Interpretation of music in Zambia: wisdom and heart

Interpretation of music in Zambia: wisdom and heart. Two central, interrelated concepts: mano and mutima, wisdom and heart, are related to the contexts of music and the experiencing of music.

Definition of wisdom (mano) and heart (mutima)

A contrast that people often use in Chibale is that between mano and mutima, wisdom and heart. There is a strong connection between these two central, inter-related concepts and music contexts and experiences.
A variety of meanings are associated with mutima and mano, including the physical: heart – brain, the social: selfishness – sociality, and the spiritual: intuition – wisdom.

Proverb 182

Mutima e muntu wine
The heart is the human self

The human stripped of spirits is not socially oriented. Mano brings in consideration.

Proverb 141¹Example from the proverb book Amano mambulwa.²Photo 158.

Iciiba mutima, iminwe taibapo

Umutima ku muntu ekampingu wafintu akofwaya ukucita. Ulunkumbwa nalo ilyo amenso abona lulenga umutima ukufwailisha inshila yakukwatilamo cilya cintu.
Icikonkapo kutemwa ukubula cilya cintu nangu ukwiba pakuti ba mutima basekelemo. Mwabona nomba, iminwe eyisenda ncilya cintu. Kunuma nku, kabwalala bali kumuputula amaboko pakuti bonse bamubone. Iminwe yaculilamo, libe umutima wikele tondolo.
Fwe bantu ilinji line bambi balafwaya ukutubomfya pakuti ngawaikatwa bonse bakaseka iwe. Kanshi tube abaibukila pa fintu abantu bambi bakofwaya fwe tubacitile.

It is the heart that steals, not the hand

Try to find out what is behind a certain action.
The heart in a person decides what to do. Want of something after the eyes have seen it, makes the heart look for ways in which to act. What follows is the desire to have that item through theft. Now you can see: the hands pick that item, but the decision was made by the heart. Long ago, a thief had his hand cut off so that everybody could see. The hands suffered while the heart was safe. Often ordinary people are the ones who are being used in evil acts so that at the end they will be blamed instead of the real perpetrators. So let us be careful to check what assignments they want us to undertake on their behalf.

Proverb 231

Amano mambulwa
Wisdom is acquired [from others]

Doke³Doke (1927: proverb 88) also mentions it for the Lamba region.
Amano kubulwa and Amano mambulwa.
Wisdom consists in being told.

A word of correction to the self-satisfied, who considers that he knows everything.

And⁴Doke (1927: proverb 1688):
Bumano ndi li kwatile te bo, amano mambulwa.
It is not wisdom-I-have-of-myself, wisdom is being-told.

See also Proverb 179.

Two exegetes on wisdom and heart

Mutima is influenced by intrinsic badness (ciwa) and wisdom (mano). Mutima is directed to the person him/herself while mano is directed to other persons. Here you can compare it with work that is for the person him/herself or work that is also for others, like honey gathering, hunting, bridge building or healing. The possession spirits do the latter, the works of wisdom (milimo ya mano). This is one of the most powerful issues in life.
BanaNshimbi ∵ personal communication, 1987.

Mano is a way of thinking of which others can benefit and which gives them a path to follow. You know the young man who drowned in the Lukusashi river [trying to bring home a heavy load of game over a swollen river all by himself], he followed his mutima, not listening to the stories of previous disasters in like circumstances which mano brought forward.
An ideal person (muntu wa cine) would be completely guided by mano. This, however, is not possible because mutima is the person himself.
All these stories about Kalulu (the hare). Kalulu is the one always following the mutima, and he gets away with it… I will tell you a story about Kalulu and Lion in which you can see that bad spirits (cibanda) are in Kalulu while Lion is pure. You see, Kalulu tries to persuade Lion to do something dangerous just for his [Kalulu’s] own needs. It is clearly a fight between mutima and mano. That’s why we bring a hare into the village without the head.
Mika Mwape Chungwa ∵ personal communication, 1986.

Wisdom and heart and the way music is experienced

Interpretation of music in Zambia: wisdom and heart. Mutima comprises the feelings that emotions induce and some other physical circumstances. In some cases, like with pain, this is unmediated. “Pain goes straight to the heart”.

Fear, anger, love, aversion, illness, jealousy, pain and sorrow and grief all are put in the mutima. There are situations that are ‘too mutima’ but there are none that are ‘too mano‘. Singing, playing instruments and dancing relate to mutima, while looking at dancing, looking at and listening to the drums and the singing relate to mano. So, you see that these aspects come together at a ritual.
Alube Mika ∵ personal communication, 2004.

This also leads people to say that singing while pounding is bringing mano and maka (energy/strength) together. Or, to give the following exempting statement: ‘Men are eager to get drunk because that brings them, the ones who normally are to be with mano, in a mutima state. In this way, they bring mutima and mano together’.

Interpretation of music in Zambia: wisdom and heart. We see that the mano-mutima contrast is not expressed in music, but in experiencing music and in the contexts of music. Among other things, these contexts are opportunities to bring the two together.
The more general idea of ​​understanding ritual as the meeting or temporary reconciliation of contrasts finds form here in the temporary bringing together of the inevitable human self with the wisdom of social orientation.