BanaNshimbi

BanaNshimbi of the Ngoma (Drum) clan was born in Chibati village in Chibale chiefdom in 1925. Her father was a hunter. At the end of the 1930s, she left with her parents for Kabwe where they became Jehovah’s Witnesses. Later, she moved to her brother in chief Nkole’s area, near Kapiri Mposhi.
In 1971, she became ill there. She talked without stopping from morning until sleeping and only felt pain when she stopped talking. Her talk was about witches; when somebody passed she would say whether they were using witchcraft or not. The talking was done by the spirits. She was brought to a prominent Mwami shing’anga, Mwengu (human name: Losimeli). She tried out everything on her until it turned out she reacted to Mwami medicines. First came Ndubeni, the spirit of a Lima chief. He left her when her first husband died in 1972. Then came Lonika, the spirit of a Lamba chief. When she remarried in 1973, Ndubeni returned. Ndubeni only diagnosed (Kubuka), without singing and dancing. Lonika sang and danced and helped infertile people who wanted children. Her third spirit was a Ciwila, Chiwilinkita, a lame man who, as a spirit, could dance through her. During treatment, she had dreams of many plates, clothes, and money, all signs of wealth. Therefore, she presumed she would become a prominent shing’anga. Ndubeni appeared to her as a boy with a miner’s helmet, saying: “Don’t be worried, you’ll have all those things after some time.” The price of the treatment was two cows, one of which was slaughtered at her Cibombe ca kumwensho mulopa, her initiation as an independent shing’anga. When her first husband had died, she went back to her parents in Kabwe but Ndubeni did not agree. He wanted her to go to Chibale to heal, so he left her. Some time later, her parents decided to go back to Chibale.

When she returned to Chibale in 1973, no Cibombe were held there. She introduced the Cibombe. Before that, many people had died or gone mad because nobody knew how to cure their illness. Her arrival brought an end to this. The medicines against Mwami illness were therefore called miti ya mishilu, medicines against madness, and the spirit-possessed were often jokingly referred to as madmen or spouses of madness (bamukabuluya). In the beginning, she sang all the time, and people started informing with her neighbours who she was. They then said: “Oh, she is the Mwami from Nkole.” Then a child became sick, and she healed it. This gave her a name. Within three months, she was known as the prominent shing’anga who could treat Mwami illness. Soon, people came from all around, also from Lusaka, Ndola, Kabwe, Chitwe, Chisomo, Muchinda, Kabamba, and Selenje. She clearly fulfilled a need.
In the beginning, people found her songs strange, and it took time before the chorus could take over her songs. Drumming was also a problem. Her (second) husband then convinced an experienced Mwami drummer in Ndola, Pepa Bulaya, to come back to Chibale. He became her iyikulu player. Others who regularly played for her, also learned Mwami drumming in Ndola: Katumpa Bulanga, Ngosa Bulanga, and her son Edwin. At the end of 1973, she organised her first Cibombe as a shing’anga with only Mwami patients. Later, she started treating other illnesses. She had many patients then, all in her village. More so than in the 1980s, after the arrival of Chalebaila and others. None of her adepts has become a shing’anga.

From the 1970s to the 1990s, she was one of the two prominent shing’anga of Chibale. Her success as a healer was matched by her dancing power and the dramatic quality of her (healing) behaviour. In the first half of the 1990s, she became ill and from then on only danced occasionally, falling ill again until 2002 when she became immobile and stuporous. After a year, her daughter took her to her farm. The possession spirits were still with her and helped her through this period. She died of old age in 2005.