Gatherings with music in Zambia: get-togethers of women and girls

Gatherings with music in Zambia: get-togethers of women and girls. In the evening, women and girls from one farm or neighbouring farms may sit together outside (Pa kwisha). They sing, play games, and sometimes dance there. The Pa kwisha repertoire is large and varied. The gathering provides an opportunity to reproduce the women’s knowledge (cimbwasa), which is also dealt with during the instruction of the girl initiate; to share mourning songs for a deceased mother or grandmother; to criticise farm or marital life (cisango); to sing social dance songs (icila); to imitate spirit possession song and dance (cilaila); or to play games (kasela).¹See an example of a girls’ game.
Over the past few decades, these Pa kwisha gatherings have become less frequent. Among the reasons are less ‘spare’ time and living separately instead of in a village. Following the rekindling of the girls’ initiation in the beginning of the 2000s, women from various farms started holding occasional Pa kwisha indoors. They exchange Cisungu wisdom there through song and dance, and they promote the maka maka pa nanda, the real power in the house.

Exchange of songs between contexts and regions

Gatherings with music in Zambia: get-togethers of women and girls. Many are the names used for the songs, dances, and games performed at these gatherings. Women’s music has been exchanged between regions in an area even larger than the Kaonde-Lamba-Lenje-Lala area. It is striking that when an itemia taken over, its character and context can change. For instance, a song might be a mourning or kupupa song in one region and a girls’ game in another. See also the article on the owner of the song, which deals with women’s performances of ritual and men’s music.

Song 137

A cimbwasa sung by Malanke Mwape and women in Mukopa, 1981.

Text of Song 137 ∵ Neglecting smells

Kolya kopako mukwanu/akakwanu
Bufi bulanunka, Chibuye

Eat and leave something for your family
Neglecting smells, Chibuye

“You cannot hide what you are doing to your relatives. In the end, what you call a lie, is the truth because you feel ashamed of what you’ve done.”
Malanke Mwape ∵ personal communication, 1981.

Gatherings with music in Zambia: get-togethers of women and girls. Another type of song sung at Pa kwisha is the cisango, a critique of the husband and of a possible co-wife.

Song 138

An icila song sung at Pa kwisha by women in Mukopa, 1981.

Text of Song 138 ∵ Shake the hips like a sieve

Sefa lubunda
Sefa lubunda elele sefa waya
Sefa lubunda elele sefa lubunda

Shake the hips like a sieve
Shake the hips like a sieve elele sieve, shake
Shake the hips like a sieve elele shake the hips like a sieve