Chibale, Zambia: homogeneity and heterogeneity

Chibale, Zambia: the theme homogeneity and heterogeneity. If readers were to compare Seur (1992) with IJzermans (1995), both publications concerning Chibale phenomena, they might feel they were reading about two different universes. Seur focuses on processes of agricultural change, the strategic behaviour of individuals and groups, and agricultural entrepreneurship, and it contains many (extended) cases and dialogues with the people studied. It is a restudy of Long (1968b), which dealt with comparable subjects. It reduces practically all human motives to those of the agricultural entrepreneur and religious affiliation to Jehovah’s Witnesses. This partial reality bore little resemblance to the partial reality I studied in more or less the same area in the five years preceding Seur’s stay in Chibale.
One may simply explain the differences by pointing to the wondrous ways of North Atlantic motives and reductionism. However, the cause may also lie partly in the conditions in Chibale. It is certainly not impossible to single out a grouping of people who distinguish themselves through a specific set of aspects. All kinds of groupings of people compete for influence and a certain way of life. Groupings can be based on religious orientation, political orientation, clan, area within Chibale, farming strategy, and cultural practice. Some groupings, such as those based on religious beliefs, attempt to monitor a large number of aspects of their members’ lives, while other groupings deal only with a specific set of aspects.

Heterogeneity

Chibale, Zambia: homogeneity and heterogeneity form an unavoidable thread when examining Chibale issues. This site does not delve into all the historical, social, and cultural factors underlying this theme, but to understand something about music in Chibale, it is necessary to recognise its importance. Heterogeneity in Chibale has two aspects. Firstly, the differences between groupings can be substantial. Secondly, within a grouping, differences are the norm. There is little indication that this has been different in the last two centuries. Wim van Binsbergen¹See for instance van Binsbergen (1992: 258-261). has argued in many places that an important part of the ‘contradictions’ relate to the variform historical background of the subsystems constituting present-day society. These contradictions are expressed and temporarily averted in ritual; an explanatory model opened up by Victor Turner²For instance in Turner (1968)..

Chibale, Zambia: homogeneity and heterogeneity. The general tendency towards heterogeneity can be interpreted as a sign of the absence, or lack of dominance, for a long time, of a common frame of reference, a kind of ‘body of homogeneity’ or ideology of cultural and social unity. Conversely, the acceptance of heterogeneity leads to the acceptance in discussions and disputes of all kinds of reasoning which, alongside uncertainty, provided flexibility in times of change.³Compare, for instance, Seur (1992: 289): Again, we may conclude that women (as well as men) in Nchimishi often treat matrilineal ideology and its related norms as a kind of strategic resource used in various ways and in different contexts to further personal or collective interests and objectives.

Homogeneity

The various groupings use (fictional) bodies of homogeneity. These can be relatively concrete and explicit –though typically not undisputed– as with the Jehovah’s Witnesses or the spirit-possessed, but they can also be idealistic, as, for instance, is done by the development-oriented commercial farmers.

In the past, as others must have told you, people were guided by tradition. But I think we are undergoing what you might call a cultural revolution, and it will take us some time before we get some certainty again, before new rules and customs will appear. So, you will see different things taking place at different farms, until we reach the time when things will be sure again, then we will have a new culture.
Musonda Chunga ∵ in Seur (1992: 283).

Apart from the ‘inner circle’ of Jehovah’s Witnesses, people belonging to divergent groupings do not ignore each other. Empathy for those with alternative viewpoints is not rare. Heterogeneity is clearly an important characteristic of Chibaleness, and the shared Lalaness is one of the factors providing some homogeneity.

Continue to the article about the theme regionality and nationality.