Chibale Zambia: the local cults

The local, central cults

Chibale Zambia: the local cults. In Chibale, many people are christians. Those who are not christians, but also the christians in times of complicated problems, can be said to adhere to a local cult that is an amalgam and transformation of older local, central cults, namely ecological, ancestral, and chiefly cults. The present-day possession cults are heavily linked to these cults.

Ecological cults

The cult of the mpanga was an ecological cult. It was oriented towards the area in which the villages lay and concerned the exchange of important ‘goods’. Read the story of Mr(s) Mpanga and Mr(s) Village. The mpanga is the land outside the villages (mushi), more particularly the land untouched by human culture. It is an ambiguous concept since nowadays it is used to refer to the spirit world as well. Mpanga comprises all that is not of human origin (nature, nature spirits). And it comprises entities that are of human origin (ancestral spirits, the spirits of specialists and of chiefs).
I speculate that the set of spirits considered to be bene bampanga (owners of the mpanga) evolved over time. The persons or groups who could rightfully claim to have access to bene bampanga held considerable advantages. This could go through shrines or through spirit possession. There are two processes of prime importance, the obtainment (kupoka) from the mpanga and the giving (kupupa) to the mpanga. People specialised in these processes are often mediums. Music, dance, text, and ritual are important in these processes.

Ancestral cults

Possession of specialists by the spirits of specialists is remembered for ing’omba (singers/dancers/composers – leaders of rituals), great hunters, and healers. Sometimes smelters and blacksmiths are mentioned as well. They were important, if not central, individuals in the ecological cults and the ancestral cults.

Chiefly cults

Characteristics of these cults can be recognised in the chiefly cult. At rituals and in times of crisis, the chief worked with the three types of specialists. The Mapunde and Mwana Kubuta periods undermined the chieftainship. Presumably, this led to a resurgence of hunting and ing’omba possession. They remained linked to chieftainship, albeit in a rather loose way.

The remnants of the local, central cults

The remnants of the local, central cults especially serve certain types of problem prevention, problem-solving and healing. Much of this happens within the personal and family circle but they all still have larger manifestations. These are hunting rituals (Cilili), mourning rituals (Cililo and Ipupo), and manifestations centred around the chiefly shrines (mpata). Chiefly cult features are increasingly placed within the framework of identity and cultural heritage.
Other important manifestations of the local cults occur in the possession cults and their rituals. The worldview of the cult group leaders, also healers, is inspired by the ecological cult, the oldest, remembered cult.

The local, peripheral cults

Chibale Zambia: the local cults. Peripheral (non-central) spirit possession emerged as early as the 19th century, possibly connected to Mashabe possession. In any case, it appeared in the first half of the 1910s (Moba possession). In these types of possession, the interests of the individual spirit-possessed are more prominent than the communal interests. Both Mashabe and Moba cults originated from outside the Lala region. They seem to have undergone a process of Lalafication, through which they gradually acquired characteristics of the central cults.

The Fetulo period saw a decline in small-scale and large-scale crises such as those experienced during the Mapunde and Mwana kubuta periods. And, christian denominations, notably Jehovah’s Witnesses, began to gain more followers. Cults of affliction, spirit possession, and other manifestations of the older local cults decreased in influence, reaching a low point in the 1960s.

Resurgence in the 1970s

During the 1970s, the number of christians declined, and a new cult of affliction rose, one with significant influence. The appearance of Mwami possession cult groups in Chibale caused a revitalisation of two older possession types: Kaluwe and Ciwila. Rituals, organisation, and music, particularly of Ciwila, were gradually absorbed into the ‘Mwami model’. This was explicitly evidenced in the ritual where Ciwila mediums were of prime importance, the Ipupo. See the series of articles Fighting with songs. Mwami mediums also performed some of the functions of the older central, chiefly cult, such as first fruit rituals.

A complex combination of older and newer cults

Chibale Zambia: the local cults. In the 1990s, the area developed a more local economy with relative prosperity for more people. This caused, or rather: was, the next ‘cycle’: a diminishing of (the importance of) spirit possession and an increase in christianity, up to 90%, of the population.
This extremely concise impression of developments in the local cults is not sufficient to express the complexity of change processes. Let’s try to shed another light by telling the same story in other words.
Once, there was an ecological cult. It formed the model for an ancestral cult that came later, in which a cult of specialists (further) developed. The resultant of the dynamics between both cults formed a model for the next cult, the chiefly cult. It emerged when one clan successfully established hegemony of some sort. It was modelled on the two previous cults, but also held a dominant position towards them, thus changing them and itself. Sometime during this dynamic process, the chief’s power diminished due to external circumstances. On the one hand, this led to a resurgence of the two transformed older cults. On the other hand, it led to the emergence of externally derived possession cults of another nature: cults of affliction.
In the following period, the latter were localised, thus changing them into another type of local cult, resembling but also partly in struggle with and transforming the three transformed ‘original’ local cults. In the period that followed, external christian cults came to the fore that were hardly localised¹Contrary to the situation described for some other parts of Zambia, there has been little or no cross-over between the christian and the possession cults., while the older cults became marginalised.

The situation in the 1980s

This process started changing when a new cult emerged, possibly itself the product of the localisation and ‘centralisation’ of a cult of affliction in the Copperbelt regions: the Lamba, Lima, and Lenje areas. Though partly functioning as a cult of affliction, it also fulfilled functions of the old local central cults. It revitalised the older possession cults and the remnants of the older local, central cults. At the same time this gave rise to tensions between them.

Like the older, transformed cults themselves, the possession cults in the 1980s were transformations of the ecological, ancestral, and chiefly cults. Click for short descriptions of manifestations of the transformed, central cults: Kupupa, Kubuka, Bwalwa bwa nkombo, Kufuta makasa, Cililo 1, Cililo 2, Bwalwa, Cibombe, Ipupo and Cilili.

Local cults and the history of music

Chibale Zambia: the local cults. This was the arena formed by the local and possession cults in the 1980s. As much of Chibale music and its history is so tightly linked to the local cults, this story also serves to illustrate some of the complexity of endeavouring to reconstruct a local history of music.
This tight link results in this website paying much more attention to music connected to the local and possession cults than to other main types, like the newer, exogenous christian musics.