Gatherings with music in Zambia: classification

Gatherings with music in Zambia: classification. In Chibale there is no system for classifying musical gatherings. But when people talk about gatherings, they usually use only three distinctions. The scale of the gathering, whether there was beer or not, and whether people danced (during a certain period) at the gathering or not. They generally do not make any other distinctions. Combining the three distinctions results in eight groups of gatherings: three large, two medium and three small.

In List 6, we present an overview of the types of gatherings in these eight groups. We also give en estimate of their frequencies and the importance of music at each gathering. At the top, we start with the 1980s and the gatherings in the 2000s follow below.

At the end of this article, you will find links to descriptions of all gatherings in which music plays a role.

List 8: Gatherings with music in Chibale.
In the 1980s

In the 2000s

Following each name is an estimation of how often the gathering was organised and the importance of the role of music in it.
1. rarely, 2. infrequently, 3. occasionally, 4. frequently.
A. music present but not important, B. important, C. very important.

Gatherings with music in Zambia: classification. Of course, the overview only presents a rough drawing.
The frequencies, notably those of the small-scale gatherings, also depend on the place or area within Chibale. At some farms get-togethers of women or men do not occur, while in the (groups of) nkutu farms they occur above average. Secondly, the frequencies of large-scale gatherings in general are lower than those of small-scale gatherings but the impact of large-scale gatherings is larger. In this way, ‘frequency’ also refers to impact.
As to the role of music: though School, for example, is a type of gathering often organised, music plays only a minor role in it. Teachers and pupils sing the national anthem daily and occasionally songs from a nation-wide repertoire of children’s and school songs. Moreover, School is only visited by a part of the population.

Characterisation of the different combinations of scale, beer and dancing

The three large groups and the two middle groups can be characterised as follows.
Small scale – no beer – no dancing: contact between adult relatives and friends.
Large scale – no beer – no dancing: contact between non-kin, mostly on initiatives from outside.
Large scale – beer – dancing: contact between kin and non-kin at gatherings with local roots.

Small scale – no beer – dancing: contact between women or young and adolescent relatives and friends.
Small scale – beer – dancing: contact between relatives and friends, for commemoration or work.

The other three groups are small and the gatherings in these groups deviate for various reasons.
The Cililo contrasts with other local, large-scale gatherings because there is no beer drinking nor dancing.
The combinations small or large scale – beer – no dancing, which were rare before the beginning of the 1980s, are found in the Drinking at home and in the Tarven and Bar. In the 1980s, the latter could not be found in Chibale itself. Visiting this type of gathering was an option only for migrant labourers and persons travelling to Serenje Boma, the district centre.

Not very surprisingly, we generally find that if there is beer, there is a greater chance of dancing. And if there is dancing, the importance of music is greater.

Frequency of gatherings with music in the 1980s and the 2000s

Gatherings with music in Zambia: classification. A marked difference between the 1980s and 2000s is that many gatherings with music in the 2000s have a lower frequency. In particular, the most important large-scale gatherings in the 1980s the Cibombe, the Ipupo, the Sandauni and the Cila. But also the old Bwalwa, the Cilili, some of the mourning and commemorative rituals, paKwisha and muNsaka and the Kubuka are organised less often. The major reasons are the decline of the spirit possession cults and other manifestations of the three local, central cults, the further increase of the number of members of christian cult groups and the change in the daily rhythm of most people, leaving them less time for gatherings with music.

From the other hand, we count three new and three reintroduced gatherings: the Tarven & Bar, the DVD and the Identity/cultural heritage gatherings, and the Women gathering, the Instruction and the Coming out of the cisungu. This is due to a growing attention for the position of women, the emergence of a more locally oriented economy and a better self image.

Large-scale gatherings with music

Gatherings with music in Zambia: classification. The general words used for larger-scale gatherings with music and dance are Cila (‘Dance’) and Ngoma (‘Drum’). Music is made more or less continuously at the rituals at which the spirit possessed perform (Cilili, Cililo 2, Ipupo and Cibombe), at social dance gatherings (Cila), at beer parties for older people (Bwalwa) and at the Cisungu and women meetings. At the Sandauni, the meetings of christian groups (Calici), the wedding ceremony (Bwinga) and identity/cultural heritage meetings music is important but not used continuously. And, at meetings connected to national, political, medical, or agricultural organisations (School, Mitingi, Shows), music mostly only marks the transitions at the beginning and the end of the meetings.
The number of people attending at cultural heritage meetings, some of the wedding ceremonies and the gatherings where the possessed bring songs and dance is much larger (up to 500 people) than the attendance at the other large-scale gatherings mentioned (50 to 150).
People organise large-scale gatherings with music more often in the beer season – after the harvest, from August to November – but also in the two other seasons.

Small-scale gatherings with music

Gatherings with music in Zambia: classification. Small-scale gatherings with music: get-togethers of the women or of the men of one farm or a group of neighbouring farms, family meetings, work, children’s games and the like, are still of some importance. However, their frequency had diminished already before the 1980s and diminished further after that.
The repertoires of the small-scale gatherings feed on those of the large-scale ones, though most types of small-scale gatherings also have songs considered to be specific to them.