Interpretation of music in Zambia: wisdom and heart

Interpretation of music in Zambia: wisdom and heart. A contrast often used in Chibale is between mano and mutima, wisdom and heart. There is a strong connection between these two central, interrelated concepts and music contexts and experiences.

Definition of wisdom (mano) and heart (mutima)

A variety of meanings are associated with mutima and mano, including the physical (heart – brain), the social (selfishness – sociality), and the spiritual (intuition – wisdom).

Proverb 131¹Example from the proverb book Amano mambulwa.

Mutima e muntu wine

Ubuntu bweka tabwa pwililikapo.
Tulafwaya amano akubwena bambi mu micitile yabo. Twalibatemwa paficitwa fyabo ifiweme nokubapata pa ficitwa fyabo ifibipile. Amano alasokolola buciine bwa bantu kupitila mu micitile yabo. Tekutipo fibombe fyeka, ukwabula ukwikatana.

The heart is the human self

Human beings alone are not complete.
We need wisdom to see others as they are through their actions. We will love them when they do good and hate them when they do evil. Wisdom will reveal people’s true nature through their actions. It cannot function in isolation, without social interaction.

The human stripped of spirits is not socially oriented. Mano brings in consideration.

Proverb 141²Example from the proverb book Amano mambulwa.³Photo 158.

Iciiba mutima, iminwe taibapo

Fwailisheni fili ku mutima ifilenga fimo ukucitika.
Umutima ku muntu ekampingu wafintu akofwaya ukucita. Ulunkumbwa nalo ilyo amenso abona lulenga umutima ukufwailisha inshila yakukwatilamo cilya cintu.
Icikonkapo kutemwa ukubula cilya cintu nangu ukwiba pakuti ba mutima basekelemo. Mwabona nomba, iminwe eyisenda ncilya cintu. Kunuma nku, kabwalala bali kumuputula amaboko pakuti bonse bamubone. Iminwe yaculilamo, libe umutima wikele tondolo.
Fwe bantu ilinji line bambi balafwaya ukutubomfya pakuti ngawaikatwa bonse bakaseka iwe. Kanshi tube abaibukila pa fintu abantu bambi bakofwaya fwe tubacitile.

The thief is the heart, not the fingers

Try to find out what is behind a certain action.
The heart in a person decides what to do. Want of something after the eyes have seen it, makes the heart look for ways in which to act. What follows is the desire to have that item through theft. Now you can see: the hands pick that item! but the decision was made by the heart. Long ago, a thief had his hand cut off so that everybody could see! The hands suffered while the heart was safe. Often ordinary people are the ones who are being used in evil acts so that at the end they will be blamed instead of the real perpetrators. So let us be careful to check what assignments they want us to undertake on their behalf.

Proverb 231⁴See also the proverb book Amano mambulwa.

Amano mambulwa
Wisdom is acquired [from others]

Doke⁵Doke (1927: proverb 88) also mentions it for the Lamba region.
Amano kubulwa and Amano mambulwa.
Wisdom consists in being told.

A word of correction to the self-satisfied, who considers that he knows everything.

And⁶Doke (1927: proverb 1688):
Bumano ndi li kwatile te bo, amano mambulwa.
It is not wisdom-I-have-of-myself, wisdom is being-told.

See also Proverb 179.

Two exegetes on wisdom and heart

Mutima is influenced by intrinsic badness (ciwa) and wisdom (mano). Mutima is directed towards the person him/herself, while mano is directed to other persons. Here, you can compare it with work that is for the person him/herself or work that is also for others, such as honey gathering, hunting, bridge building, or healing. The possession spirits do the latter, the works of wisdom (milimo ya mano). This is one of the most powerful issues in life.
BanaNshimbi ∵ personal communication, 1987.

Mano is a way of thinking from which others can benefit and which gives them a path to follow. You know the young man who drowned in the Lukusashi River [trying to bring home a heavy load of game over a swollen river all by himself]; he followed his mutima, not listening to the stories of previous disasters in like circumstances which mano brought forward.
An ideal person (muntu wa cine) would be completely guided by mano. This, however, is not possible because mutima is the person himself.
All these stories about Kalulu (the hare). Kalulu is the one always following the mutima, and he gets away with it… I will tell you a story about Kalulu and Lion in which you can see that bad spirits (cibanda) are in Kalulu while Lion is pure. You see, Kalulu tries to persuade Lion to do something dangerous just for his [Kalulu’s] own needs. It is clearly a fight between mutima and mano. That’s why we bring a hare into the village without the head.
Mika Mwape Chungwa ∵ personal communication, 1986.

Wisdom and heart and the way music is experienced

Interpretation of music in Zambia: wisdom and heart. Mutima comprises the feelings induced by emotions and certain other physical circumstances. In some cases, such as with pain, this is unmediated. “Pain goes straight to the heart.”

Fear, anger, love, aversion, illness, jealousy, pain, sorrow, and grief are all put in the mutima. There are situations that are ‘too mutima’ but there are none that are ‘too mano‘. Singing, playing instruments, and dancing relate to mutima, while watching dancing, and watching and listening to the drums and the singing relate to mano. So, you see that these aspects come together at a ritual.
Alube Mika ∵ personal communication, 2004.

This also leads people to say that singing while pounding is bringing mano and maka (energy/strength) together.

Interpretation of music in Zambia: wisdom and heart. We see that the mano-mutima contrast is not expressed in music itself, but in the experience of music and in its contexts. Among other things, these contexts are opportunities to bring the two together.
The more general idea of ​​understanding ritual as the meeting or temporary reconciliation of contrasts finds form here in the temporary bringing together of the inevitable human self with the wisdom of social orientation.