Interpretation of music in Zambia: texts in context 1

Fighting with songs ∵ Songs 1 to 6

Interpretation of music in Zambia: texts in context, part 1. That night, when Basil Chisonta and I arrived at banaNshimbi‘s farm, I was very excited. It had been a year and a half since I had visited an Ipupo or Cibombe. I was anxious to know how Kamimbya (human name: Munteta Chalebaila), the young dancer whose star had been rising, during my stay in 1985/86, already soon after he became spirit-possessed, would behave and sing and dance, and how he would emerge from his first confrontation with Kansenkele, the most famous ing’omba for mourning and commemorative rituals in the Chibale area and beyond. In any case, it was a thrill to be able to witness a performance by the ing’omba Kansenkele.

Before the first song

Interpretation of music in Zambia: texts in context 1. The atmosphere is expectant. Around 8 pm, some 300 people have formed a circle, leaving an open space with a diameter of about twelve metres. Outside this circle, there are six fires around which mainly men are sitting. Many of the other men standing at the edge of the dance circle will not sing. They are there to watch the drummers and the dancing. Therefore, 80% of the chorus is composed of women and children.
A number of adepts from bamukaNdubeni‘s cult group have come to help banaNshimbi, the human name of bamukaNdubeni, with the ritual. Some of them are patients (mwana) who cannot bring songs yet, or troubled initiated spirit-possessed individuals. They stand at the western side of the dance circle, eight female and one male spirit-possessed, with the line of three drummers at the east.

The first song

Interpretation of music in Zambia: texts in context 1. Following a half-hour-long period of tuning the drums and the dancers entering and leaving the circle, an adept brings the first song.

Music example 6

An overview of the full ensemble: the helper of the starter (solo), the chorus (audience), the three drums, and the anklet-rattles (nsangwa) of the starter of the song.

Text of the 1st song of the Ipupo at banaNshimbi’s, a Ciwila song brought by an adept of the possession cult group of bamukaNdubeni, December 1987.Owe lelo twabona bai bama/ bata
Iye elele niba Mwape bakoimba

Owe, now today we see, o mother/father
Iye elele, it is Mwape singing

Interpretation of music in Zambia: texts in context 1. The song is taken over rather quickly because the audience/chorus has been anxiously waiting for the ritual to begin. The dancing is mediocre: some of those standing in the circle hardly dance, or they dance close to the drums while they are not the starter of the song. Some even dance behind the drums. Because of the poor dancing and because of the size of the crowd, the circle gets smaller and smaller, leaving too little space for the dancers. After the song has finished, some experienced women connected to the organisers enter the circle and call upon the audience/chorus to keep the circle wide and upon the dancers with: “You, spirit-possessed, do not come nearer to the drummers; we want to see who dances well, do not deceive us.”

Music example 7

The comments on the course of the ritual given between the 1st and the 2nd song of the Ipupo at banaNshimbi’s. Experienced women criticise the public for not keeping the dance circle at the correct size and the dancers for not showing their styles or even not dancing at all.

The second song

Interpretation of music in Zambia: texts in context 1. After some time, the same Ciwila-possessed adept starts the next song.

Music example 8

The start of the 2nd song. Starting a song at an Ipupo (or Cibombe) can take a long time. One of the spirit-possessed comes with a song, the helper takes over the solo line, the chorus takes over the chorus line, the drummers join in, and the starter of the song can begin dancing to it.
Some songs never take off. The singing rises for some time and then disappears again in the general noise of the ritual. The drum beats heard in this passage are not drumming but drummers spreading drum paste on the skins of their drums. This can often be heard between songs.

Text of the 2nd song of the Ipupo at banaNshimbi’s, a Ciwila song brought by the same adept of the possession cult group who brought the 1st song.Mwayumfwe fyo/ Kumfwe fyo yalila bwino mungoma bai bama/bata
Lelo yalengo kulila

Do you hear/ To hear how good the drumming [music] is, oh mother/father
Now today it brings [causes] mourning

Interpretation of music in Zambia: texts in context 1. It takes some minutes before the drummers can join the singing. The audience/chorus does not sing loud enough because of the re-forming of the circle and because no-one takes over the solo line of the starter, who herself sings too softly. When, after quite some time, someone takes over the solo line, the song, drumming and dancing take off.

A typical Ciwila song

The first song of this spirit-possessed, though a Ciwila song, resembles Mwami songs introducing the possessing spirits. This second song is in the Ciwila tradition of linking good music with mourning. It provides praise for the drummers, an important subject of song texts at Ipupo. And it uses the word kulila in public, reminding everyone that it is a mourning ritual they attend. It contains the word lelo, important for Ciwila texts, transcribed here as ‘now today’, which is used to historicise the ritual or to emphasise that the text relates to affairs that are important at this very moment or period in history. Despite its slow start, the drumming and dancing to this song last longer than five minutes. The atmosphere is not really animated yet. After the song has finished, the whole thing diminishes.

