Evaluation of music in Zambia: skill and success

Evaluation of music in Zambia: skill and success. In the past, individuals with an extraordinary talent for important work were mediums. They were possessed by spirits of deceased specialists who had had the same talent. This provided the right to the benefits derived from the application of the skill related to that talent. Spirit possession caused and explained an individual’s success in performing one of these works. This was still the case in the 1980s. This was not a minor point in a region where differences between two comparable cases provoked suspicion. People could easily interpret such differences as the result of malice from the one on the positive side of the disparity. Witchcraft has been a critical issue in Chibale throughout the 20th century and continues to be so.
Possession can also be at play with less important talent. It serves as an explanation in the case of a talent or a great propensity for a certain activity. A dedication to a certain work, such a handicraft, hoeing, or playing a musical instrument. At least those connected to the local and possession cults regard such individuals as having a particular, mild, form of Kaluwe possession. The only rule of life (mushila) for such individuals, called muKaluwe utashana (non-dancing Kaluwe-possessed), is that they perform their work frequently and ardently. They are often unaware of their possession until things go wrong.

Ways of looking at skill in other regions

Evaluation of music in Zambia: skill and success. Tracey¹Tracey (1965: 31)., writing about the Shona region, describes how a performer’s skill awakens the appropriate spirit (shawi) of the listener. Music and interest/affect (manyawi) are the mediating means on the side of the performer and listener, respectively. Music and interest/affect are means to an end. The shawi will not appear without the means of skilfully performed music. Skill and spirit are autonomous entities. A father will often say that he hopes the shawi of his craft will awaken in his son.
It is tempting to hypothesise that the Shona way of ‘handling’ the possession of skill was one of the causes of the success of Mashabe possession throughout (East) South Central Africa. It may have been used to break through existing structures that monopolised the gains from the application of skills.

For the Kaonde region too, a connection has been described between spirit (possession) and skill. Melland²Melland (1923: 150). states: “If a youth becomes an exceptionally good hunter, he is supposed to have inherited this skill unexpectedly from someone deceased, and is called his ciwilo”. The latter is derived from kuwila: to spirit possess.

Apthorpe³Apthorpe (1962: 4). sheds a different light on the ownership of skill.

“At a puberty ceremony in a more northern village in Petauke, an instructress explained to me that in ideal Nsenga practice the mother of the master-drummer would herself be an instructress, and she and her son, in their different capacities, should attend always the same ceremonies sharing one ciselo. Ciselo in this context may be translated as ‘ritual kit’, though it also has the connotation of the ritual skill itself and the inherited right to possess it and use it.”

Spirit possession and success in Chibale

Evaluation of music in Zambia: skill and success. In the 1980s, many regarded spirit possession as a reasonable, though certainly not undisputed, explanation for talent and success. This concerned healing, (directing) hunting, bringing new songs, and minor talents such as being proficient at playing an (important) musical instrument. Furthermore, a clear relationship existed between the success a medium had during the possession rituals in bringing songs and dancing, and the quality that people could expect of the other important work that that medium performed. Their musical ability and success represented their capacity to act as mediators between the human world and the mpanga. As such, it provided a measure of the quality of their other work. See also the article on popularity.

Kumfwana, talent and success

Evaluation of music in Zambia: skill and success. The spirit-possessed person (muntu) does not possess the talent leading to the success of a medium; it is the ability of the possessing spirit. Kumfwana, mutual understanding, is the desired relationship between the spirit and the spirit-possessed. Kumfwa: to hear, listen, understand, feel; -na indicates reciprocity. Someone in the first phase of possession is ill because kumfwana between them and the spirit is not yet possible. The healing process aims at finding out how the patient can attain kumfwana. Another sign that kumfwana is missing is the lack of success of the spirit-possessed in music and dance, and the inability of the possessing spirit to sing or dance through the spirit-possessed. The sign of optimal kumfwana is success.

People can measure success in two ways. One could look for the practical success the possessed individual has. Does the shing’anga receive new methods for healing and solving problems? Does the Kaluwe medium succeed in directing the hunters to the correct place at the correct time? And, does the Ciwila medium always bring new, effective songs?
One can also look at whether the possessed individual is successful in starting songs and in dancing during rituals.
People could check the latter more easily than the former. As a result, in the 1980s, the success in the bringing of songs and in dancing was the more important sign of true kumfwana.

Criteria to assess the success of performers

Evaluation of music in Zambia: skill and success. See the articles Judgements about performers for the criteria that were used to assess the success of singers/composers, dancers, and drummers. The article also contains a comparison between the judgements made in the 1980s and the 2000s.