Evaluation of music in Zambia: forms of evaluation

Evaluation of music in Zambia: forms of evaluation. Most important is evaluation in real time. Evaluating from memory, at another point in time, is also common, like looking back on and discussing a performance, a song text, the way someone performed or the effect of a gathering as well as reusing songs, texts or techniques, often in another context. Related subjects are the mistakes in music and (the reasons for) the popularity of performers.
The series of articles Fighting with songs that deals with the importance of song texts for music and ritual, provides good examples of how the evaluation in real time of music and dance by the public as well as the protagonists work, in this case in the context of an Ipupo.

Contents

Evaluation in real time

Evaluation by the audience

Participation by the audience
Other forms of evaluation by the audience

Evaluation by the organisers

Evaluation by the performers

Performers criticising those present
Performers criticising the drummers and other performers
Performative actions that are a form of evaluation
Performers criticising the whole ritual

Competition

Evaluation from memory

Discussion

Discussing performances and occasions
Discussing participation and criticism

Reuse and recontextualisation

Evaluation in real time

Evaluation by the audience

Participation by the audience

Participation by the audience is an often-occurring form of musical evaluation. A good song will make many people take part and they will sing long and enthusiastically. A song with a tenor not acceptable for the majority of the attendees or one that is badly started will not be taken over at all. Mwesa Mapoma for the Bemba region¹Mapoma (1980: 41): “Audience participation, however, depends on the appropriateness of the issue prompting a particular song, the justification for the singing by the person introducing it, social position of the singer and that of the person to whom the song is directed, and the composition of the audience.”
The intensity and the length of the performance of a song can stand for its evaluation by the various participants. For instance, at an Ipupo the dancing or not by the medium, more precisely the possessing spirit, can stand for the opinion it has of the ritual, the drumming and the singing; the starting and the continuing of the drumming or not by the drummers for their opinion of the song, singing and dancing; and the taking over a song and continuing it by the audience/chorus or not for their opinions of the text, song, dancing and drumming.
In the series of articles Fighting with songs, a number of songs can be found that don’t take off, for instance the 4th song, the 15th song and 25th song. The reasons are respectively bad drumming and dancing, a melody that is too difficult and a refusal by the audience/chorus to sing a song that is not appropriate for the occasion.

Other forms of evaluation by the audience

Evaluation of music in Zambia: forms of evaluation. Of course, there is more to evaluation than mere participation.

Appreciation and participation by the audience are also related to the quantity and quality of the beer. It is not for nothing that at both Ipupo and Cibombe beer is shared (for free) at the moment when the ritual is hot; this in contrast with the commercialisation of beer parties that happened in the same period when the Cibombe came up and the Ipupo went through a revival.

Another not unusual form of evaluation by the audience is to ask for a certain song from a certain starter of songs. It is either because it is a song that will make the gathering hot or alive or, sometimes, to see that starter, in many cases a medium, dance. 

Giving money can also be interpreted as an evaluative action since one will not give money to a bad singer, dancer or drummer. However, at rituals at which mediums perform, it can also be considered as kupupa to the singers-dancers who are actually spirits one can physically kupupa to, or as a way of honouring the drummers or the drums.

Singing sharply and enthusiastically is a sign of respect to the owner of the song and of the ritual. So when someone sings too much or the beer is given later than expected the quality of singing will go down.
Salati Mukoti ∵ personal communication, 1981.

Evaluation by the organisers

During a gathering the organiser can negatively criticise a part of the performance, mostly the attitude of the attendees or the quality of the drumming or singing, by interrupting the session to hold a speech. We find examples of this in the account of an Ipupo, Fighting with songs, especially in the first part of the ritual. Criticism can also be part of other gatherings, like a Pa kwisha, a Beer or a Kubuka, listen to the commentary on the performance of Song 111.

Evaluation by the performers

Evaluation of music in Zambia: forms of evaluation. The performance of chorus and drummers is evaluated primarily during rituals where the possessed perform. The dancers may, negatively or positively, criticise the drumming or the singing by the chorus in a song text or by word of mouth (see the texts of Songs 55a&b).

Performers criticising the ones attending

Song 57

A Ciwila song brought by the medium Shipesha, as remembered by Mika Mwape Chungwa, 1986.

