Evaluation of music in Zambia: preferences

Evaluation of music in Zambia: preferences. What do people in Chibale care for most in music and dance?

In this article we provide a brief overview and comparison of the preferences for songs, dances and performers in the 1980s and in the 2000s.

Favourite songs and dances

Table S: Favourite types of songs and dances in 1985/86 and 2004.¹To create this overview, we bring similar genres together in one category. The possession cults’ songs, the kalindula of the Cila and Sandauni, the songs of the christian denominations, other Chibale genres (the social dance songs before kalindula and women’s music), the ilimbalakata and other men’s music, and national Kalindula and Lumba. Certainly when not actually hearing and seeing them in context, a significant proportion of the interviewees were unable to distinguish between types taken together, for instance between Mwami and Ciwila music.

There are six groups of favourite song and dance genres. In the 1980s, the songs and dances of the possessed and of Kalindula are most popular. In the 2000s, christian songs are most popular while the dances of four groups are popular with the two remaining groups (possession dances and ilimbalakata) not scoring much lower.
The shifts in popularity of christian songs and dances and possession songs and dances are large. In the course of the 1990s, the possession cults lost their impact and in the years after became more marginal, though their dancing is still popular. In a contrary motion, the number of christians rose from less than 60% to almost 90% and christian dancing arose.
Remarkable is the decline in percentage of people saying not to have a favourite song or dance and of those saying they do not like to dance. In the 1980s, there was a mixture of aversion and fear, among Jehovah’s Witnesses as to all “Lala music” and among other christians as to possession music. What caused the aversion was the idea that music was the work of Satan or that it was too unchristian. The idea instilling fear was that the nearness of music would make one more open to it and to its context. The latter shows that the ideas about the relation between the nearness and the effects of music were a generally shared feature in Chibale in the 1980s. With the decline of spirit possession, christians, especially Jehovah’s Witnesses, took on a more relaxed attitude towards local music and dance.

Preferences, town and modernity

In the 1980s

Some may consider it striking that ‘town music’ (national kalindula and lumba), let alone western music, is only the favourite of a few in the 1980s. The average time spent in town in that time was ten years for men and five and a half years for women. Some people had just returned from town or were living both in Chibale and in town. And, up to a few years before Survey 1985/86 was held, working in town was generally considered the better alternative to starting an own farming enterprise.

The importance of town versus the unimportance of town music in the 1980s

Two points as to this apparent discrepancy.
First of all, for most people town life was not ‘western’; to equate living in town with a westernised way of living is a mistake. People in town could well be more ‘traditional’ than those in Chibale, even if they did use a minibus and have water or electricity. It is likely that many of the reinvented traditions in the rural areas in Zambia since the 1970s based themselves on features that had survived in town. This holds for the resurgence of possession cults and later for the rekindling of girls’ initiation.
Secondly, living in town often was merely an alternative, not an ultimate goal. Many people returned after a number of years, and many left Chibale with the intention of returning once they had become more wealthy. Instead of feeding upon a superior, more modern or better adapted culture, staying in town for them was part of a strategy to eventually ‘stay the same’.²David Gordon (2003: 133) while discussing Ferguson (1999): “Ferguson contends that workers always retained rural ties and identities; the teleology of ‘permanent urbanisation’ was a myth of modernity perpetuated by the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute anthropologists and later shared by workers who sought to distinguish urban from rural life. […] Ferguson’s argument is strengthened by the prolonged recession that shattered Zambian expectations of modernity.”

In the 2000s

In the 2000s, with an average town experience for both sexes of 6 years, the preference for ‘town music’ had risen considerably, with western music again playing no role. This has to do with the decline in appreciation of possession music and with a larger exposure to town music in Chibale itself. The latter was one of the consequences of the increased circulation of money in the 1990s.

Favourite drummers

Pepa Bulaya is by far the most popular drummer (79 times) in the 1980s. Then follow Danyelu Chibanda Bulangu (18 times), Tapsoni Mafuta (11) and Kunda Yokoyo (10). All of them drummed at occasions where the mediums performed. Other drummers score less than 7 times.

