Gatherings in Zambia: modern beer party

The initial period of the Sandauni

Gatherings in Zambia: modern beer party. The first Sandauni in Chibale were held around 1970. The organisers erected a fence creating a large fenced space. To enter this space one had to pay an entrance fee which gave right to a free foretaste. The reason for asking a fee was that a battery gramophone played the music. The records played were practically all lumba music from Congo.

The bidding Sandauni

Then a new type of gathering came into being: the ‘bidding Sandauni’. It was a curious expression of the people’s growing realisation that the money economy dictated their lives. There was no foretaste and no entrance fee. The music, played on a battery gramophone, was Lumba. An eloquent speaker (baspika) led the gathering. Anything happening had to go via the speaker. At the start of the Sandauni, he announced a list of prices for the beer, the food, the records, and the dancing. Any order for beer or for a certain record had to pass via the speaker. He announced it loudly and ordered one of the waitresses (baweteleshi) to bring it to the customer.
One could also buy behaviour. For instance that the waitress would bring the cup to the lips of the buyer, so he could drink without touching it. Or that a certain person would dance to the record ordered, possibly together with the one ordering. One could bid (kubecela) on anything happening. For instance the one who was ordered to dance could make a higher bid to pay off the order. Or to have the one ordering it dance himself. A bid against the further playing of a certain record could be followed by a higher bid. Often from the one who had originally ordered the record. A bid ended when the person paid off the order or did what was requested. If still refusing, he had to leave the fenced area.

The patapata Sandauni

Next to the Sandauni with gramophone, a Sandauni with live Patapata or Twist music came up in the 1970s. The band consisted of three flute players, a drummer, a cisekele player and a guitar and/or banjo player. The three flutes (mutolilo, see Film 14) differed in size. They played the same lines though embellishing the melody in their own way (kwipaila). The music played came from Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia). There was no singing to this music, only dancing the Twist by pairs.

The kalindula Sandauni

Gatherings in Zambia: modern beer party. In 1979 a kalindula band from Muchinka, another chiefdom in Serenje district, visited Chibale and played at two beer parties. This led to the quick emergence of many local kalindula bands. And also to the revival of the Cila and to the kalindula Sandauni. For a big feast, the owner erected a fence and charged an entrance fee. There was no foretaste and no gramophone music. In cases of smaller feasts, the owners simply held them in the open space of their farm. In both cases, a kalindula band performed the music live. The band mostly played in sets of three, four songs.
This form did not really change after the 1980s.

Before Kalindula Sandauni, young people could buy beer, but their role was small. At the kalindula Sandauni, the music and dance were theirs and some of them received payment to play it. The use of kalindula music at beer parties led to a local commercialisation and professionalisation of adolescents’ music. It produced and reproduced the change of balance between the age groups.

See List 1 for the differences observed by the general public between Bwalwa and Sandauni in the 1980s.

Organising a kalindula Sandauni

Gatherings in Zambia: modern beer party. Attendance at Sandauni lies between 70 and 150 people. People organise Sandauni more often in the beer season. During this period, a person could visit at least two Sandauni a week within a distance of ten kilometres. In the remaining period this averaged one or two every two weeks. This is true for 1985-86, less so for 1987. In that year the takeaway beer became in vogue. Some people found it unnecessarily laborious to organise Sandauni. Later, the number of Sandauni continued to decline as bars and tarvens opened in the area.

Gatherings in Zambia: modern beer party. There are two major reasons for organising a Sandauni. By far the most important one is to raise money to buy essentials.¹Long (1995:184) mentions the purchase of household consumption items (like clothing) 47%, repaying agricultural loans 13%, educational expenses 11%, agricultural expenses 11% as the most frequent reasons for brewing beer. The second reason is to bring together friends and relatives.²See also Long (1992: 157-159). Reasons to visit Sandauni are to drink beer, to see the dancing, for entertainment, to listen to the music, to dance, to meet friends, to see what happens and to play a musical instrument.³Reasons given by the general public, in Survey 1985/86, to visit a Sandauni were to drink beer (43%), to see the dancing (18%), for entertainment (11%), to listen to the music (8.5%), to dance (7%), to meet friends (6.5%), to see what happened (3%) and to play a musical instrument (3%)