Chibale Zambia: types of spirit possession

Chibale Zambia: types of spirit possession. There are several types of spirit possession in Chibale: Kaluwe, Ciwila, and Mwami possession. Types of possession that have disappeared or nearly disappeared are Mashabe and Moba, respectively. There is a long tradition in the region of spirits possessing people to perform specific tasks: important communal work, notably hunting; singing, dancing and bringing (new) songs; and problem-solving, including healing. Many articles on this site cover spirit possession and its related music, dance, texts, and rituals. For an overview, click here.

Kaluwe possession

Kaluwe possession is kuwilwo ku milimo, spirit possession for important work. The Kaluwe mediums, baKaluwe, are hunters themselves or assist hunters. They tell hunters where and when to go. To a lesser extent, they may also help other food producers and performers of important communal work.
In the past, they were important in the rituals to open and close a hunt or a series of hunts. They were also able to resolve adversity, ishamo, in hunting or other important work.
The possessing spirits are spirits of deceased famous hunters. Kaluwe itself does not possess; it is a nature spirit, also called mwenshang’ombe or mwishang’ombe: the one who stays with the herds. At the same time, it has vague historical connotations: a very great hunter who lived long ago in Kola or even earlier.¹Grevisse (1956: 100) states that certain of his Basanga informants claim that Kaluwe or Luwe is the spirit of the great Kunda (in Congo) hunter Bili Kiluwe. Mbidi Kiluwe was the one who brought ‘kingly manners’, and more, to the Luba. He is connected to the founders of the Luba, Lunda, and Bemba kingdoms (see de Heusch 1972:10). Buluwe is the Luba word for the art of hunting and fishing. The cult for Kaluwe possibly replaced, or was a rekindling of, an older cult for Mulenga wa Mpanga.

Forms of Kaluwe possession

As with Ciwila possession, there are three forms of Kaluwe possession. Firstly, there is the successful Kaluwe mediumship that is linked to the central cults of old. These mediums lead groups of hunters to their prey and lead hunting rituals. Then, there are Kaluwe mediums who assist these famous mediums in guiding hunters and rituals. And, there are Kaluwe-possessed who are members of a cult of affliction group, led by a shing’anga (Mashabe and, later, Mwami). They mostly perform in the rituals organised by the cult group.

For a long time, external parties have viewed hunting as poaching. Since then, rituals involving Kaluwe mediums have been performed in secret.

Also see Kaluwe songs and dances.

Kaluwe possession in other areas

Kaluwe possession is or was widespread in Zambia and the south of Congo.
For the Lala region, information can be found in Stephenson (1937: 262), Lambo (1945: 331, 336), Munday (1948: 42), and Stefaniszyn (1951: passim). According to Stefaniszyn (1964: 156), Moba possession merged with, or localised into, Kaluwe possession in the Ambo (southern) part of the Lala region.
For Kaluwe and Kaluwe possession in other areas, see Doke (1931: 256, 324), Marchal (1933: 105), Grevisse (1956: 73, 100f), Turner (1968: 121f), Bantje (1978: 39), Gansemans (1978: 111), Haworth (1979: 10), and Mapoma (1980a: 80).
The hunting spirit-possessed described by Doke (the Lamba region) and Lambo (the Congo part of the Lala region) are called bayambo. In the 1980s and 1990s, there were two bayambo mediums in Chibale, both born in the Lima region.[/mfn]

Ciwila possession

Chibale Zambia: types of spirit possession. The work of the Ciwila mediums is to bring new songs, and dance at funerals (Cililo, Ipupo) and commemorating rituals. In former days, the latter included the coming out of the girl initiate (kufuminisha cisungu) and important beer parties. Since the end of the 1990s, Ciwila mediums also dance at cultural heritage occasions. The reason is that Ciwila possession is seen as typically Lala, also by people from the surrounding cultural regions.
The possessing spirits are mupashi, the spirits of dead people from the area.

The songs they bring are educational or informative (kufunda), covering many subjects. See, for instance, the overview of the subjects of the 75 new songs that the Ciwila medium Kansenkele brought at one Ipupo. The dancing is to attract people to listen and learn the song texts through singing while watching.

The role of Ciwila mediums in information dissemination was more prominent in former days. They travelled the area to sing and dance at funerals, Ipupo, girls’ initiation, and important beer parties. There they would meet ing’omba from other areas, forming a kind of ritual and information network; see also the article about the cinsengwe ing’omba.