Favourite singers, dancers and bringers of (‘new’) songs

Popularity was important for mediums in the 1980s. Let’s see whether they indeed were popular or that they had to compete with performers of other types of music. Basing ourselves on Table S above, we would expect that the rank order of favourite performers would be: first mediums, then at some distance kalindula performers, followed at a distance by performers of the other types. In reality, the rank order shows mediums alone at the top, followed at a large distance by kalindula performers and, lastly, by a few performers of the other types. More than 80% of the favoured performers are mediums or people working with them (drummers and kampenga).
People often mention three performers as favourite dancer, favourite singer and favourite bringer of (‘new’) songs. These are the mediums Kansenkele (Shemu Mambwe) who is mentioned 36, 35 and 32 times respectively, bamukaNdubeni (banaNshimbi): 25, 22 and 19 and Chalebaila (Salati Mukoti): 24, 24 and 17. All other performers score less than 7 times in any of the three categories.

So, in the 1980s, though a quarter of the population preferred possession music and dance, 80% of the population preferred performers of that music. The gatherings with music at which the spirit possessed performed provided the stage for real-time evaluation of performance. At other types of gatherings, like the Sandauni, people also evaluated the performance but more casually and less focused. The evaluation of the performance of mediums also involved more. Their musical prowess was a sign of their medical and spiritual power.

Table T: Favourite dancer and favourite singer in 1985/86 and 2004.³To create this overview, we bring similar genres together in one category. The possession cults, the kalindula Cila and Sandauni, the christian denominations, other Chibale genres (the social dances and Cila before kalindula and women’s music), and within national Kalindula and Lumba. Certainly when not actually hearing and seeing them in context, a significant proportion of the interviewees were unable to distinguish between types taken together, for instance between Mwami and Ciwila music.

Favourite dancer and favourite singer in 1985/86 and 2004

In the 2000s⁴In Survey 2004 we only ask people for their favourite singer and favourite dancer., only 4 performers are mentioned more than 2 times. The most often mentioned (4 times) performer is Chibale Katumpa, who in 2004 danced as ing’omba at the Kabwelamushi, see Film 20. In 1981, as a young woman, she sang the pounding song Song 181. We see that the three famous mediums of the 1980s have not been succeeded by other famous mediums. See banaNshimbi’s commentary on the difference between the two periods. The decline of the spirit possession cults made it less important to be successful since the audience/chorus at rituals, like in the period before the rise of Mwami, are cult group members and their relatives. A medium now can become well-known by dancing at cultural heritage/identity celebrations like the Kabwelamushi.
People appreciate performers of other genres more than they did in the 1980s. With most of the people being christians, christian performers, notably singers, are preferred much more than in the 1980s. Appreciation for Kalindula performers has remained more or less the same, though Kalindula gatherings occur less than in the 1980s. People also prefer performers of other Chibale genres much more. The rekindling of girls’ initiation and the connected women’s music plays a prominent role in this. And, lastly, there is more appreciation for performers of town music.

Larger-scale gatherings – Ipupo, Cibombe, Church, Old beer party, Sandauni, Bar – clearly are the settings for the music and the dance preferred in Chibale. The stages for performers in the 1980s were the Ipupo and the Cibombe. In the 2000s, this had shifted to Church, Bar and Cultural heritage/Identity events.

Reasons to prefer a song, dance and performer

Kansenkele really could bring you under a spell, his starting was incredible, his presence inescapable, his style fine: you could not stop looking and listening.
Ndubeni was there, watching the proceeding of everything like a lioness, but also really dancing, dancing, very commanding with much maka.
Chalebaila was exotic, extremely forceful and imposing, varied and resourceful.
To me it was no wonder that they were by far the most popular singer-dancers in the 1980s.

In another article in this series, we will investigate why the general public in Chibale preferred them. And in two other articles why the general public preferred certain songs and dances.