Gatherings with music in Zambia: rituals of mourning

Gatherings with music in Zambia: rituals of mourning. Mourning and its rituals are very important in Chibale. We will discuss the funeral rituals and the rituals that take place, sometimes years, after the initial mourning. We will also look at the ritual for all the deceased chiefs of Chibale together, the Ipupo lya fikankomba.

Cililo

The Cililo (‘place or occasion of mourning’) is a funeral vigil, lasting one night and one or two days. In most Cililo, the next of kin of the deceased lament musowa wa mfwa on the morning after the vigil night.
The music during the evening and night of the Cililo can take one of three forms:

1. People sing cinsengwe accompanied by struck iron idiophones, shaken idiophones, and one-note xylophones or a single drum; there is no dancing.

2. Similar to Cililo 1 but there are also one or more Ciwila mediums who sing and dance (to the accompaniment of a set of three drums).

3. The choir of the christian group to which the deceased belonged performs mourning and other christian songs.

The third form was already more prevalent in the 1980s, and in the period that followed, the first two forms have become rare.
People organise a Cililo for every death, except for the death of stillborn babies. Many people attend. Most of them will stay for a few hours during the day, or they will keep vigil throughout the night. One of the characteristics is the provision of abundant food to the attendees, in accordance with the story and the aphorism presented in A theory on music. Some refer to the ritual as kulilafye (sheer mourning) because so shortly after death, it is not possible to perform kupupa for the spirit of the deceased. Therefore, the mourning is sheer mourning since it does not have the (indirect) purpose of preventing or resolving ishamo attributable to other mourning.
The christian form is also often held for non-christians who have christian relatives.

Kufuta makasa

Gatherings with music in Zambia: rituals of mourning. Kufuta makasa (the wiping away of the footprints), also called Bwalwa bwa Cililo (Cililo beer party), was a mourning ritual exclusively for relatives and ritual friends, sometimes organised in the 1980s. Held two weeks to three months after the burial, it marked the conclusion of the after-burial period. The organisers brewed beer for it from the millet or maize left by the deceased. The house in which the deceased had died or had been placed (citandala) was burnt, and the death dues (yaka mutwe) were settled.

Ipupo

Gatherings with music in Zambia: rituals of mourning. Ipupo or Bwalwa bwe pupo (Great kupupa or Beer of the great kupupa) is a ritual that marks the end of the mourning period, approximately a year after death. At this point in time, the spirit of the deceased is at a stage where kupupa can be performed for it, hence the name. It has indicated its presence by appearing in dreams, or by making a child sick, or by causing beer to turn sour.
Family and ritual friends perform the kupupa in the early morning. The owners of the death pour beer on the ground of the house where the deceased died or at the grave. If the deceased died elsewhere, they pour it under a large tree or along the road. Dancing by mediums, mainly Ciwila, begins after sunset. Around midnight, beer is shared with all present. Following this, everyone dances social dances until sunrise. The problematic situation that existed when the spirit of the deceased was not approachable has now ended. Therefore, everyone, including the next of kin of the deceased, can dance to rejoice (pa kwangala).

Two Ipupo songs

Song 147

A Ciwila song brought by Kansenkele at an Ipupo in Makonde, 1981.

Text of Song 147 ∵ There is death in this world

Panse paliba kufwa
Ne Calaula nande kwa Mulungu bakomfwaya nafwa mayo

There is death in this world
I, the possession dancer, am also wanted by God, I die, mother

It is a lesson song. It teaches the people that an Ipupo is a mourning ritual and not a beer party.
Shemu Mambwe (human name of Kansenkele) ∵ personal communication, 1981.

Song 148

A cinsengwe made by the ing’omba Mulongwe¹See the masamba ing’omba. as sung by Mika Mwape Chungwa, 1986.

Text of Song 148 ∵ You have hidden the Ipupo for me

BanaShitima banaShitima banaShitima
Mwalimfishile ubwalwa bwa malilo
Bwe bwalwa bwa malilo

BanaShitima, banaShitima, banaShitima
You have hidden the funeral beer for me
This here is the funeral beer party

In former days, the presence of a medium belonging to a certain clan at an Ipupo organised by someone belonging to that clan was imperative. Mulongwe brought this song [at an old Beer party]. The husband of banaShitima had died and Mulongwe had not attended the Cililo. When he came to our village, Koni, he told her to brew beer for Ipupo and inform him. She, however, kept it hidden from him, and he missed the Ipupo. Then he made this song. She was of the Mbushi (Goat) clan, just like Mulongwe. That’s why he wanted to dance at the Ipupo she organised.
Mika Mwape Chungwa ∵ personal communication, 1986.