The third song

Interpretation of music in Zambia: texts in context, part 1. Now a second Ciwila-possessed adept of bamukaNdubeni starts a song. The solo line is taken over quickly by a woman, Changwe Mabuku, who is very experienced in doing this for a number of mediums, while not really being linked to one of them as some other helpers are. Because of this, the chorus and drums join in fast.

Music example 9

Example of the drums joining in with this song. Here the cibitiku first joins in incorrectly and then starts again, after which (at 30”) the kace and immediately after that the iyikulu join in, while the dancing starts immediately too; listen to the anklet-rattles (nsangwa). The cibitiku playing is not very good. For drummers, the same holds as for the dancers: the minor ones go first.

Text of the 3rd song of the Ipupo at banaNshimbi’s, a Ciwila song brought by another adept of the possession cult group.Temba baisa /bafika bata
Bata wesu apo benda/kabenda no kulila

Here comes my father / My father has arrived
Our father, who always goes while weeping / come and find us weeping

Here the father stands for all of the relatives who lost someone and wept a lot in the time between the death and the Ipupo. The text refers to an Ipupo held after nine months to a year after the death, while this Ipupo, like many others, was held much later and was intended to resolve ishamo in the family. Still, this song is brought because it is a typical Ipupo song.

The fourth song

Interpretation of music in Zambia: texts in context 1. The next song is brought by a third adept. 

Text of the 4th song of the Ipupo at banaNshimbi’s, a Ciwila song brought by a third adept of the possession cult group.Lelo fyakanga ifya maombe
Owe lelo bama ba Kunda teti nshane

Now today will be a failure because of the drumming/music
Owe, now today, mother, Kunda, I won’t dance

Interpretation of music in Zambia: texts in context 1. This is a rather frequently used way for mediums to criticise the drumming, or the singing and drumming. Though some singing and drumming is done to this song, it doesn’t take off and after one and a half minutes it stops. It is discussed immediately after the song has stopped. 

Music example 10

Comments, between the 4th and the 5th song, on the music and dancing at the Ipupo at banaNshimbi’s.
First, you hear the end of the 4th song. Then, a woman from the chorus says: “You drummers, what’s happening?” Another woman: “The chorus doesn’t sing [well].” The one who takes over the solo line, Changwe Mabuku: “You always see the necks being swollen while the drumming is not there [while the drumming is bad]. This forced singing might even cause a goitre. Later, at home, you even see those lines at the sides of your neck. So, good singing follows good drumming.”
Immediately at the end of the 5th song, the discussion continues by the same women. One woman: “You singers, you confuse the drumming (kufundaule ngoma).” Mabuku: “I try my best.” Another woman: “The chorus doesn’t sing [well].” Mabuku: “Surely not! If the spirit-possessed would dance properly, the singing would be good.” Another: “The spirit-possessed should start to really dance (kushanisha) now. The nsangwa should be shaken.” Mabuku: “Listen to me! I sing very well, so, you, dancers, now start to really dance; like this … .”

The fifth song

Interpretation of music in Zambia: texts in context, part 1. After some time, the adept comes with a new first line that is not insulting to the drummers or chorus. This song takes off.

Text of the 5th song of the Ipupo at banaNshimbi’s, a Ciwila song brought by the same adept who brought the 4th song.Bo baine ba Cenala mwe!
Owe lelo bama ba Kunda teti nshane

Bo, friends, you, Cenala
Owe, now today, mother, Kunda, I won’t dance

The audience/chorus must have wanted to reward the adept for changing the text; the text itself will not have been the reason. 

The sixth song

Interpretation of music in Zambia: texts in context 1. A fourth adept starts a song.

Text of the 6th song of the Ipupo at banaNshimbi’s, a Mwami song brought by a fourth adept of the possession cult group.Kakonkote kafumine kwaba Muchinda
Lelo kakondakawukisha mutima

An old person who came from Muchinda’s
Today (s)he worries my heart

Interpretation of music in Zambia: texts in context 1. In this song one of the spirits possessing the adept quotes her as to the worries she has when the spirit from Muchinda comes upon her.
The chorus takes over the song reluctantly, but the drummers join in and play loudly.

Music example 11

Soft singing and loud drumming
Because of the text of the 6th song of the Ipupo at banaNshimbi’s the audience is not very enthusiastic, but they sing to assist the starter. The drummers play loudly to help the adept heal the relationship with the spirit from Muchinda, and because they are used to playing this kind of music (Mwami).

This continues for some minutes.

Interpretation of music in Zambia: texts in context 1. After the arrival of Mwami, there were in fact two types of Ciwila possession. One was connected to the old cults and yielded ing’omba. In former days, ing’omba were possessed by the spirits of ing’omba, but in the 1980s, it was the spirits of the deceased parents, in-laws, and chiefs. The other type was a cult of affliction under Mwami guidance. The Ciwila mediums who could connect their possession to the older cults are not members of a cult group, while the second type of Ciwila-possessed are members of cult groups around Mwami shing’anga, like that of bamukaNdubeni.
Spirit-possessed of the latter type are often not capable of heating the ritual, since they are mostly concerned with their own possession and, more particularly, illness. As in the example of the 6th song.

Continue to the next article in this series: the description and the interpretation of the song texts of this Ipupo.