Gatherings with music in Zambia: identity and cultural heritage

The introduction of a district-wide cultural heritage festival

Gatherings with music in Zambia: identity and cultural heritage. Around 1993¹Long (1995:140)., the district governments of Serenje and Mkushi district, together with the chiefs of the districts, took the initiative to hold an annual festival celebrating their own culture. Its name is Cibwelamushi, after the name of the month in which, in former days, people used to return from their temporary homes (nkutu) near their citemi fields to their houses in the village. This was the first month of the beer season, marked by celebrations and beer.
The Cibwelamushi festival takes place in Chalata, near the border between the districts. All chiefs from both districts are present, as well as the district commissioners. Each chief brings along people who can sing and dance certain old or present-day music, as well as noteworthy agricultural and cultural material from their chiefdom.

Identity and cultural heritage celebration of Chibale chiefdom

Gatherings with music in Zambia: identity and cultural heritage. A few years later, chief Chibale started a yearly festival. It celebrates his installation as a chief, connecting chieftainship with cultural heritage and identity. Some people call the festival Kabwelamushi, another name for the same month, with the difference that ci- denotes something big and ka- something smaller, something typical for Chibale.
At this festival, people from all wards of Chibale chiefdom meet at the chief’s residence (musumba). Each ward brings a drum with beer. In the morning of the festival, the chief makes a ceremonial entrance, carried on a litter (macila), and then he sits on a special stool on a triangular podium. People crowd around a very large fenced area while officials sit in a shaded area. Performances and speeches take place within the fenced area. Those who perform well at this festival may be invited to perform at the Cibwelamushi.

Gatherings with music in Zambia: identity and cultural heritage. In the 1980s, the annual agricultural fairs showcased some cultural heritage products, but far less and much more informally than at the Cibwelamushi and the Kabwelamushi. The Kabwelamushi festival with its huge number of attendees, the chief’s ceremonial outfit and entrance, and the performance of music and dance as a part of a cultural heritage and cultural identity festival, was a new phenomenon for Chibale. The outfit and entrance are specially designed for the festival. The festive performance of certain music and dances, such as cisungu and ciwila, is also a new development that expresses the increased self-awareness and interest in ‘local culture’ that slowly rose in the 1990s.