttocks, so he’ll understand.

Kabunga mafupa, kabunga mafupa – Colobola, colobola
The bone gatherer, the bone gatherer – The inviter, the inviter.

The first oral notation of an nsapa pattern is the line played by (or for) the son-in-law in Story 4. The second is like a mankubala song but then from an elder’s perspective. The third contains two praise names for hunters.
Patterns like these, as well as patterns ginterpretating animals’ sounds, were important in former days. In the 1980s and later, they were used only sporadically.

In Story 4⁴From Doke (1927: 7) for the Lamba region in the first quarter of the 20th century., the bellows are used to convey unspoken messages, much like some other musical instruments can.

The story of the son-in-law and his father-in-law

One day the son-in-law went out into the veld, and killed a guinea fowl, and took it to his wife’s village. Then he cooked the guinea fowl; his father-in-law put it aside saying, “We shall eat (it) tomorrow”. Thereupon the son-in-law (thought) that he had deprived him of his guinea fowl; his father-in-law in the morning said, “Let us go and blow the bellows”. So they went, he and his son-in-law. When they had arrived at the bellows, the son-in-law got up to them, (and) said:
At my wife’s village they grudge me a guinea fowl!⁵These words are chanted to the ‘music’ of the bellows. At my wife’s village they grudge me a guinea fowl!

Thereupon his father-in-law said, “Move away, father⁶A term of respect for a man, used even to a son-in-law., and let me blow!” And he too got up to them, (and) said,
Palpitation to my son-in-law!
Palpitation to my son-in-law!⁷These words are chanted to the ‘music’ of the bellows.

Then he rose saying, “Come Father, let us go to the village⁸The native forge is always outside the village.”. When they had arrived, he cooked porridge with the guinea-fowl. Then the son-in-law felt much ashamed.⁹He was ashamed of having been suspicious of his father-in-law. So he arose and went to his home.

Story 4: The story of the son-in-law and his father-in-law for the Lamba region¹⁰Doke 1927: Story IV, notes from Doke..

We made no recording of the Lala version of this story, but we did record the oral notation of the first pattern in this story. In Chibale, this line goes: Kubuko ikanga bantana – At my in-laws they refuse me a guinea fowl. It is part of Music example 57, above.
The story illustrates that a son-in-law should not expect things he has caught or hunted to necessarily be his. His parents-in-law might test him. The two played lines represent master bellows (nsapa) rhythms which the older men could understand without words. Presumably, they were not spoken, and perhaps not even ‘chanted’, but only played on the master bellows. Communicating like this could also be done on the ngolwa.