Interpretation of music in Zambia: sorrow and joy

Interpretation of music in Zambia: sorrow and joy. In the 1980s, people used only a small set of words when they talked about the feelings that the performance of a certain song raised. Most sentences revolved around feelings of joy or of sorrow. Much less often, they said, with disappointment, that the music did not raise feelings or that it evoked negative feelings.

The word feeling is used here in the following sense. A perception of an emotion, the subjective experience of bodily processes that are physical responses to a stimulus. In this sense, in the paragraphs below only the individually perceived, and classifiable, ‘parts’ of emotions are treated. According to Milton emotions and feelings arise and operate in the relationship between an organism and its environment and that emotion engages dialectically with cognition in the process of learning.¹Milton (2005: 201) while commenting on Damasio, A. R. 1999. The feeling of what happens: body and emotion in the making of consciousness. London: Heinemann. She also says learning and emotion affect each other. Emotions shape learning and what we learn shapes our emotions in the sense of how we perceive them (feelings).²Milton (2005: 204).

The limitation to feelings of sorrow and joy

Interpretation of music in Zambia: sorrow and joy. To understand the limitation to feelings of sorrow and joy, it is important to understand the use of music in kupupa and the two basic forms this normally took. Kwilimuna was rejoicing about the works of the mpanga in that way reactivating, opening (kwilimuna) it. Kulila was feeling and expressing sorrow about the loss and the absence of the mother, father, grandmother and sometimes others. While in the village, it was ‘small kupupa’, done during work or in leisure time.

When in the mpanga, it was used for obtaining valuable information about game, honey and the like. To uplift the bereaved and invite them to stop mourning, at Ipupo, music was joyous too (pa kwangala). Through music the bereaved were enticed to shift from the left in Figure H to the right.

This means that in (important) music only two basic feelings will occur. Sorrow in mourning, for the prevention and resolution of ishamo. Or joy, for being granted ishuko, with the ulterior motive of preventing ishamo. Or, for the stopping of mourning to open up the mind and the heart.

This was corroborated by the information gathered in Survey 1987. But let’s first look at the terms used to express the feelings.

Elaboration B: Words used to express the feelings evoked by music

Joy

Most commonly used are expressions with the root -sansa (joy) in them like nasansamuka, lwa kusansamuka and nsansa ku mutima.
Then a few words around the root -temwa (loving) like nalitemwa and natemwa sana. And bune and busuma (goodness), both regularly followed by ku mutima (in the heart), and naumfwa bwino (I felt good). These more individually oriented words had gradually been introduced from town or through christianity in the three decades prior to the 1980s. They testify to the secularisation of joy, see below.
Although there are areas in the world where one could say (and mean): ‘I love sorrowful music’ or ‘Sorrowful music makes me feel good’, this was not the case in Chibale. Joy, loving it, going for it, being lively and showing energy all belonged to the music for kwangala or kwilimuna. Sorrow belonged to the music for kulila. One could say that no aesthetic detachment existed as to music of sorrow.

Sorrow

The word bulanda (sorrow, feeling miserable) is used very often, less often cikonko (grief, more generally: a strong feeling related to something you will not forget) and occasionally bucushi (deep sorrow, sufferings). On occasion, kulosha (mourning) and lukumbu (grievous thoughts) are used.

Nothing

Tapapo/tapali ifyo naumfwa (there was nothing for me to feel) and tapali/tapapo icanjikata ku mutima (there was nothing that has touched my heart) are used to point at the absence of feelings while listening to the song.

Together the sentences around -sansa, -temwa, bune, bulanda, cikonko and ‘nothing’ are used in 97,5% of the answers about the feelings felt while listening to a song in Survey 1987 (see Table A). See below for a discussion whether or not -temwa and bune ‘belong’ to joy.

Feelings of sorrow and joy in Survey 1987

Interpretation of music in Zambia: sorrow and joy. In this survey, the one interviewed heard a song on the headphones and immediately after that answered a number of questions³See here.. One of the first of these questions was about the feelings they had while hearing the song. 88% of the answers revolve around joy or sorrow, while 11% mention no feelings or negative feelings. 

Table A: Feelings said to have been felt while listening to the 9 songs of Survey 1987. 

Other feelings, related to joy, are formulated as follows. I felt like dancing (5x); I felt pride (4x); I felt lightened (4x). It made me forget my worries (2x); I felt not alone (1x); I felt like eating (1x). Negative feelings were formulated as follows. I do not like it (8x); I felt aversion (5x); I was bored (5x). I felt fear for the words (1x); I felt fear for the consequences of singing this song (1x).