Changes in the Ipupo in the 1980s

Gatherings with music in Zambia: rituals of mourning. Since the arrival of Mwami, there has been a tendency to have the Ciwila mediums dance throughout the entire night of the Ipupo, comparable to the larger Cibombe. This was the case at nearly half of the Ipupo rituals in the 1980s. The idea behind this was that the problem-solving power of the Ipupo would be greater if the heating by the mediums lasted longer.
This is related to the fact that people no longer frequently organised the Ipupo as the conclusion of the mourning period. They held it more often ‘if necessary’: as a restorative ritual in times of major misfortune (ishamo). Often, this occurs after a shing’anga has diagnosed that one or more deceased (grand)parents are annoyed and are causing the misfortune. In the past, this dual use for mourning and restoration was presumably not uncommon as well. See the article on the relation between mourning and problem-solving.

List 24: Ipupo as the end of the mourning period or as a restorative ritual.

Of the 259 people interviewed in Survey 1985/86, 45 (17.4%) said they had organised one or more Ipupo in their lives. These Ipupo were organised between 2 months and 32 years after the burial. One quarter of them (11) said they ‘just organised the Ipupo‘ meaning as a mourning ritual: all in the case of the Kufuta makasa and 5 in the case of the Ipupo after one year. Three quarters said ‘the ancestral spirits (mupashi) asked for it’ through illness in the family (14), dreams (13), beer that went sour (5), or other adversity (2).
They were organised for the mother (23), the grandmother (5), the father (5), the son (4), the maternal uncle (3), or others (5). 31 organisers were women, and 14 were men.

Organising an Ipupo

Gatherings with music in Zambia: rituals of mourning. In the 1980s, at an Ipupo for a well-known person or organised by a well-known person where famous mediums came to dance, up to 500 people could be present at the same time. At other Ipupo around 300 people were present. Ipupo were more frequently organised during the beer season, with at least one or two held within a ten-kilometre radius every fortnight. During the rest of the year, Ipupo were organised less frequently.
Motives for attending Ipupo, in declining order, were: to see the dancing, to drink beer (which is free at Ipupo), to help, to dance, to honour the dead, for entertainment, and to sing.²Reasons given by the general public, in Survey 1985/86, to visit an Ipupo were: to see the dancing (34%); to drink beer (27.5%); to help (16%); to dance (9.5%); to honour the dead (5%); for entertainment (5%); and to sing (3%).

Organising an Ipupo, or Cibombe for that matter, was a heavy financial burden for the organiser, especially because of the beer. In 1987, the average quantity of three drums (600 litres) used at an Ipupo (or Cibombe) could have yielded a profit of US$ 22.5 if sold at a beer party. For this reason, people sometimes held the similar but much smaller ritual, the Bwalwa bwa nkombo instead of the (restorative) Ipupo. Another reason to organise the Bwalwa bwa nkombo for christians was that it was held less openly, giving them the opportunity to perform kupupa without offending fellow christians.

See the series of articles Fighting with songs for a detailed account, with a focus on the song texts used, of a particular Ipupo in 1987.

Ipupo lya fikankomba

Gatherings with music in Zambia: rituals of mourning. Ipupo lya fikankomba (the Ipupo for the deceased chiefs) or Kusekelela fikankomba (rejoicing about the works of the deceased chiefs) is a ritual for important ‘owners of the land’: the deceased chiefs of Chibale and their predecessors. It is held near the chiefly shrines (mpata) at the edge of chief Chibale’s village. At sunrise, offerings of mealie meal and beer are made there on the relics of the old chiefs, which for this ritual have been laid on the ground. They remain on the ground until the Ipupo stops the next morning. Two or three famous mediums, mostly Ciwila, are invited to come and dance in the evening and at night.

This ritual is the largest manifestation of the old chiefly cult in Chibale. It ‘should’ be held annually around the beginning of the rainy season, but chief Chibale waits until it is necessary. As a result, it is organised at times of drought or of many crimes, making it a kucitila ritual rather than a kwilimuna ritual. Between 1975 and 1990, for instance, it was held four times. It is not unlikely that in the past these were two different rituals, see the conflicting naming which classifies it as a kulila and a kwilimuna ritual respectively. It is possible that in former days annually a kwilimuna ritual (Kusekelela fikankomba) was held just before the rainy season would start and that a restorative ritual was held in times of troubles (Ipupo lya fikankomba).

Gatherings with music in Zambia: rituals of mourning. The Ipupo, with mediums dancing all night, the Ipupo lya fikankomba, and the various Cibombe resemble each other. The differences lie in the specific purposes of each ritual, a small number of specific activities at certain points in the ritual (like having the patient enter the dance circle), and in the song texts used. See the articles on the course of events and the spatial layout in the rituals at which the spirit-possessed perform and on the behaviour of the drummers and dancers at the rituals at which the spirit-possessed perform.