Evaluation of music in Zambia: skill and success

Evaluation of music in Zambia: skill and success. In the past, persons with an extraordinary talent for important work were mediums. They were possessed by spirits of deceased specialists who had had the same talent. It provided the right to the benefits of the application of the skill related to that talent. Spirit possession caused and explained the success an individual had in doing one of these works. This was still the case in the 1980s. Not a minor thing in a region in which differences between two comparable cases provoke suspicion. People could well interpret it as the result of malice of the one at the positive side of the difference. Witchcraft has been a critical issue in Chibale during the whole of the 20th century and it still is.
Possession can also be in play with less important talent. It is an explanation in the case of a talent or a great propensity for a certain activity. A dedication to a certain work, like a handicraft, hoeing, or playing a musical instrument. At least those connected to the local and possession cults regard him to have a particular, mild, form of Kaluwe possession. The only rule of life (mushila) for such a person, called muKaluwe utashana, non-dancing Kaluwe possessed, is that he performs his work frequently and ardently. He is often not aware of his possession until things go wrong.

Ways of looking at skill in other regions

Tracey¹Tracey (1965: 31). writing about the Shona region describes how the skill of the performer awakes the appropriate spirit (shawi) of the listener. Music and interest/affect (manyawi) are the mediation means at the side of the performer and listener respectively. Music and interest/affect are means to an end. The shawi will not appear without the means of skilfully performed music. Skill and spirit are autonomous entities. A father will often say that he hopes the shawi of his craft will awake in his son.
It is tempting to hypothesise that the Shona way of ‘handling’ the possession of skill was one of the causes of the success of Mashabe possession throughout (East) South Central Africa. It may have been used to break through existing structures of monopolising the gains of the application of skill.

Also for the Kaonde region, a connection has been described between spirit (possession) and skill. Melland (1923: 150): “If a youth becomes an exceptionally good hunter, he is supposed to have inherited this skill unexpectedly from someone deceased, and is called his ciwilo”. The latter is derived from kuwila – to (spirit) possess.

Apthorpe²Apthorpe (1962: 4). sheds a different light on the ownership of skill.

“At a puberty ceremony in a more northern village in Petauke, an instructress explained to me that in ideal Nsenga practice the mother of the master-drummer would herself be an instructress, and she and her son, in their different capacities, should attend always the same ceremonies sharing one ciselo. Ciselo in this context may be translated as ‘ritual kit’, though it also has the connotation of the ritual skill itself and the inherited right to possess it and use it.”

Spirit possession and success in Chibale

In the 1980s, many regarded spirit possession as a reasonable, but certainly not undisputed, explanation for talent and success. It concerned healing, (directing) hunting, bringing new songs and minor talents like being good at playing an (important) music instrument. Furthermore, a clear relationship existed between the success a medium had during the possession rituals in bringing songs and dancing and the quality that people could expect of the other important work that that medium did. Their musical ability and success represented their ability to be mediators between the human world and the mpanga. As such it provided a measure of the quality of their other work. See also the article on popularity.

Kumfwana, talent and success

Evaluation of music in Zambia: skill and success. The possessed person (muntu) does not have the talent leading to the success of a medium. It is the ability of the possessing spirit. Kumfwana, mutual understanding, is the desired relationship between the spirit and the possessed. Kumfwa: hear, listen, understand, feel; -na indicates reciprocity. Someone in the first phase of possession is ill because kumfwana between her and the spirit is not yet possible. The healing process aims at finding out how the patient can attain kumfwana. Another sign that kumfwana is missing is the lack of success of the possessed in music and dance. And the incapability of the possessing spirit to sing or dance through the possessed. The sign of optimal kumfwana is success.

People can measure success in two ways. One could look for the practical success the possessed has. Does the shing’anga receive new methods for healing and solving problems? Does the Kaluwe medium succeed to direct the hunter to the correct place at the correct time? And, does the Ciwila medium always bring new, effective songs?
One can also look at whether the possessed is successful in starting songs and in dancing during rituals.
People could check the latter more easily than the former. As a result, in the 1980s the success in the bringing of songs and in dancing was the more important sign of true kumfwana.

Criteria to assess the success of performers

See the articles Judgements about performers for the criteria that were used to assess the success of singers/composers, dancers and drummers. The article also contains a comparison between the judgements in the 1980s and the 2000s.