Interpretation of music in Zambia: sorrow and joy. Three, rather distinct groups of songs can be discerned as to the feelings of joy or sorrow that they evoke or represent. 1. sorrow with most listeners, 2. sorrow with some and joy with others, and 3. joy with most. In Survey 1987 each of these groups was represented by three songs.

A, F and I are songs of both joy and sorrow. Song A (Song 156) and Song F (Song 1) are funeral songs, also often sung at old beer parties, and Song I (Song 147) is an Ipupo song.

B, E and H are songs of predominantly sorrowful feelings. Song B (Song 70) is a funeral song; Song E a Kubuka song (Song 163) and Song H a women’s work song (Song 155).

C, D and G are songs of predominantly joyful feelings. While Song C is a women’s leisure song (Song 178), Song D (Song 20) and Song G (Song 82) are kalindula songs brought at Sandauni.

Figure B: Correspondence analysis of Table A.

Interpretation of music in Zambia: sorrow and joy. Let’s take a look at the plot that results from correspondence analysis of Table A. It shows a clear separation between feelings of joy and of sorrow in the horizontal dimension. And, on the slanted vertical dimension the absence of feelings and negative feelings are contrasted with the other feeling groups. One could interpret this as pitting negative feelings against deep feelings. Grief is on one extreme, then Sorrow, followed by Joy/I loved it, then Good(ness)/A little joy, and on the other extreme Absence of/Negative feelings.⁴To see this Sorrow, Sorrow & Joy, Joy/I loved it and Good(ness)/A little joy have to be projected on the line running from Grief to Absence of/Negative feelings. It exemplifies the principle that music to be able to evoke feelings of sorrow has to have little that can evoke negative feelings or the absence of feeling.

The plot also seems to indicate three other things. If feelings of joy and sorrow are felt at the same time, this is not a sign of shallowness⁵Shallowness in the sense that it is further removed from deep feelings..
The Love it feelings are like the Joy (-sansa) feelings. The more recent Goodness feelings are like ‘A little joy’.
See below for a further discussion.

Joy and sorrow as emotional feedback mechanism for the effectiveness of music

Interpretation of music in Zambia: sorrow and joy. For some readers, it may be useful to point out that, as illustrated by Figure B, in the 1980s in Chibale sorrow was not considered a negative feeling and that feelings of joy were not always thought to be spiritually trivial. The three groups of feelings: Joy, Sorrow and Absence of/Negative feelings are not symmetrical. The absence of feelings and negative feelings are opposed to the feelings of the other two groups. They are mostly evoked by two circumstances: evaluating the performance as bad or disapproval with (elements of) the text or the context of the song.
The underlying principle is that music in order to be able to evoke feelings of sorrow and, to a lesser extent, joy has to have little or nothing that can evoke negative feelings or inhibit feeling. This principle can also be illustrated by many examples of song texts or discussions during rituals stressing the importance of good singing and a faultless performance.
Since the latter was also a necessary condition for music to have effect, one could assume that the feelings of joy and sorrow were used as a kind of emotional feedback mechanism for the effectiveness of music.

Let us put it in terms of the definition of emotion and feeling given above. Songs are expected to induce emotions; these emotions cause, or are perceived as, feelings of joy or of sorrow. If no feelings are perceived, the song, or song context, is regarded to fail. 

Joy and sorrow as experiential ‘formulation’ of the exchange relation

Interpretation of music in Zambia: sorrow and joy. According to Ingold⁶As discussed by Milton (2005: 206). people perceive meanings in nature – instead of cultures imposing meanings on “an otherwise meaningless nature”. The meanings they perceive depend on how they engage with the various entities in their environment. For the local and possession cults the exchange relation with nature is fundamental to their worldview. In this exchange relation the experiencing of two types of emotions perceived as feelings of sorrow (for kulila) or joy (for kwilimuna and kwangala) is crucial. At the same time, only these two types of feelings are caused by songs. And songs play a great role in the interaction between the human world (culture) and the mpanga.
Based on this, we may surmise that songs are an experiential ‘formulation’, or, when hearing them, a recurrent re-experiencing, of that exchange relation.

