Chibale Zambia: worldview of the healers

Story 7

A story about the friendship between nature and culture, as told by Mika Mwape Chungwa, 1986.

llyashi lya ba Mpanga na ba Mushi

Mu myaka ya kunuma kulingana ne fyo abakulu baletufunda, ukubati ukuba.
Ba Mpanga na ba Mushi balicibusa. Nombe cibusa cabo kwena tacali bwino sana. Ukuba cali bwino nomba tawamishe, iyo. Pantu mwamona cilya cibusa cabo mukupelane fintu, ba Mpanga kabebati: “Na ine fili ku mushi, mune, ulempako”. Ba Mushi nabo bati: “Na ine fili mu mpango lempako”.¹The pronunciation of this sentence and the fact that Mushi repeats what Mpanga says make clear the junior position of Mushi. Nombo muntu [nga]afwa bapela ba Mpanga. Ba Mpanga nabo, nabo babule nama baingisha mu mushi.
Eco kanshi bali pa bucibusa kuli iyi misango.²Kuli iyi misango (in these ways) refers to other exchanges than that of dead bodies and animal meat that take place between the village and the mpanga. Ifikocitika ku mushi nefikocitika mu mpanga fyalikatana³-ikatana (to be interrelated): hold each other, produce each other. Here we find an echo of the friendship, because -ikatana cibusa means: to be friends., tafyalikanapo⁴-kana (to be in contradiction): refuse, deny, contradict., iyo.

The story of Mpanga and Village

In the years behind us, according to what the elders taught us, the story goes like this.
Mpanga and Village were friends. But, mind you, their friendship was not very good. To some extent it was good, but not really good, no. So, you see, at a given moment Mpanga said to Village concerning their friendship, the giving to each other of things. “You should give to me the things that belong to the village”. And Village [echoed]: “You should give to me the things that belong to the mpanga”. So, when a human being dies, they [the villagers] give him to Mpanga. And Mpanga takes the game and makes it enter the village.
So, then they were in friendship in these ways. The things that are done in the village and the things that are done in the mpanga are interrelated; they are not in contradiction, no.

Another version of this story

Chibale Zambia: worldview of the healers. Another version of this story, collected from someone not related to the possession cults, is more explicit about the inferiority of the position of Mushi, Mr(s) Village. It adds that (s)he lacked meat, medicine, and means to solve quarrels between the villagers. In addition, it states that Mr(s). Mpanga was Mulenga wa mpanga and Mr(s). Mushi was Mushili Mfumu. In a wide area in South Central Africa, Mulenga and Mushili are the names of two major spirits. According to Munday⁵Munday (1961: 1). they are aspects of Lesa, and good and evil as well as the human race sprang from their incestuous union.
-Lenga means: draw, make to be, and -panga means: make. Therefore, Mulenga wa mpanga could mean: creator of (or from) the place of creation. Mushili means ‘soil’ in the sense of what is, or can be, brought in cultivation⁶See Munday (1942: 49).; mfumu means (political) leader, chief. The big villages of old (before the 1950s) in Chibale normally had one shrine for Mulenga and one for Mushili, and often a third one for a third major spirit. Kupupa, ritual acknowledgement, to Mulenga was mostly, if not always, accompanied by kupupa to Mushili Mfumu and vice versa.

A concise formulation of its meaning

Chibale Zambia: worldview of the healers. The following aphorism presents an extremely concise formulation of the meaning of this story.

Proverb 279

Ifi fwe bantu kulya no kufwa
The important things for us, human beings, are to eat and to die

In 1908, Madan⁷Madan (1908).recorded a version of this aphorism in the Lala region.
Fwe bantu kulya nangu kufwa, e cikulu pano pesonde.
For us, human beings, to eat or to die, that is the important thing here outside [on earth].
The use of the singular form in the second part seems to underline that eating and dying form one system.⁸For the Lamba region, the aphorism occurs in a reduced form in Doke (1927: proverb 281): Icikulu pano pesonde kulya. The important thing here outside is eating.

Exchange relation and interrelation

Chibale Zambia: worldview of the healers. The exchange relation and the interrelation between the things that are done in the mpanga and in the village formulated in this story are of central importance to the way the shing’anga describe and explain what happens in the spiritual, musical, and other domains.

The friendship between the mpanga and the village is like that between an elder and a young person. The elder possesses many kinds of things, such as knowledge and material products. And, gives some of them to his protégé. The latter can do little more than reciprocate with gratitude, enthusiasm, and vitality. And, must always take care to please the elder in order to continue the contact.

Proverb 14⁹Example from the proverb book Amano mambulwa.¹⁰Photo 119.

Mwe baume, mwebali babili tabalwa!

Ukumfwana mwebali babili kuweme.
Ulo mwebali babili muli palwendo lutali, caliwama bonse mukoumfwanina pamo ukucila ukutalikana.

Companions, two together do not fight!

Understanding one another is vital.
When you are on a long journey together, it is advisable to agree with each other rather than argue.

