Interpretation of music in Zambia: variation 4

Interpretation of music in Zambia: variation, example 4. This article is about the interpretation of a pounding song. The singer of the song said it is about witches taking away people that are sorely missed.

Song 155

The fragment of the pounding song Song 155, starting at the 33rd second, used in Survey 1987.¹Go to the complete text of this pounding song.

Text of Song 155 ∵ Come and help me, you who lie in the anthill

Bamupandansengo nailila bamune yo
Emwe mukolengela abanenu kulila
Mwe balele mu culu nailila bamune yo
Iseni muncishe mwebalele mu culu

Those who bewitch using horns, I am alone, my friends yo
You are the causers of mourning in even more families
You who lie in the anthill, I am alone, my friends yo
Come and help me, you who lie in the anthill

People used anthills (culu) as grave sites in the past.

Interpretation by exegetes

Yes, I know the song with bamupandansengo [Follows Song 135, comparable in text but in another musango]. Here they ask the witch to come and help, because (s)he caused the problem.
BanaNshimbi ∵ personal communication, 1987.

The author likes to add that in the fourth line the singer calls upon her dead relatives to come and help. She is left alone in a village without people to help her. And it are those who bewitch using horns who caused this.

Interpretation by the general public

In Survey 1987, participants expressed their views on the message of this song right after hearing it. Most of them focused on what they considered the main subject of the song. A broad interpretation of the song text (List 38). Further interpretation was discussed on the basis of a specific question about the text of the song (Lists 39).

List 38: The message (main subject) of Song 155, Survey 1987

Most people say the song is about witchcraft. Some of them also refer to the intended effect of the song (3M2 and 3M7). The reason is that warning or condemning witches helps to diminish their control over the one singing. Some of the persons interviewed see the song as a mourning song (3M4, 3M8, 3M10-13, 3M15). By this, they also refer to the (kupupa) effect of the song.

List 39: Why should certain people come and help?

Interpretation of music in Zambia: variation, example 4. We encounter various interpretations of the help the singer asks for. Spiritual help (3T1 and 3T6), the help the dead can give when you mourn for them/remember them (3T2, 3T4, 3T10, 3T12), the help missed because people died (3T5, 3T9), and the help the witch should give (3T7). 3T3 is about the reason why the singer needs help and 3T11 is unclear. Only 2 persons do not know why certain people should come and help.
It is likely that the first two groups of answers (64%) interpret the song to be a kupupa through mourning/remembering song. 3T3 focuses on the reason why the singer needs help (23%). And this interpretation likely is also behind the third group of answers (3T5,3T9)(10%). The last interpretation is that the witch is asked for help (3%).

Conclusion

Only 2 persons say not to know what the song is about.
There are three main interpretations of the song.
Only 4 answers are the same as that of the exegete.

Proverb 64²Example from the proverb book Amano mambulwa.³Photo 180.

Tafilya ulima

Upekanya umo elyo nabambi baponenamo. Ngani mu bulimi, umo alima nokusanga ati abesa mukulyako bengi. Eico ecintu tulingile ukwibukisha.

The farmer does not eat everything he/she cultivates

One person takes care of the food with the rest benefiting from this. So, we should not forget to thank them. In farming, one person does the ploughing (or the pounding), but many people help in the consuming and we have to remember this.

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