Interpretation of music in Zambia: texts in context 2

Fighting with songs ∵ Songs 7 to 14

Interpretation of music in Zambia: texts in context, part 2.

The seventh song

Text of the 7th song of the Ipupo at banaNshimbi‘s, a Ciwila song brought by a fifth adept of the possession cult group of bamukaNdubeni.Mwebene bamubala muulala kamwimbe
Mwebene bamubala mwilala

You who started this Ipupo do not go to sleep but come and sing
You who started this Ipupo do not sleep

A song in the Ciwila tradition of helping the bereaved to make the change from mourning to a normal life.

The gathering is getting hotter.

The eighth song

Text of the 8th song of the Ipupo at banaNshimbi’s, a Ciwila song brought by the same adept who brought the 7th song.BaCiwila mwalule masamba mwebantu
Lelo mungafwileko ayi owe

You, Ciwila possessed, swing your masamba even more, you people
Now today please help in the ritual ayi owe

A song in the Ciwila tradition of heating the ritual with good music and dance.

Music example 12

Audience heating the ritual
A fragment of the heating of the ritual by the audience during the performance of the 8th song of the Ipupo at banaNshimbi’s.
They help in heating the ritual by joining in quickly, singing loudly and without mistakes, continuing the last tone of the chorus line and singing on for a long time the audience/chorus. They can also help by ululating, cheering and making noise as on this recording.

Merry confusion arises when a Mwami medium enters the circle and performs his typical way of dancing, thus taking away the attention from the one who brought the 8th song.

The ninth song

Now the adept who brought the 8th song retorts by bringing the next song while the drumming for the 8th song is still continuing.

Music example 15

The starting of a new song (9th song) while the drumming of the previous song (8th song) is still continuing.

Text of the 9th song of the Ipupo at banaNshimbi’s, a Ciwila song brought by the same adept who brought the 7th and the 8th songs.Kamwimbeni bama/bamune mwe baine mwebantu
BaCiwila balule masamba ayi owe

Please sing, mother/friends, you friends, you people
The possessed swing their masamba ayi owe

A text with more or less the same message as the previous ones. In these three songs the medium exhorts the organisers, possessed and the chorus successively to partake and help in the ritual. The reaction of the audience/chorus is good and the drumming and dancing too. After the singing and drumming have stopped, the drummers take up the song again.

Music example 16

After the singing and drumming of the 9th song have stopped, the drummers pick it up again after which the chorus also starts singing the song again. 

The tenth song

Text of the 10th song of the Ipupo at banaNshimbi’s, a Mwami song brought by a sixth adept of the possession cult group.Ayi banaSafi bamune
Iyo welele ba Kunda balumbula kwesu

Ayi, banaSafi, friends,
Iyo welele, Kunda has revealed our home

This is a Mwami song announcing that Kunda, one of the possessing spirits of banaSafi, has revealed where they come from. It is a next step in the healing process. The text seems out of place at an Ipupo but it turns out that the song is meant as a support for the treatment of a patient. Using the present hotness of the ritual but before the more famous mediums begin, bamukaNdubeni has a patient being brought into the dance circle during the performance of this song. Some days earlier this patient had been brought to her while in a deep coma. She is brought close to the drums. Rather soon the patient is able to stand staggering. BamukaNdubeni coaches her and then treats her in front of the drums. After this she remains in the dance circle for a few minutes, sometimes reacting a little bit to the music. 

During the treatment, Kansenkele and his wife arrive at the farm. They look on for a moment and then Kansenkele enters a house to prepare himself.

Because of the treatment people have crowded around the patient. The circle is much too small and irregular now. While Changwe Mabuku is pushing people backwards, people ask the possessed to come with a new song. During this Kamimbya enters the circle. Munteta Chalebaila has helped in the ritual until then as a person by keeping the circle in shape and by drumming but now after a period of having the spirits take hold of him (kuseluka) comes to help as a medium (see Photos 88 to 91).