Joy less important than sorrow

Interpretation of music in Zambia: sorrow and joy. Joy and Sorrow are not homologous. Frequently when mentions of feelings of joy were made the adverb ‘only’ was added. ‘I felt joy only’ or ‘I only liked it’. In Survey 1987, this is done in more than one third of the cases in which one of the feelings of the Joy-group is mentioned. This seems to indicate that in the 1980s many regarded joy to be less deep or significant than sorrow. An explanation, or at least a parallel, for this may be that in the 1980s the performing of kulila was considered more effective than that of kwilimuna.
To put it differently. In the 1980s, many people regarded the performance of joyous music to be a secular affair. There was little recollection of its spiritual function in the past. Kwilimuna joy was for a substantial part replaced by leisure fun. The latter had reminiscences of the life joy, see Figure H, for only a minority of the people. The reason given for this was that during the course of the 20th century the nearness of the mpanga had diminished for most people, physically and spiritually. Only those who lived near the mpanga or were connected to it, like hunters and the spirit-possessed, gave their joy to it. Sorrowful music, however, was (still) much more often used as a way to communicate with or influence the mpanga. “Then you are asking for something because you are in trouble.”

Joy and cilaila

It is possible that a shift in the nature of cilaila, so important in the first half of the previous century, formed a phase in the secularisation of joy. Instead of a form of giving to the mpanga, cilaila changed into the performing of serious music as a form of play in another context. Note that also in the ‘play cilaila’ there a clear relationship was still made with the ones who could effectively perform the specific type of songs in more serious contexts. 

The cause of the feelings

Interpretation of music in Zambia: sorrow and joy. When people described what they felt, they frequently provided an explanation. For instance, when explaining that they experienced both sorrow and joy, they often said the following. “I felt sorrow because of the text and joy because of the way it was sung/played”. In more than two thirds of the cases, an association exists between the hearing of a certain message and feelings of sorrow. And, between the hearing of a certain way of singing or playing and feelings of joy. The reverse also occurs but far less often. “I felt joy because of the text” and “I felt sorrow because of the way it was sung”. The only other explanations given are the following two. “I felt joy because of remembering the past” and “I felt sorrow because of remembering lost ones”.
This link between feelings of sorrow and song text and between feelings of joy and performance seems to be related to the links that exist between certain activities and the heart and wisdom respectively. See the article Wisdom and heart.

In Survey 1987, people give an unsolicited explanation for the feelings of joy in a fifth of the cases. The joy is said to have been caused by the way the song is sung or, sometimes, by the accompanying music (69%), the message of the song (18%) or because of remembering the past (13%). 

For the feelings of sorrow an unsolicited explanation is given in nearly half of all cases. People see the message of the song as the cause of the sorrow (70%), the way of singing (the accompanying music is never mentioned in the case of sorrow) (19%) and by the remembering of loved or lost ones (11%).

Changes in feelings between the 1980s and the 2000s

Interpretation of music in Zambia: sorrow and joy. Comparing the words used in Survey 2004 to characterise the feelings felt while hearing a song with those used in Survey 1987, we find further changes in Joy and also some in Sorrow.

Joy and Goodness

In the 2000s, terms around goodness (bune) have become dominant in the Joy-group. The difference is so big that ‘the Goodness-group’ has become the more appropriate term for it. As we saw above, terms related to goodness had already been introduced before the 1980s, presumably from town and through christian denominations. They, however, were still related to Joy (nsansa), denoting a more shallow form of it. In 2004, the term ‘goodness’ occurs in 2/3 of the cases in which one refers to Joy/Goodness. From this we may infer that the process of the secularisation of Joy⁷That is the secularisation as to the old local cults. continued in the period after the 1980s.
In the 2000s, if the reason for a feeling is the way the song was sung or played, this feeling, as in 1987, is joy (or, rather, goodness). But the extent of giving the message as the reason for the feeling has increased enormously, particularly for the goodness-feeling. This may reflect the increased influence of christian denominations that interpret the message mainly as a source of feeling good.

So, this ‘spiritually feeling good because of the message’ is the next entry on the list of joys. It further includes the spiritual kwilimuna joy, the life joy (kwangala) and secular leisure fun.

Sorrow as a reason to feel bad

Another difference is that some people say to have felt bad (-bi) while listening to a song. The reason for this is the sorrow, they say, it evokes or contains. Bad being the opposite of good, it can also be understood as follows. ‘This song does not make me feel good and that’s bad’. This ‘new’ feeling can be interpreted as a first sign of secularisation of – or, at least, reluctance toward – Sorrow. The sorrow does not fit in, it is not ‘functional’ and therefore makes one feel bad. The word bad was never used in the 1980s to refer to feelings felt while listening to songs. In 2004, it occurs in 10% of the cases, always in connection with songs of sorrow.