Forms of Ciwila possession

There are three forms of Ciwila possession. Until now, we have discussed Ciwila mediumship linked to the central local cults of old. When such a medium is famous and people invite him to perform at important occasions, he is called an ing’omba. Less famous Ciwila mediums may come to such occasions to help in the ritual. And, since the beginning of the 20th century, Ciwila-possessed individuals can be members of cult of affliction groups led by a shing’anga (Mashabe and, later, Mwami). They mostly perform in the rituals that the cult group organises.

Also see Ciwila songs and dances.

Ciwila possession in other areas

Information about Ciwila possession can also be found for the north and the south of the Lala region²Lambo (1945: 331) and Stefaniszyn (1964b: 90, 156).. And for the Lamba region. “The Baciwila are spirit-mediums resembling the Bamukamwami. They are women who become spirit-possessed, and dance alone in a moral manner. They are supposed to be possessed by a Lala spirit.³Doke (1927: 524).” Doke did not repeat, or refer to, this information in his standard book about the Lamba region when he talks about Lala Ciwila possession.⁴Doke (1931: 256). The reason for this, I guess, is that this information was inaccurate.

Mwami possession

Chibale Zambia: types of spirit possession. The work of the Mwami mediums is to solve problems and to heal. Almost all prominent shing’anga are Mwami mediums. The possessing spirits are the spirits of deceased Lenje and Lima chiefs, sometimes Kaonde, Lamba, or Lala chiefs⁶Mwami is the Lenje word for chief, plural: abami. Mukamwami: spouse of the mwami.. Mwami songs are about healing, illness, or any other subject connected to staining. The language is a mixture of Lala and the language of the area where the chief, now the possessing spirit, used to live. Other aspects are equally important in the categorisation of a dance as Lenje-like. For instance, the behaviour of the dancer, her attire, her songs, and the time of the day and the occasion at which she performs.

Forms of Mwami possession

There are three forms of Mwami possession. Firstly, there is the Mwami shing’anga, a medium who can sing and dance very well, heals, solves problems and leads a cult of affliction group. Then, there are Mwami mediums who are members of that cult group, who still need some treatment by the shing’anga and help him to organise rituals, and assist in the ritual by singing and dancing. One of them may be a mwanang’anga, an apprentice shing’anga. And lastly, there are the Mwami-possessed who are still ill or, for other reasons, not in kumfwana with their possessing spirits.

The first one to start a Mwami cult group in Chibale was bamukaNdubeni (human name: banaNshimbi). Possibly, Mwami possession spread to other parts of Zambia in a way comparable to that described for banaNshimbi. See also below.

The purpose of a spirit  from one area possessing a person from another area is to exchange information, for instance, white spirits for Western medicine. Lamba spirits tell us what they do in the Lamba region and what we should do here.
Mika Mwape Chungwa ∵ personal communication, 1986.

Mwami possession and the Copperbelt

Chibale Zambia: types of spirit possession. The Mwami possession cult ‘came from town’. ‘To come from town’ here means ‘to have solutions for modern-day problems’. It is no coincidence that most Mwami spirits came from the areas (Lenje, Lima, Lamba, Kaonde) that form the Copperbelt, the area in which most cities with migrant labourers are located. One could say that these spirits could help to bring about a conservative change in Chibale, based on the experiences in the Copperbelt.⁷Although Mwami ‘came from town’, Mwami mediums did not think highly of town life. BanaNshimbi often referred to town as mushi wa bushilu, village/culture of madness.

In the 1980s, spirit possession in the Copperbelt towns seemed to be at least as prevalent as it was in Chibale.⁸Remarks about possession in town are based on a three-week stay in Luanshya in May 1986. We also interviewed shing’anga from Ndola, Kapiri Mposhi, and Kabwe. The shing’anga in town were organised into a local and a national association. Some shing’anga organised Cibombe on no less than a weekly basis. It seemed that in town, cults from many parts of Zambia were gradually moulded into the Mwami model.

Let’s say that a person in his own area would get possessed by mashabe. Now, when he is in town, he has to try to associate himself with the Mwami drumming there. This might be difficult. He is greatly helped in this by the iyikulu drumming: the style of his own area. The iyikulu has to follow the origin of the possession.
Mika Mwape Chungwa ∵ personal communication, 1986.