The eleventh song

Text of the 11th song of the Ipupo at banaNshimbi’s, a Ciwila song brought by the same adept who brought the 7th, 8th and 9th songs.
Lelo balete fyabayambo
Iyo we lelo mwebantu bankululo mweo

Now today they bring the possessed’s art
No, you, now today, you people, they will rapture me

This text refers to the disengagement from mourning that the possessed’s art is to bring at Ipupo. It also refers to the treatment just given and historicises it. By taking the name bayambo –at the moment of entrance of Kamimbya, one of the few Bayambo possessed in Chibale– as the general word for possessed it is also a prelude to one of the themes of the evening, the use of other, in this case: Bayambo, possession music for Ipupo.

The twelfth song

Text of the 12th song of the Ipupo at banaNshimbi’s, a Ciwila song brought by a seventh adept of the possession cult group.Mwebaume pa bwalwa bwa bama, ba Kunda
Baikala bangeleshi nakalanda bama mwe / bobe

You men, at the beer ritual of my mother, Kunda
An Englishman is attending with a talking machine, mother, you

A classical Ciwila way of historicising an event or circumstance at a ritual or feast: in this case the recordings we are making.

The 13th song

Text of the 13th song of the Ipupo at banaNshimbi’s, a Kaluwe song brought by a eighth adept of the possession cult group.Kaluwe Kaluwe mama
Yoyoyo Kaluwe

Kaluwe Kaluwe mama
Yoyoyo Kaluwe

A typical example of a Kaluwe cult of affliction song, little words and the constant mentioning of the possessing or, as in this case, venerated spirit.
The song takes off well and the performance lasts long.

The 14th song

As the last of the adepts, Kamimbya entered the circle some songs earlier and now starts a song.

Text of the 14th song of the Ipupo at banaNshimbi’s, a Bayambo song brought by Kamimbya, adept of the possession cult group of bamukaNdubeni.Balya bawela Liya balya bawela / ni banaKwasa
Balya bawela Liya balya bawela / ni ba Mabuku
Balya cipale Liya balya cipale

Those of the wela chorus, Liya, those of the wela chorus / it is the mother of Kwasa
Those of the wela chorus, Liya, those of the wela chorus / it is Mabuku
Are the ones who show off, Liya, are the ones who show off

Among the chorus is a group of some twelve girls, real fans, who often sing at healing sessions for and of Munteta Chalebaila (listen to Music example 19).

Music example 19

A passage of the singing at an earlier occasion in 1985, a session, at which bamukaNdubeni treated (kukanda) Munteta Chalebaila by discussing and singing with the spirits possessing him. Due to their experience, the girls in the choir sing very sharp and kuwela well.

These sessions were held at banaNshimbi’s farm as well as at Munteta’s farm at Makonde where he married. In this song this ‘fan chorus’ –called bawela: those who do kuwela (well)– is praised. Because of their good singing they can be boastful. Liya is one of the spirits possessing Munteta.

Music example 20

In this fragment of the 14th song of the Ipupo at banaNshimbi’s, we hear the same girls with sharpness and kuwela similar to Music example 19. [Poor recording]

At the end of this song Kamimbya asks the audience/chorus: “You all, why don’t you all partake instead of only this small group? There are so many people but we hear only one group singing”. A woman in the audience/chorus says: “There are too many dancers to be able to see the dancing”. Mabuku: “There’s nobody”, meaning: the chorus is too small. Munteta: “The starting lasts much too long, the dancing space is too small. So, you people here [in this area], you don’t know how to sing?”
He, however, has caused this behaviour himself by starting with a praise song for his chorus of fans.

The problem with the Bayambo songs of Chalebaila and Kamimbya is that people find them difficult to learn. Instead of making new songs, Mwami and the greater part of Bayambo and Kaluwe mediums bring an existing song that is most effective at that very moment. A large knowledge of the repertoire then is an asset for the medium. In Chibale this is counterpoised by the fact that the most effective Mwami or Bayambo song might not be sung by the audience/chorus because they find it too difficult. The (spirits of the) medium therefore has to bargain between bringing little-known effective songs and repeating less applicable but well-known songs that are performed well and, so, heat the ritual. The latter choice, however, makes the interpretation of these songs more troublesome which adds to them being considered difficult to learn.

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