Interpretation of music in Zambia: strength

Interpretation of music in Zambia: strength. A central concept in Chibale life is maka, the physical and spiritual strength to do something difficult or to overcome trouble. How is this related to music and the way music is experienced?

Definition of strength (maka)

In music, people use the word maka to denote the quantity of energy/power the performer puts into the performance. They also use it for the quantity of energy the performer/performance releases with the audience.

More generally, people use the word to denote the physical and spiritual strength to do something difficult or to overcome trouble. 

Seur (1992) makes many references to strength (‘power’), for instance:
“Hence the amount of ‘power’ determines the amount of work someone is able to do. The same words, however, are used to describe a person’s mental energy, that is, the devotion and dedication with which an individual pursues his goals. Power is considered one of the most fundamental resources.”¹Seur (1992: 407).

Maka is related to independence: being able to use maka for your own needs without running into debts or troubles with others. Being indebted means handing over power to others.
Another situation arises when one or more persons arouse maka in one or more others. A master drummer arouses maka in the dancers and a Ciwila medium is to arouse maka in the bereaved. 

Elaboration A: The maka attributed to a performance is related to the appreciation of that performance

Interpretation of music in Zambia: strength, maka. When we put the nine songs used in Survey 1987 in order as to the average value scores they obtain from the ones interviewed, we get the following sequence: 8-9-3; 2-7; 1; 5-6-4. When putting them in order as to the quantity of maka that the interviewees attributed to the performance of each song, we obtain a similar sequence: 8-9; 3-7; 2-1; 5-4; 6.²The relations between the value score and the quantity of maka attributed to the performance of the nine songs have high rank-correlation coefficients lying between .66 and .85. Also, the reason for the value score as well as the feelings experienced during the performance and the quantity of maka attributed to the performance associate rather well.³Rank-correlation coefficients between .44 and .64 and between .32 and .61 respectively with a significance of .0000 for almost all.

The question then arises whether the attribution of maka to the performance was the same as saying that it was a good performance. No, is the answer, it isn’t. People do not use the term maka very often in verbal performance evaluations. In Survey 1987 the reasons for a value score that refer to maka represent around one percent of all reasons given. This may be related to the fact that maka was felt to be connected to other important aspects.

We do not find the high rank-correlation coefficients for the relations between the value score and the quantity of maka attributed to the performance of the nine songs in Survey 1987 for the seven songs in Survey 2004. This may indicate that the obviousness of the association of maka and good, effective performance in 1987 was related to the resurgence of older cults and the dominance of the possession cults at that time.

Specialists on the relation between maka and music

Playing the drum is more difficult than playing the one-note xylophone since you need more maka to do it.
Sitifini Nunda ∵ personal communication, 1981.

When a non-dancing Kaluwe possessed does not use his special skill, he will get weak, a light form of ishamo. This will only disappear, possibly after consulting a shing’anga, when he starts using that skill again. He will immediately feel better and have maka.
Mika Mwape Chungwa ∵ personal communication, 1986.

Maka in a song, singer, dancer or drummer is a way of showing life in the whole event, to heat the ritual. It is to release hotness and maka in others like the chorus, the patient or the initiate.
Mika Mwape Chungwa ∵ personal communication, 1986.

The whole possession milieu was at its top in the period that you were here [the 1980s]. There was hotness in the whole area, but now it is cold; there are no people with maka (tamuli abamaka). The present possessed and drummers are not hot. In that time everybody was fully prepared, nowadays they are just moving about (kuwayawaya cabe). The relation between the people and the mpanga has been disturbed.
BanaNshimbi ∵ personal communication, 2004.

Now when we want to look into what drummers need, we find that the cibitiku player especially needs maka. This involves playing loudly and sharply. Then the kace player also needs maka but he also has to be able to use the different kace patterns.
Alube Mika ∵ personal communication, 2004.

Kula panshi takes a lot of maka. You need kula panshi to keep or be granted ishuko or relieve sorrow. That is why you need maka [in the performance].
Alube Mika ∵ personal communication, 2006.

Conclusion

Interpretation of music in Zambia: strength, maka. Maka associates with physical ability, energy, liveliness, skill, ishuko, loudness, kula panshi, hotness, and power, as the quotations illustrate. It also associates with the situations in which these aspects occur, especially when people arouse maka in others. So, maka refers to the ability to produce various key aspects of music in larger gatherings. This association between good music and maka is explained by the fact that it is only if these elements are present in music that it is considered good. Maka is more of a condition than a quality. This conditional sequence is even larger since maka is an experiential sign of being with ishuko. So: being with ishuko => maka => effective performance.
The heating through sensenta and kula panshi is the central aim of the music of the older and possession cults. This requires a substantial amount of maka. It is the condition for the performance of life and liveliness and of bridging the two systems presented in Figure H.