History of Mwami possession

Chibale Zambia: types of spirit possession. Mwami possession is presumably a transformation of the rare bamukaMwami possession found in the Lenje and Lamba areas as well as in the south of Congo, in the first half of the previous century.⁹See Madan (1913: 141) and for the Lenje/Lamba area: Doke (1927: 524, 525 and 1931: 258-267) and Heintze (1970: 40). See also Smith & Dale (1920, ii: 140f) and van Binsbergen (1979: 175).
Marchal (1933: 153) gives an impression of the rarity of this type of mediumship around 1930. In the eastern Lamba area, there was one mukaMwami, and in the Aushi region, there were two.
Mwami may have been an older central possession type aimed at problem-solving¹⁰See Doke (1931: 258-267). The description by Doke of the bamukaMwami mediums is valuable as a historical documentation. However, he does not clearly separate the works of the real mediums from those of the frauds. Exegetes in Chibale, when confronted with his descriptions, had little problem in separating the acts of the genuine ones from those of the impostors. that, somewhere in the first half of the previous century, transformed into a cult of affliction. This seems to be parallel to what happened to the rare Mashabe healing and prophet possession in the Lala region around the beginning of the previous century.
It survived in town during the 1940s and 1950s, with one or two shing’anga per town. During the next twenty years, town cult of affliction groups under Mwami shing’anga leadership underwent an enormous growth. The shing’anga still somehow remained linked to the aims of the central cults. This means that they also focused on more general problem-solving, not just the afflictions of the cult group members.

See also Mwami songs and dances.

Mashabe possession

Chibale Zambia: types of spirit possession. Mashabe possession was a valued type of healing and problem-solving possession. It resembled the bamukaMwami prophet possession described for the Lamba area in Doke (1931). Possibly, some Mashabe shing’anga were the first to lead a cult of affliction possession group, much like the Mwami possession cult groups since the 1970s.¹¹See also Stefaniszyn (1974:70,73) for the southern part of the Lala region.
Mashabe healed, though less powerfully than Mwami. The Mashabe-possessed also sang and danced. The name of their rituals was kombela bamashabe. Initially, the origin of the possessing spirits may have been different, but what is remembered is that they were spirits from the Lala region: chiefs, headman, and ordinary people.¹²References to Mashabe possession, in central Zambia, can be found in Doke (1927: 524 and 1931: 256) and Stefaniszyn (1964b: 156f). Rare in Central Province, a possession type of that or a similar name was still prominent in Eastern Province and in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe in the 1970s. See, for instance, Blacking (1962), Tracey (1965), Chilivumbo (1972), and Berliner (1978).

Mensah¹³ Mensah (1970a: 100). states that the Nsenga mashabe-possessed sang in Korekore or Chikunda, and Jaspan¹⁴Jaspan (1953: 61). says that Mashabe possession came to the Tonga region, in the south of Zambia, a little before 1918 from the Karanga region. A Zimbabwean connection seems not unlikely for Mashabe possession. However, in Chibale it occurred much earlier in history, possibly connected to the trade with the Chikunda. Carter (1972) goes as far as to suppose that all Zambian cults of affliction ultimately originate from the Shona area (which includes Korekore and Karanga). See how skill was handled in the Shona region.
In the 1980s, it was no longer present in Chibale, “since nowadays the Mwami mediums do their work.”

See also Mashabe songs and dances.

Moba possession

History of Moba possession

Chibale Zambia: types of spirit possession. Moba possession spread over parts of Zambia around 1912/14. There are quite some sources.¹⁵For the Lala region, see Lambo (1945: 331) and Stefaniszyn (1964b: 158f). For other areas, see Doke (1927: 524 and 1931: 253-256), Marchal (1933: 154), Njungu (1959), Colson (1969: 84), Heintze (1970: 12), Haworth (1979: 9) and van Binsbergen (1979: 127, 185, 239, 302, with more references) According to these sources, initially the possessing agents were of non-human origin. For instance, Doke¹⁶Doke (1931:220). mentions, while discussing omens and dreams: “Dreaming that he is always bathing in the rivers presages the possession of the man by an icinkuwaila (goblin); he will become a moba (professional dancer)”.
For the southern part of the Lala region in the 1930s, Stefaniszyn¹⁷Stefaniszyn (1964b: 156). also mentions them as roaming singer/dancers, just like the Ciwila mediums of that time. Doke (1931:254) for the Lamba area in the 1910s: “These people have a certain standing in the community on account of their skill in dancing. As their services are much in demand at mourning and initiation ceremonies, and as they are paid for dancing, ukuwilwa wumoba, becoming possessed as a moba, is a lucrative business. Not only are they known for their dancing, but they are the composers and singers of a special type of song, called inyimbo shabamoba.”
In the Lenje area, Mooba is still an important dance. “Since the element [Mooba singing and dancing] is performed during social functions that are open to the public, children can observe and learn it freely, with performances attracting a wide audience thanks to their entertaining nature. Almost every adult knows the Mooba dance as it is the main dance of the Lenje people.”¹⁸See https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/mooba-dance-of-the-lenje-ethnic-group-of-central-province-of-zambia-01372.

