Interpretation of music in Zambia: variation 1

Interpretation of music in Zambia: variation, example 1. This article is about the interpretation of a cisango, a women’s critical song. According to the starter of the song, it is about problematic behaviour of the husband.

Song 178

The fragment of the women’s critical song Song 178, from the beginning until the 31st second, used in Survey 1987.¹Go to the complete text of this cisango.

Text of Song 178 ∵ I did not expect the two of us to marry our magpie

Cankole ubanda nshila eya eya
Tanshakwibukile cankole wesu tupwe babili eya eya
Nendi mwando wa bulungu eya eya
Nangu amwamfulwa mwe balume mumbweleshe kwesu eya eya

Magpie who waggles along/blocks the road eya eya
I did not expect the two of us to marry our magpie eya eya
I am a rope of beads eya eya
If you are angry with me, my husband, bring me back to where I came from eya eya

The answers given specifically refer to the first two lines. -Banda means both waggling and blocking.

Interpretation of music in Zambia: variation, example 1. In Survey 1987, participants expressed their views on the message of this song right after hearing it. Most focused on what they considered the main subject of the song, a broad interpretation of the song text (List 42). Further interpretation was discussed on the basis of a specific question about the text of the song (List 43).

Proverb 52²Example from the proverb book Amano mambulwa.³Photo 171.

Akeshibilo ka kuloke mfula makumbi ili abako

Kufyo mwabona, eko mwakwishibila. Icintu conse caliba necishibilo cakwebati cikocitika.  Icimuti umukunyu ulatwala amaluba ninshi bonse bakoshibila ati imfula ili mupepi.  Namu mainsa mwine, kumulu akutapo makumbi ninshi imfula takupo.

The sign for rain to come is the gathering of clouds

From what you see, you will know what comes thereafter. Everything has signs that something is going to take place. When the mukunyu tree starts flowering, everyone knows that the rainy season is approaching. In addition, if there is no cloud in the sky during the rainy season, there will be no rain.

Interpretation by exegetes

Here it is the second wife talking to the first wife. It is also to teach husbands about polygyny.
BanaNshimbi ∵ personal communication, 1987.

Tupwe refers to the marrying of women. If the magpie would be the husband and it would be the first wife singing, it would have been: mutupe babili. Because of tanshakwibule, it must be the first wife singing about the second. In the second verse the wife addresses herself to the husband referring to her value and her fragility as well as to the fact that what she does is all right in the place where she comes from.
Alube Mika ∵ personal communication, 1987.

Interpretation by the general public

Interpretation of music in Zambia: variation, example 1. In Survey 1987, participants expressed their views on the message of this song right after hearing it. Most focused on what they considered the main subject of the song, a broad interpretation of the song text (List 42). Further interpretation was discussed on the basis of a specific question about the text of the song (List 43).

List 42: The message (main subject) of Song 178, Survey 1987

Interpretation of music in Zambia: variation, example 1. Though not everybody can follow the metaphor of the magpie, as indicated by answer 2T4 in List 43, most people understand that the two verses are about marital problems. Some of them place the accent on jealousy, others on teaching.

List 43: What is meant with ‘Cankole ubanda nshila’?

Interpretation of music in Zambia: variation, example 1. We now focus on the first verse. It seems rather clear that the second line is sung by the first wife addressing the second wife. However, there are several alternative options. We first have to be aware of two characteristics of Chibale song texts that one needs to understand lest they become incomprehensible. In many songs the second line has another subject or takes on another vantage point than the first line. Secondly, a line may be a quotation of someone, not necessarily the subject until then, in the past, the present or the future. 

The second characteristic explains why many heard the first wife addressing the second wife to be (2T1). In 2T2 the lines are interpreted as: ‘Dear roaming husband, if you carry on like this I will soon be saying to a second wife: “I did not expect the two of us to marry our magpie” and that’s why I‘m telling you now’. The 2T6 interpretation hears the second wife saying to the first wife: ‘I expected our husband to send you home after he married me’. 2T3 and 2T5 give no indication as to which wife is speaking.

Conclusion

Interpretation of music in Zambia: variation, example 1. We see that even a rather straightforward verse with a simple metaphor is not understood by all. And it is interpreted in different ways. It would have been interesting to see how different the interpretations would have been had the song been brought by a specific person at a specific moment.

For this song little differences exist between the interpretations of the exegetes and those of the general public.

Continue to the second example in the article series on the variation in song text interpretation.