Musical instruments in Zambia: bellows
Musical instruments in Zambia: bellows (muuba). In former days, the iron industry was important. A trade over long distances existed of hoes and axes from the Lala region.
The iron smelter (kengulula) –who was not necessarily the same person as the blacksmith (kafula)– led the process. Eight to twelve men of the households in the village that needed something made of iron did the smelting. They brought along iron ore, helped in the bellowing and at the end received a piece of iron.
They built a circular furnace (nyumbi) outside the village, with a diameter of 2 metres and a height of one metre. This furnace including the surrounding space for the bellowers stood in a big dugout hole. In the furnace they laid layers of charcoal and iron ore (malamba or motapo). At the underside of the oven there were 4 to 6 holes for the hand bellows. The bellowers played with shifts of one to two hours. Women were not to be present. Therefore, men handed over food to the bellowers.
Song 123
A smelter song wrapped in an account of the smelter ensemble by Mika Mwape Chungwa whose father had been a smelter, 1986.
Text of Song 123 ∵ What a husband who doesn’t …
Wayumfwe nsapa ku citenge
Ciceleka!
Ndimushukile umulume utaya ku citenge
Ndimushukile umulume utaya mu kunonka
Ndimushukile umulume utaya ku masembe
Hear the master bellows in the smelter
Does it make salt from burnt grass?
What a husband who doesn’t go to the smelter
What a husband who doesn’t go to seek wealth
What a husband who doesn’t go for axes
Sung by the bellowers, the song is the complaint of the wives of those men in the village who didn’t join in the smelting.
Iron smelting in the Congo Lala area in the 1930s
Lambo1Lambo (1946: 333). Original in French, translation by Jan IJzermans. describes the iron smelting in the Congo part of the Lala region in the 1930s.
“The Lala used to work iron in former days. Laterite abounds and at certain places iron ore is found. They built a furnace that had many openings at its base for the bellows of goatskin. They had prepared great quantities of charcoal. And, they placed iron ore and charcoal alternately in the furnace. The blacksmith, who was an important person in the village, was generally helped by the men of the village, mainly the young people. All went away for weeks from the village, the women held a strict distance, regularly putting baskets of mealie meal near the place of work. It was understood that the iron would be polluted if any of the women who remained at the village would commit adultery.
They forged spears, axes and hoes. The blacksmith gave a tenth to the mfumu, the chief of the village. He kept a part for his assistants and exchanged the remainder.
The Lala and the Aushi were very good in forging. In his work In the Heart of Bantuland Dugald Campbell quotes Arnot who wrote in 1886 that since more than one generation the hoes forged at the east side of the Luapula and consequently in Masenga and Ilala of the Lala, had superseded the copper hoes in Uganda.”
Photo 191 ∵ Bellows (muuba)
Hand bellows used for iron smelting.2From Stefaniszyn (1964a: Pl. VI) for the Ambo (southern) part of the Lala region.[/mfn
The iron smelter ensemble
Musical instruments in Zambia: bellows (muuba). The bellowing began early in the morning. It was accompanied by the singing of songs. Together the bellows (myuba, singular muuba) formed a rhythmical ensemble. Leader of that ensemble was the master bellows (nsapa), played by the iron smelter.
Music example 58
In this recording, we hear the oral notations of four of the bellows patterns in the iron smelter ensemble followed by that of the master bellows (nsapa).
At some point in the long process, bad (‘watery’) iron began to trickle down to the bottom. Towards the end of the day, the iron smelter stopped and checked whether there was a clump of good iron in the centre of the oven. When he found a good clump, all started ululating. The smelter divided this clump among the participants. Each brought his piece to the blacksmith who could make the utensil that they needed.3For a description of iron smelting in the Lamba region in the beginning of the previous century, see Doke (1931: Chapter XXI). Next to other differences with smelting in Chibale in the same period, Doke does not describe that they made music during the smelting though he mentions ‘boisterous shouting (ingwele)’ when the oven worked well.
