Gatherings with music in Zambia: gourd shrine ritual

Gatherings with music in Zambia: gourd shrine ritual. The Bwalwa bwa nkombo (Beer of the gourd shrine), also called Bwalwa bwa mipashi (Beer of the ancestral spirits), is a small-scale ritual within the old local cults performed at the erection of a gourd shrine. It is mostly requested by an ancestral spirit (mupashi) in a dream: “Nkofwaya nkombo” or “Nkofwayo bwalwa”, meaning “I want a gourd shrine” or “I want beer”. If the dreamer does not comply with this request and subsequently suffers (family) misfortune, eventually the Bwalwa bwa nkombo will be organised. If the misfortune is significant, an Ipupo may be organised.

I dreamt of my grandmother visiting me and asking for some beer. I dismissed it as ‘just a dream’. Two times after that, the beer I brewed went sour. On the morning of the mixing day for the third beer, I dreamt of my grandmother again, saying: “I come to your dreams but you don’t listen. This beer will also be sour. Now, make some beer for me, not from your own maize or millet, but that of your mother and your mother’s sister. And, don’t go into the kitchen to check the beer.” So, my husband had to check the beer, and it was sour.
Then I brewed beer with millet of my mother and mother’s sister for the sweet and the sour parts. This beer, though not so much, was very strong. I put up a tree branch and a gourd as my grandmother had instructed me, and I performed kupupa with some of the beer there. Other people came and placed money on a tray at the threshold of the room. The next commercial beer I brewed was very strong!
BanaMunsele ∵ personal communication, 1987.

Erection of the gourd shrine

Gatherings with music in Zambia: gourd shrine ritual. At this ritual, a shrine is made: a special type of gourd (mungu) with a handle is cut and placed on a tree branch ending in three twig stumps (mulenga wa nkombo), thus forming a tripod in which the gourd can rest. The handle of the gourd is usually adorned with beads (bulungu). Into the gourd, some of the beer brewed for the occasion is poured, and some mealie meal is sprinkled. On top of this, is placed a plate with mealie meal.

Gatherings with music in Zambia: gourd shrine ritual. No publicity is given to the ritual. Visitors are family members, ritual friends (bali), and neighbours. They put money on the plate as an offering (kutaila) ‘to help in the ritual’. During this, the family members and the ritual friends may say things like “Today we do kupupa, you cibanda, stay in the mpanga” (Lelo twapupa, we cibanda, kalale mu mpanga). The money goes to the organiser who may distribute it further. After some drinking, singing and, possibly, dancing begin, much like at a normal, small beer party. After the Bwalwa bwa nkombo, the gourd shrine is put under the roof edge of the house and can be used for other kupupa occasions.

Song 6

A song referring to the preparation of the gourd shrine for Amoni Nunda, as remembered by Mika Mwape Chungwa, 1986.

Text of Song 6 ∵ Let Amoni drink from the gourd

Yo, nakusembe nkombo ya muundula
Kabanwemo ba Amoni, mundabakungalausha

I will cut and prepare a gourd for all
Let Amoni drink from it, so that he will stop troubling me