Chibale Zambia: worldview of the healers. ‘Nothing is made in the village, everything (ultimately) comes from the mpanga’. Takwabapo icipangwa kuno mu mushi, iyo, [nangu acaba shani] ni mu mpanga fifuma fyonse¹¹The stem -panga means to make.). Especially those things that are only obtained at the risk of being stained (kukowela, becoming impure). Such as meat, medicine, new songs, and new ideas. When one appropriates products of the mpanga, one enters into obligations to the owners of the mpanga (bene ba mpanga). These are the spirits of big animals, those associated with big hills and other nature spirits, a few major spirits with vague historical connotation, and the spirits of remembered specialists, headmen, and chiefs.

Kupupa

Chibale Zambia: worldview of the healers. The state in which one is able to obtain things from the mpanga is called ishuko. The opposite state is called ishamo (mpanga lyankana, the mpanga refuses me). See also the article on kupupa. The purpose of all kupupa is to be granted (the continuation of) ishuko, to prevent ishamo or to resolve ishamo. Three terms are used to describe the types of kupupa in more detail. Kwilimuna (recharge, reactivate): rejoicing about the work of the mpanga, with the purpose of being granted the continuation of ishuko. Kulila (mourn): mourning, with the purpose of preventing or resolving ishamo. Kucitila (make, repair): actions with the purpose of resolving ishamo (misfortune, illness or other distress).

Methods of communication used by the mpanga with the village include ishuko (good fortune), ishamo (adversity), dreams, omens, and songs. People specialised in dealing with two processes of prime importance, the obtainment (kupoka) from the mpanga and the giving (kupupa) to the mpanga, often are (guided by) mediums.

Transitions

Chibale Zambia: worldview of the healers. Every event in which an exchange between the mpanga and the village occurs, or should occur, can be characterised by transitions (kufuma) within a limited set of basic concepts called ‘true things’ (cintu cinenene, true thing, matter, quality, state, or action). Each basic concept has an aspect ‘belonging to the mpanga’ (fya mu mpanga) and an aspect ‘belonging to the village’ (fya ku mushi). These aspects ‘hold each other, produce each other’ (fyalikatana). During the event, contacts or transitions continuously occur between the two aspects of a small number of these basic concepts.
Important examples of this are discussed in the articles A theory about music and The representation of individual features of music. Such as the transitions in music between the aspects ‘high’ and ‘low’ and in ritual between the aspects ‘hot’ and ‘cold.’ As the story demonstrates, it is not the opposition between things belonging to the mpanga and things belonging to the village that is vital, but the contacts or transitions between them.

Neither the story nor the interconnected world view of the shing’anga are general knowledge in Chibale. Many people only come into contact with them when they themselves, or relatives or friends, are in a situation of distress. The capability of their world view to be applied to a variety of problems in order to find solutions defines a part of the power of the shing’anga.

Dualism, structuralism?

Chibale Zambia: worldview of the healers. The structural relations above may ring a bell. There are parallels between the mpanga and village aspects and, for instance, the cosmological codes extracted by de Heusch (1982). He analysed myths and initiation rituals of Central African groups, among which is one myth in the Lala language. Where de Heusch based his structural analysis on secondary sources, what is presented here has been constructed in dialogue with exegetes working in Chibale. It is based on the central story and the theoretical categories used by the exegetes themselves.

There are more differences between the theory presented here and structuralist or dualist theories. The shing’anga do not use dualism as a simple complementarity. Depending on the situation, things are considered from an mpanga or from a village perspective. Aspects of a true thing that belong to the mpanga in one situation may belong to the village in another. There is no symmetry between mpanga and village aspects. The story makes clear that the mpanga aspects are senior in the first instance. There is no homology between mpanga and village aspects. The importance of aspects depends on the situation under consideration.¹²A quotation of Serge Tcherkézoff (1987:6), who reconsidered (scientific) dual classification, can place this issue in a wider context.
“If one refrains from imposing a binary choice upon the symbols [for instance, left or right], one becomes aware of hierarchical constructions. The poles of each opposition are not in the same relation to the whole to which they refer. Different values organise hierarchised symbolic levels. Passing from one context to another will therefore sometimes involve a change of level, and reversal will be meaningful too.”
Note, by the way, that the one addressed in this quotation is a researcher working out his ‘objective’ (one-way) theory.

Conclusion

Chibale Zambia: worldview of the healers. Central to the theory presented on this site are not the oppositions between mpanga and village aspects but the contacts or transitions between them. Every event in which an exchange between the mpanga and the village occurs or should occur, can be characterised by contacts or transitions between aspects of a limited set of true things.

The rituals at which the possessed play a prominent role, all aim at a controlled contact between the mpanga and the village. A number of aspects of these rituals, like the course of events and the physical layout as well as the behaviour of drummers and dancers, contribute to the securing of a controlled contact or, to put it differently, they produce and reproduce the contact. But also ‘the music itself’ produces and reproduces this contact.