Chibale Zambia: cultural similarities with the areas around Chibale

Chibale Zambia: cultural similarities with the areas around Chibale. Referring to regional characteristics by giving them a tribal attribute is very common in Chibale. We will follow this habit here to discuss cultural similarities and differences between regions.

The Lala region lies in Serenje and Mkushi districts and across the border in Congo (DRC). It includes areas sometimes presented as separate or culturally different. The Ambo area in the south, the neighbouring area of the abena Luano, and the Swaka area in Mkushi district.

Strong historical and cultural similarities exist with the Lima and Lamba regions in the west. Also, the similarities with the Lenje region are significant. The latter may be challenging for those who regard language as the most meaningful feature of culture

The Kaonde-Lamba-Lenje-Lala area

Chibale Zambia: cultural similarities with the areas around Chibale. The Chibale possession cults regard the rather large area, about 100,000 square kilometres, comprising the Lala, Lamba and Lenje regions, as well as parts of the Kaonde and Sanga regions, to be culturally and religiously connected. They use no special name for this area, so we will refer to it as the Kaonde-Lamba-Lenje-Lala area. An argument is that spirits from this large area possess people in that area. A second argument is that the people in this area share an extensive repertoire of music. Rituals, songs and dances have been exchanged and are still exchanged.

Map C: An impression of the Kaonde-Lamba-Lenje-Lala area that is considered by many in Chibale to be culturally interconnected.

The area forms the southern side of the border between the regions in South Central Africa where people sing in parallel thirds, like the Bemba region, and in parallel fourths & fifths respectively.

Map D: A part of the map presented by Jones.¹Jones (1959:224-228). The red square delineates Map C’s borders. In black are the areas where people use parallel thirds in polyphony. We see that the Lala region (part of M52), and all other regions in the Kaonde-Lamba-Lenje-Lala area, are on the parallel fourths & fifths side of the border between areas with parallel thirds and areas with parallel fourths & fifths.

Parallel fourths and thirds

Chibale Zambia: cultural similarities with the areas around Chibale. Based on linguistic evidence, but also for political reasons²“The fact that Zambia possesses four major language groups, rather than three or twenty, and that each group is located in the parts of the country that it is, is critical for understanding the dynamics of the country’s contemporary politics. The political dominance of the Bemba-speaking community is directly related to its large size and the fact that it came to dominate the politically crucial mining towns of the Copperbelt.” Daniel N. Posner (2003: 130), The Colonial Origins of Ethnic Cleavages: The Case of Linguistic Divisions in Zambia, Comparative Politics 35, 2 (2003): 127-146., ‘the Lala’ (including the Ambo, abena Luano and the Swaka) and ‘the Lamba’ including ‘the Lima’ are nationally part of the Bemba group. However, culturally there is more similarity to ‘the Lenje’, who ‘belong to’ the Tonga language group, and ‘the Kaonde’.

It is true that the Lala language has many similarities with the Bemba language. However, we can deduce from the material on this site that culturally and religiously they are not that similar. In Chibale, Bemba music is considered tenyimbo: “no music”. Or, as somebody put it: “Only their imfunkutu songs enable a person to say: ‘Hey, that’s a song’.”

A brain-racking discrepancy

Chibale Zambia: cultural similarities with the areas around Chibale. Kubik³Kubik (1988: 44f). comes up with a possible explanation of this, as he calls it ‘brain-racking’, discrepancy between linguistic and musical orientation in the Lala (and the Lamba) region. He suggests it may be related to “the transculturative encounter in this region (South Central Africa) between heterogeneous musical cultures, namely, those of the early Bantu migrants associated with the Early Iron Age Industrial Complex and of the San hunter-gatherers once occupying this area” which was ‘cracked’ by the influx of ‘(parallel) thirds people’ on its northern fringes”.
My suggestion is that the discrepancy and the apparent similarities between Lala and San music may be explained by the fact that new migrants (never – in case of the ‘thirds people’ – or only after quite some time – in case of the ‘fourths people’) may have obtained, or wanted to obtain, control over the (musical) contact between the people and the mpanga. See the section about the encounter with the small-statured people who lived in the Lala region before ‘the’ Lala. And, not a few in Chibale think that the area is the producer of local music and culture. The music of this region comes from the mpanga. Therefore, linguistic changes may not have been accompanied by musical changes.

Conclusion

Chibale Zambia: cultural similarities with the areas around Chibale. The articles on this site are about music and related dance, text and ritual in Chibale, but they are relevant to a far larger area in South Central Africa.