Text of Song 57 ∵ Evaluating those attending

Kamulekapo ifya kulondola mu ngoma
Ba Shipesha tekuyako ba Shipesha, mwenda nkumbu

Stop all this talking during a ritual
Shipesha won’t go for it, Shipesha, the one going in grief

Performers criticising the drummers and other performers

It regularly happens that dancers take over a drum to show how it has to be played. In the 1980s, these were mostly Ciwila mediums with their problems with the dominant Mwami drumming (see Photos 108, 109 & 110).

Singers-dancers often praise the master drummer or the woman who takes over the solo line of the song they start (kampenga). Examples can be found in the article series Fighting with songs, for instance the 19th, 22nd and 109th song.
Below are two examples of drummers being criticised in the Ambo area during the 1940s.

Songs 55a&b

Two songs evaluating the drumming in the Ambo (southern) part of the Lala region from Stefaniszyn (1974). No recordings.

Text of Song 55a ∵ Evaluating the drumming

Yino ngoma tailile bwino – Yalila kapalingo
K’iteni bashiNgosa – Bese bakunte pa nsangwa – Yalila kapalingo

This drum gives a weak sound – It is clumsy drumming
Do call Shingosa – He will beat it hard – It is clumsy drumming

“Kapalingo is the poetic form for ‘weak drumming,’ an idiophone. […] Shingosa, a proper, representative name. Proper names are often used in these songs seemingly to give them ‘individual qualities of a single occasion’”.²Stefaniszyn (1974: 59).

Text of Song 55b ∵ Evaluating a drummer
Cilishamunkunto nakuya nakwe
Nakupita ntwale ku Mulembo

Who beats a little drum, I shall go with him
I shall carry him to the Mulembo

“Cilishamunkunto is a Homeric epithet. Munkunto means: a little drum. Mulembo is the name of a river. Near the Mulembo is the hallowed graveyard of the conqueror chiefs of the Ambo, beginning with the first chief, Kunda Mpanda. The singer pays a compliment to the fine drumming on the little drum. He, or she, would like to go everywhere with such a fine drummer, even to the distant Mulembo river. The Ciwila dancers, as also other kinds of dancers, travel throughout the area performing in many villages”.³Stefaniszyn (1974: 80). A present-day interpretation of the text for Chibale would read: This master drummer, I will go with him – I shall lead him to Mulembo. The latter phrase meaning “I will lead him to excellence”, putting his drumming in the perspective of all the drumming in the Lala region by associating it with the chiefly cult.

Performers criticising another performer

On a few occasions, a dancer positively criticises another dancer, mostly a famous medium, in a song like Song 58.

Song 58

A Ciwila song sung by a medium at a Cibombe in Mukopa, 1985.

Text of Song 58 ∵ Evaluating a famous medium who is not present

Kansenkele batota ning’omba iyimba mwa Chibale
Bai bata ati kanyimbe ne citondo

Kansenkele most praised ing’omba who sings in Chibale
Oh father let me sing, I, the praise singer

Kansenkele was not present at this ritual and he hardly ever visited Mukopa. But even there he was the most famous ing’omba. The underlying message is that (even at a Cibombe) Ciwila mediums can be important too.

Performative actions that are a form of evaluation

Evaluation of music in Zambia: forms of evaluation. Evaluation can also be expressed in performative actions. For instance, certain types of dancing express a positive evaluation.

Kansenkele can dance ciwilewile. It is danced because the medium is so overwhelmed by the music that he starts bumping into others. This may happen when the song is being taken over rapidly by chorus and drummers. The people sing with happiness causing the drummers to blend into the music and then the dancers as well.
Shemu Mambwe ∵ personal communication, 1981.

When the dancers or organisers appreciate a drummer very much, they will put some mealie meal mixed with water on his forehead.

When a dancer holds the master drum while dancing, it is a sign that the spirit is really moving her: ‘the rhythm of the drum has taken the dancer in that high mood, she wants to be as close as possible to it’, see Photo 217. Blowing the whistle (pintu) is also such a sign. 

