Musical instruments in Zambia: human sounds

Musical instruments in Zambia: human sounds. This article is about the sounds that a person can make without further instruments, clapping, humming, whistling and ululating. People in Chibale distinguish them from the most prominent human sound: singing.

Clapping

Musical instruments in Zambia: human sounds. There are various reasons why people in Chibale clap their hands. Depending on the reason and the occasion, the way of clapping differs as well as the posture of the one clapping.
Most often, clapping hands is called kutota mapi. This refers to one of the main reasons to clap: to thank. Kutota means to be grateful, be pleased, thank, clap hands. The other main reason for clapping is to pay respect.
Clapping is an important act, especially when done for others than the family members. People do not only clap hands in greeting but also in festive and ritual contexts. The musical clapping at a feast or ritual is a form of paying respect by heating the ritual (mucinshi wa kukafye cila). It is one of the ways to contribute to the success of the session.

Clapping for mediums

Musical instruments in Zambia: human sounds. In the case of a visiting ing’omba or other medium, the respect is not only paid to the owners of the feast or ritual at which the ing’omba performs but also to the spirits possessing that ing’omba. The ing’omba or medium then functions as a kind of living shrine. In this case, clapping is a religious act. Another way of paying respect is to give gifts to the ing’omba/medium (kutaila or citaila). And, interestingly, kutaila and citaila are the oral notations of the 2 against 3 pattern, so ubiquitous in Chibale music. Since the ing’omba or medium is singing and playing or dancing, the musical clapping¹Called ukombela ing’omba: to clap (in fact it is broader: to use your hands) for the ing’omba. Ukomba ngoma: play the drum, combela wa ngoma: master drummer. is the ritual form of the clapping to pay respect.

Musical instruments in Zambia: human sounds. Nowadays, there is little musical clapping at rituals. And a little more at Beers and occasions where few people are present.

People say that the clapping follows (kukonka) the song. However, it often has its own continuous, repetitive movement. See also the article on sticks (mukonkonto).

Kutota amapi cikopelako mu mapunda ambi ilyo uleimba pa isa lika ulupi ilyanshita watalala.
Handclapping adds to the rests in the singing; to play the hands during the time you rest [in the singing].
Mika Mwape Chungwa ∵ personal communication, 1986.

Handclapping does not follow the song but adds to it.

Whistling and humming

Musical instruments in Zambia: human sounds. People whistle for enjoyment (pa kwangala), most often while alone. In former days, this may have been different as ¢the following proverb from the Lamba region¢ shows.

Proverb 79

Imfwa ya kutali ya ku lila mu munsu.
Death afar off is mourned by whistling.

If a man is far away from the scene of death, and hears that so-and-so is dead, he does not wail in the approved fashion, as he would were he at the village of the dead; he just whistles: Wheu! and says: ‘Oh my friend is dead!’.²Doke (1927: proverb 403).

Ukulila mu muloshi (mourning by whistling) is also done in Chibale.

Musical instruments in Zambia: human sounds. Mediums sometimes use whistling and humming to test the song that the possessing spirits pass on to them. They whistle or hum along with the singing spirits before bringing the song in public. The song is being cooked.
Whistling can also be a marker or signal, for instance in Kubuka, listen to Music example 44.

Music example 44

The beginnings of two songs at a Kubuka brought by Sheki Mbomba, Luanshya, 1986.
The short whistling is inserted in the beginning of a song to mark the rounding off of the successful ‘transfer’ of the song from the possessing spirit to the medium.

Musical instruments in Zambia: human sounds. A form of humming not used anymore is described by Pope Cullen who visited Chibale around 1930.³Pope Cullen (1940:263-269). It was used at an afternoon ritual at the shrine (mpata) of all deceased chiefs Chibale. Below we have shortened Pope Cullen’s description, except in the quotation.

The relics of the eight chiefs preceding chief Chibale Mutende have just been put from their stand on the ground by Muwasha, the caula lumpundu of chief Chibale. Torn strips of white calico and mealie meal are thrown over the relics. Muwasha taps her mouth with open palm and utters a thin, high wail, while still in the shrine. Chibuye Mutanda, son of the oldest sister of chief Chibale begins a low, rolling accompaniment on the drum and Musonda Mutende, son of chief Chibale, rings the double bell.
“The men of the tribe joined in by humming resonantly through closed lips, the women with a wail like Muwasha’s. The strange symphony rose slowly to a crescendo of sound that seemed to fill the world, then it fell away, just as slowly, to silence. It was repeated, eight times, alternated by a clapping of hands – a clapping that also started softly, grew louder and slowly died away.”
Then it is finished. It has just become dark.