Moba possession in Chibale

Chibale Zambia: types of spirit possession. Moba possession was relatively common in Chibale from the beginning of the 1910s up to the 1940s. It offered better protection against witchcraft than Ciwila possession. And witchcraft was an important, if not the main, issue of that time. See also the 71st song at the Ipupo at banaNshimbi’s. From the data assembled, it seems likely that Moba was ‘Chibalised’ into a kind of Ciwila possession¹⁹Doke (1931: 402) mentions: “Baciwila: Lala for bamoba”, meaning: what is called bamoba in the Lamba area is called baciwila in the Lala region. He probably didn’t realise that Moba existed in the Lala region as well. with Lala spirits as possessing spirits and with the bringing of new songs as important work.
Moba possession had become rare in the 1980s. Witchcraft was still an important issue, but Mwami possession offered better protection against it than Moba.
Nowadays, Moba possession only occurs with persons who also have other types of possession; see List 46.

The work of Moba, like Ciwila, is to truly dance (kushana epela). They are there to help, to encourage, to bring strength (maka), to make it live. The other types of possession can attempt this, but it is not their job.
Mika Mwape Chungwa ∵ personal communication, 1986.

Moba is comparable to Mwami. They also originate from the river (nika) and from the Lenje land. Moba possession still occurs. Moba spirits have names like Cholobola and Muyumba. They also heal.
BanaNshimbi ∵ personal communication, 1987.

Moba possession compared with the other possession types

Moba possession is rather atypical when compared to the four other possession types. In Chibale, it is seen as a kind of Ciwila possession but some people maintain that Moba is more like Mwami. Currently, the latter Moba-possessed are referred to as Mwami-possessed and have names such as Cholobola and Muyumba. Therefore, it is possible that Moba encompassed both healing and singing/dancing possession, thus having two facets. And perhaps, even all three. Moba may also have encompassed hunting possession, as some say: “Moba and Kaluwe move together.” In that case, Moba comprised the complete threesome of basic possession types (hunting, singing/dancing, healing). Since Moba was a cult of affliction, we can speculate that it spread from an area where cults of affliction had arisen from a central cult with this threesome of possession types.

See also Moba songs and dances.

Combination of possession types in one person

One person can be possessed by two or even three types of spirits. In the 1980s, individuals with multiple possession types formed one third of all spirit-possessed; see List 46.

Possession in central cults and in cults of affliction

Chibale Zambia: types of spirit possession. An external typology²⁰Turner 1968, Turner 1975 and van Binsbergen 1979. distinguishes spirit possession connected to cults that hold a central position in an area from spirit possession of a more marginal nature, known as cults of affliction. Both types occur in Chibale.
Spirit possession connected to the older, central cults is remembered particularly as specialists’ possession. In Ciwila and Kaluwe possession, a specialist is possessed by the spirit of a deceased specialist. Moba possession emerged in the 1910s and was connected to a cult of affliction. It influenced Ciwila possession, making it partly connected to the cult of affliction. However, during the same period, there were still central cult-oriented ing’omba, like the cinsengwe ing’omba. In the 1970s, Mwami arrived as a cult of affliction, giving a boost to Ciwila and Kaluwe possession in a comparable way. Ciwila and Kaluwe were mainly connected to cults of affliction, but also to the remnants of the old, local cults in the form of independent ing’ombaship and Kaluwe mediumship.
Since the present versions of the three older local, central cults are no longer central, all kinds of interrelations exist between the remnants of these cults and the cults of affliction.