Chibale Zambia: religion, introduction

Chibale Zambia: religion introduction. In Chibale, religion and music are closely related.
A vital form of grouping in Chibale is that based on religious orientation. One becomes a member of a christian or possession cult group because of the convictions it stands for. Also important are the economic and social attitudes it legitimises and the (spiritual) benefits one hopes to derive from membership. Changing religious affiliation is not rare. It is a result of dissatisfaction with the benefits achieved.
From the the 1910s, organised groups of christian denominations started. The first denomination was the Church of Scotland which in 1965 merged in the United Church of Zambia (UCZ), then the Jehovah’s Witnesses and later the Roman Catholics. Starting in 1990s other christian denominations -like the Jehovah’s witnesses often of USA origin- also started groups.
In the 1980s, many of the people who were ‘not christian’ also were not members of a possession cult group. The ones adhering to the convictions and practices of the local cults do not form groups.
Organised groups of spirit possessed with the characteristics of cults of affliction have probably existed since the end of the 19th century.
Most people, except for the inner circle of Jehovah’s Witnesses, also adhere to and investigate aspects of ‘the other side’.

Membership of christian cult groups

Through the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in the United States of America, the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Chibale were and are part of an international organisation serving many countries. Adaptation of preaching to the local conditions is far less elaborate than that of the UCZ and the Roman Catholics. See also the article on following rules of life.
The Watch Tower magazine, for instance, translated from English into many languages of the world, is a translation, not an adaptation. The Watch Tower Society is a bureaucratised organisation within which “emphasis is placed on individual achievement (as regards to lifestyle, industriousness, preaching, proselytising, and expertise in doctrine) and self-discipline as prerequisites for advancement in the hierarchy”.¹Long (1968a: 398, 403, 404). An important doctrine of the Watch Tower Society is that we are living in ‘the time of the End’, the last phase before God’s new kingdom. Witnesses place emphasis on obtaining salvation. And on the fact that they will be the only ones able to enter God’s new kingdom once it comes.
The United Church of Zambia (UCZ) is organised in a local and interregional hierarchical structure.
For their leadership the Roman Catholics depend on European and, increasingly, national missionaries. The UCZ and the Catholics have ‘Africanised’ liturgies. For Chibale this means: in the Bemba language, with (some) drumming and with (some) dancing. For an example, click here.²See also the articles about christian songs and dances and about christian gatherings with music.

Fluctuations in the number of christians

It is said that before the 1970s many people had become christians and that during the 1970s and in the 1980s this number diminished. In the 1980s surveys the percentage was around 60% of the total population. In the course of the 1990s the number started to grow again, see List 21. This seems to be proportional to the relative peace and wealth of these periods. In the more disruptive periods, the number of christians declined and the possession cult groups and the remnants of the three local, central cults became more important. The increase of the number of christians in the 1990s and 2000s was accompanied by the arrival of new denominations. Notably the 7th Day Adventists but also the Pentecostal Church, the New Apostolic Church and the Baptists.

Elaboration K: Christianity and strategy

“My car has no clan,” said one of the few car owners in 1986 to his sister’s son. The latter wanted a lower price for his transport from Chibale to Serenje Boma, the district centre. This mixture of rudeness and bravery –gross infringements of matrilineal ‘rules’ were supposed to provoke witchcraft accusations– is instructive. The man who said it, was an influential Witness and showed how independent christians could, or hoped to, be from matrilineal constraints. The fact that it was the cause of much debate shows the delicacy of this striving for independence, which sought to “justify business interests and to modify family and descent ties to restrict consumer demands”.³Poewe (1977: 304). See also Seur (1992: passim) who gives detailed descriptions of the strategies used, by Jehovah’s Witnesses, as to farming, distribution of goods and inheritance, mutual support and the like.

Adhering to convictions and practices connected to the local, central cults

Chibale Zambia: religion introduction. In the 1980s, 40% of the population was not connected to a christian group; in the 2000s, this was 10%. These people adhere to some of the practices and convictions of the old local, central cults especially those connected to problem solving and prevention, and healing. They do not form groups like the christians and the spirit possessed do. Most of their practices happen in the personal and family circle but they all still have larger manifestations like hunting rituals (Cilili), mourning rituals (Cililo and Ipupo) and manifestations centred around the chiefly shrines (mpata). Other important manifestations of the local cults occur in the possession cults and their rituals.

Membership of possession cult groups

In the 1980s surveys 12% said that they were members of a possession cult group as a possessed. Non-possessed could temporarily or for a longer period be members of a possession cult group as well. These were women who were barren and women who had been barren and had been healed by the shing’anga, the leader of the possession cult group. Also family members of the possessed could be members of the cult group. Taking this into account, it is a reasonable estimate that 18% of the people in Chibale were members of a possession cult group in the 1980s. Quite some possessed combined this with a membership of one of the christian groups, notably UCZ and Roman Catholics. On the other hand, membership of one christian group was never combined with that of another. See List 22.
In the 1970s and 1980s, there was a shift of, notably female, Jehovah’s Witnesses to forms of ‘non-christian’ religious orientation, in this case to membership of a possession cult group. A significant part (27%) of the mediums still claimed to be a member of a christian group. With the other possessed, either patients or initiated possessed who were not in harmony with their possessing spirits, this part was much larger and similar to the religious orientation of the total population.

Religious orientation and musical orientation

Chibale Zambia: religion introduction. Multidimensional scaling of the surveys’ data on religious orientation and selections of the collected data on musical evaluation or song text interpretation invariably places the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the spirit possessed at opposite ends. Possession cult group members – other ‘non-christians’ – UCZ and Roman Catholics – Jehovah’s Witnesses. Opinions of both groups about each other were not symmetrical. In general, I found the possessed to be more relaxed about Witnesses and their beliefs than vice versa.

Articles about religion in Chibale

For more information about religion in Chibale follow the links.

Local cults in Chibale

Gatherings of the local cults

Rules of life in an expanding world

Spirit possession in Chibale and follow the links in that article.