Ululating

Musical instruments in Zambia: human sounds. The tongue and the uvula produce the high-pitched loud sound called lumpundu, sometimes the hand is used as well. It is predominantly used by women. Its purpose is to show joy, thank, encourage, stimulate, celebrate, make something public and mark a transition.

Some examples, past and present

There is a lot of ululation at a procession of people at a wedding, listen to the beginning of Film 2.
In the morning, the baciswila came to the chief’s place, elder people who came to greet him by hand-clapping and ululation, so that he could leave his house.
All the men ululated when the long process of iron smelting had produced a good lump of iron.
When a ritual friend sprays mealy meal on a blocked drum at an Ipupo, she ululates and says: O bamipashi, ningati nimwe mwashinke ngoma pakulombolo bunga. Mbu twamupa, kaishinkuke. – Oh, ancestral spirits, maybe it is you who closed the drum because you want mealie meal. Here it is, we give it to you, let the drum be open.
To heat the ritual (kukafye cila) the public can produce certain sounds, ululating is one of them.
During the Cibombe ca cisungu, there is a lot of ululation for the initiate who lays under a white blanket in a house to have him or her open up, so that the possessing spirit will be able to dance through him or her in the dance circle outside of the house.
At the end of the long period of instruction of the cisungu, the girl was carried back to the village followed by a procession of ululating women.
At the cutting of the first teeth an ululation is uttered for joy and to make it public.⁴Also in Doke (1931:138).
When a baby is being born the midwife or grandmother will ululate to celebrate the birth and to make it public.⁵Also in Stefaniszyn 1964:75).
While ululating, a group of women sometimes dance around a solo dancer as a way of showing that the dancer is doing well and to stimulate the feast or ritual. This is called kusebelesha.

The ones ululating

Musical instruments in Zambia: human sounds. The ones ululating often have a special relation with the occasion. Other attendants than these special persons can take over the ululation.

After a birth, by the family of the husband.
At the girls’ initiation, depending on the occasion within the initiation, by the mother, the instructress (bacibusa) and the ritual friends (abali)⁶Often called funeral friends in English..
When someone has been absent for a long time, by the mother.⁷See Lambo (1946/47).
At a Cililo and Ipupo, by the ritual friends.
When taking off the pot of the fire while brewing funeral beer, by the ritual friends.⁸Also in Stefaniszyn (1964:130).
At the Cibombe, by the kampenga.

Caula lumpundu: to carry on the tradition

Musical instruments in Zambia: human sounds. A well-known image is that of the caula lumpundu. Literally this means the one who can ululate very well. In the figurative sense it denotes the one who enlivens things, a pillar of social life, ‘the one who carries on the [cultural] message’ as banaNshimbi formulated it.

Hoffman who witnessed the funeral rites of chief Chibale Mwape Mondwa in 1925 mentions the caula lumpundu:
“…and with twilight came the chaula-lampunda, a stately and dignified woman whose thrills were audible miles away as she past twice around the royal death hut. And another woman, with a lusonsola, also famed as a mourner, marched in opposite direction around the hut, while the aged drummer crouched on the ground beating out his monotonous reverberating call that had summoned the old king in his life time to the dance, to war and the merrymaking’s of the village…”
The caula lumpundu also broadcasted beans, in a rather careless way like in the kukusha mpata in 2007.

Song 90

A song mentioning the caula lumpundu, as remembered by banaNshimbi, 1987. No recording.

Text of Song 90 ∵ To carry on the family culture

Bonse balafwa bana banji
Kashale kabinda bana
Caula lumpundu
Sembi Lesa alonkunsungila

All my children have died
Let the youngest one remain
The carrier of the family culture
Only Lesa can take care of her

As only one child has remained, its task will be -should it survive- to carry on the family tradition, hopefully in the splendid manner of a caula lumpundu.