The nsangwa may break when a dancer dances very fiercely, especially with Moba dancing this used to happen in former days. The spirit may announce this, so that everybody can watch. For drummers, breaking the skin is also a sign of good drumming.

Performers criticising the whole ritual

One or more of the performers may criticise the whole ritual. This is especially done by Ciwila mediums (ing’omba). See the series of articles Fighting with songs, particularly the second quarter of the ritual, for an elaborate example of this.

Song 56

A Ciwila song brought by Kansenkele at an Ipupo in 1981, as remembered by banaNshimbi in 1987.

Text of Song 56 ∵ Evaluating the whole ritual

Ino ngoma tayiweme
Ne Kansenkele, ifyo yaweme uya kwa Makonde

This ritual is not good
I, Kansenkele, not as good as the one that was held at Makonde

Competition

In music kuteka means: stop the singing so that you can show how good you are in dancing, in drumming, on the kalimba and the like. A comparable word used only for dancing is kucilika. Chibuye alicilika – Chibuye danced better than the others. 

Kuteka, and kucilika, can take place at many occasions. Music and dance form relatively accepted areas for overtly showing one’s skills and for overt competition. The evaluation of the kuteka is mostly done with no or a lot less feedback, for instance derision, than at the rituals where the possessed perform. 

Song 59

A song for a competition (cimfyanishinya) in choosing dancing partners as remembered by Mika Mwape Chungwa, 1986.

Text of Song 59 ∵ Who will remain?

Salenimo abawama, cikolola mwiko ashale
Salenimo amashipesha, cikolola mwiko ashale

Choose the good/handsome ones, the one who scraps food from the cooking stick will remain [be skipped]
Choose the special ones, the one who scraps food from the cooking stick will remain [be skipped]

This song accompanied a dance in which women and men stand in a line. Women and men take turns walking to the other line clapping and choosing a dance partner. Whoever is left in the end is embarrassed. Cikolola mwiko: the (male) mother’s child. 

Evaluation from memory

Discussion

Evaluation of music in Zambia: forms of evaluation. The morning after an Ipupo or Cibombe, the gathering is evaluated by the participants: dancers (who are normal human beings again), drummers, chorus and relatives or friends who have stayed all night.

Discussing performances and occasions

An Ipupo, Cibombe or Sandauni may be discussed in the company of family or friends including those who did not go to the gathering. The discussion is only partly about musical matters. The quality and quantity of the beer and peculiar behaviour of one or more attendees receives more attention. Successful songs may be sung again for enjoyment, to think about or discuss the text, or to teach the song to the ones who did not attend.

Song 60

A Mwami song sung by young men while they were discussing the application of the text in the particular situation in which the song was brought: the healing of an acute case of possession illness.

Text of Song 60 ∵ Sing along well like the the possessed do it

O nakusenda bako banji ba Legina bakabinda
Kamuwela ifi bawela ba nsangwe
O bamukamwami
Kamuwela ifi bawela ba nsangwe

I will go along with my daughter-in-law Legina who is like a last born to me
Sing along well like the the possessed do it
O wives of the Mwami spirits
Sing along well like the possessed do it

Discussing participation and criticism

Evaluation of music in Zambia: forms of evaluation. The conversation can also go into detail about the participation of attendees, the mediums, the ones who take over the solo lines of the songs, or the drummers or band members. Public criticism that is ventilated at the gathering, whether spoken or sung, may also be discussed. Discussion about the meanings of a song, whether new or old, occurs between those attending a gathering, between the possessed and his possessing spirits, between an elder and an inquisitive youngster, during some of the gatherings of the christian cult groups, and between the (helper of the) shing’anga and a patient or a member of her family, as in the Kubuka passage ‘But that was only a song being sung’.

Reuse and recontextualisation

A last form of evaluation is the reuse and recontextualisation of songs.
Many will sing a song that was successful at an Ipupo or Sandauni at home with family or friends or while walking or working. A kalimba or banjo player may adapt a successful song for his instrument.
A kalindula song may be imitated by another kalindula band. A Ciwila song may be brought by a less successful possessed when visiting an area where that song is not known.
Some possessed, typically popular mediums, are invited to perform at Ipupo or are invited by someone other than their own shing’anga to dance at a Cibombe.