Evaluation of music in Zambia: popularity

Popularity and effectiveness

Evaluation of music in Zambia: popularity. Performers are depending on the participation of the audience/chorus. The participation – in rituals called ‘showing respect’ – is necessary for heating the gathering. And heating is necessary for the ritual to be effective. Even if not interested in the final effectiveness of music or gathering, the attendees themselves also benefit from dedicated participation. It makes the gathering much more lively and interesting. Dedicated participation of an as large as possible audience is brought in by the popularity of the songs, dancing and behaviour. Furthermore, the popularity of Mwami mediums is directly related to the healing and problem solving power attributed to them.
In short, popularity is not a non-issue.

Evaluation of music in Zambia: popularity. A drawback for Mwami mediums is that Mwami songs are considered to be difficult. So, even if Mwami mediums could bring many new songs, like Ciwila mediums, it would not work. The audience/chorus would have trouble taking over these songs. A Mwami medium, especially when coming from outside of the Lala region, like Chalebaila, therefore has to cherish the songs that are known and popular with a large audience.

Popularity at rituals where the possessed dance

In former days, there were fewer possessed and only the cult group and relatives attended their rituals. So, focus was always there. They did not need popular songs to heat the ritual (kukafye cila).
Mika Mwape Chungwa ∵ personal communication, 1986.

Someone from here can be possessed by a spirit of Kaonde origin. The music and dance then are a mixture of Kaonde and Lala. It is only Kaonde when the spirit comes down on the possessed (kuseluka). and a mixture of both when singing and dancing for the public. They are aiming at the majority. So, dance and music are predominantly Lala, even when they then would be unKaonde-like.
Mika Mwape Chungwa ∵ personal communication, 1986.

In former days possession songs, like other songs, often were about sexual matters. Nowadays they aren’t, since the people do not like that type of text anymore. So the spirits follow (-konka) the taste of the people.
Mika Mwape Chungwa ∵ personal communication, 1986.

When the songs or dancing are popular, it is a sign of good co-operation between possessed and spirit. To give an example. You don’t eat something that is forbidden for you, even during the day, while the spirits only come at night. If you do eat something that is forbidden, a form of punishment can be to let only a small audience come to a ritual where you dance.
Munteta Chalebaila ∵ personal communication, 1987.

For Mwami, the popularity of a song is a condition for its usability for heating the ritual (kukafye cila).
Salati Mukoti ∵ personal communication, 1987.

A new kind of audience

Evaluation of music in Zambia: popularity. Starting in the 1970s, the Cibombe had introduced a fairly new element to possession rituals. The general public could come to attend. No invitation was needed or any other relation with the organisers or the group around them. That this was a recent development in the 1980s, we can also deduce from what Blacking¹Blacking (1962:4). wrote about the Nsenga region around 1960. “Each style of music appeals primarily to those who are concerned with the social events which it embellishes: thus, for instance, mashabi [mashabe] music appeals principally to those who are members of the possession cult”.
One of the reasons for this development was that in the Fetulo period, shing’anga and local cults had been marginalised. This included imputation, based on observed or attributed fraud, not rarely based on some form of North Atlantic reasoning: christian, medical or scientific. It concerned the shing’anga, the therapies and the rituals. More transparency of methods and rituals therefore had become necessary when Mwami brought the rekindling of these therapies and rituals in the 1970s. 

Evaluation of music in Zambia: popularity. The audience/chorus, first a small group of well-trained cult members and their relatives, grew to include anyone who wanted to attend. This development was also informed by the fact that Mwami mediums could acquire a reputation as a healer by being a popular singer/dancer. This new form of popularity clashed with the older form of a performer’s popularity: the ing’omba popularity. The latter, ironically, had been revitalised by the coming of Mwami. See the series of articles Fighting with songs for a vivid representative case of this clash.

Popularity is never undisputed

Evaluation of music in Zambia: popularity. Popularity as well as success are reasons for jealousy and suspicion. It is certainly not always possible to assess whether they are the result of ishuko because of following rules of life (mushila) or whether they are obtained by malicious means.

Some hunters just use herbs, others use parts of dead persons as medicine. You see, the latter are connected to witchcraft: their success in hunting means death for others.
Mika Mwape Chungwa ∵ personal communication, 1986.

Popularity at other gatherings

Evaluation of music in Zambia: popularity. At Sandauni the performers, the kalindula band and the dancers, are not often in the centre of attention. They provide musical services arousing the attendees to participate and make the Sandauni lively. The consumption of beer also plays a part in this, if not the biggest. Only when this stage of arousal is present, can the Sandauni have a vibrance and hotness comparable to an Ipupo or Cibombe, see Photo 5. In the majority of the cases, however, it does not and the attendees have a more consuming attitude to the music. Important in this is that, due to frequent fighting, at a given moment it became forbidden to hold Sandauni in the evening. In the evening there had been more attention for and focus on the music and the dancing.
Popularity of certain songs exists, often because they work well at the kalindula Cila. Popularity of a certain band in most cases is confined to a rather small area compared to the popularity of individual mediums. Some people will come to a Sandauni to watch the dancers, predominantly adolescent girls, but without giving much feedback to them.

Evaluation of music in Zambia: popularity. At the old beer party, beer consumption also supports arousal of the attendees but the music is made by all attendees. Little distinction is made between performers and attendees. Major musical roles will regularly switch. Behaviour that a successful performer can exhibit at an Ipupo is not considered respectful at old beer parties. Like, someone starting all of the songs, or dancing continuously, or playing the drum for a long period. Here, popularity is possible for performers who can heat the gathering by the way they start or perform and for certain songs or dances that are known to heat it.