Musical instruments in Zambia: bellows (muuba). The sound of this industrial ensemble did not only consist of the sound of the bellows but also of the fire reacting rhythmically to the bellows and of the sound the pipes of the bellows made. And, after some 8 hours of work, the ‘iron water’ started trickling down adding a sound sa-sa-sa-sa-sa, like a simple version of the cibitiku pattern. Listen to Music example 58 for the oral notations of the patterns of the bellows in the iron smelter ensemble and to Music example 57 for the oral notations of the various master bellows patterns.
The bellows patterns could express messages
Music example 57
Three patterns for the master bellows (nsapa) – separated by one second of silence.
Kubuko ikanga bantana
At my in-laws they refuse me a guinea-fowl.
Umwana atomfwa nyina mbatumufulamine omfwe
A child that doesn’t listen to the mother: maybe we should bend over to show our buttocks, so he’ll understand.
Kabunga mafupa, kabunga mafupa – Colobola, colobola
The bone gatherer, the bone gatherer – The inviter, the inviter.
The first oral notation of an nsapa pattern is the line played by (or for) the son-in-law in Story 4. The second one is like a mankubala song but then from an elder’s perspective. The third one contains two praise names for hunters.
Patterns like these, as well as patterns giving an interpretation of animals’ sounds, were important in former days. In the 1980s and later they were used only sporadically.
In Story 44From Doke (1927: 7) for the Lamba region in the first quarter of the 20th century., the bellows are used to convey unspoken messages just like some other musical instruments can do.
The story of the son-in-law and his father-in-law
One day the son-in-law went out into the veld, and killed a guinea fowl, and took it to his wife’s village. Then he cooked the guinea fowl; his father-in-law put it aside saying, “We shall eat (it) tomorrow”. Thereupon the son-in-law (thought) that he had deprived him of his guinea fowl; his father-in-law in the morning said, “Let us go and blow the bellows”. So they went, he and his son-in-law. When they had arrived at the bellows, the son-in-law got up to them, (and) said:
At my wife’s village they grudge me a guinea fowl!5These words are chanted to the ‘music’ of the bellows. At my wife’s village they grudge me a guinea fowl!
Thereupon his father-in-law said, “Move away, father6A term of respect for a man, used even to a son-in-law., and let me blow!” And he too got up to them, (and) said,
Palpitation to my son-in-law!
Palpitation to my son-in-law!7These words are chanted to the ‘music’ of the bellows.
Then he rose saying, “Come Father, let us go to the village8The native forge is always outside the village.”. When they had arrived, he cooked porridge with the guinea-fowl. Then the son-in-law felt much ashamed.9He was ashamed of having been suspicious of his father-in-law. So he arose and went to his home.
Story 4: The story of the son-in-law and his father-in-law for the Lamba region10Doke 1927: Story IV, notes from Doke..
We made no recording of the Lala version of this story but we did record the oral notation of the first pattern in this story. In Chibale this line goes: Kubuko ikanga bantana – At my in-laws they refuse me a guinea fowl. It is part of Music example 57, above.
The story illustrates that a son-in-law should not expect things he has caught / hunted to necessarily be his. The parents-in-law might test him. The two played lines stand for master bellows (nsapa) rhythms which the older men could understand without words, so presumably they weren’t spoken, and maybe also not ‘chanted’ but only played on the master bellows. Communicating like this could also be done on the ngolwa.
Photo 107 ∵ Present-day bellows
A bellows11The pipe of the bellows runs to the furnace that can just be seen at the bottom right. used for the process of making pans from melted down old pans. During the bellowing there is no singing.
Footnotes
- 1Lambo (1946: 333). Original in French, translation by Jan IJzermans.
- 2
- 3For a description of iron smelting in the Lamba region in the beginning of the previous century, see Doke (1931: Chapter XXI). Next to other differences with smelting in Chibale in the same period, Doke does not describe that they made music during the smelting though he mentions ‘boisterous shouting (ingwele)’ when the oven worked well.
- 4From Doke (1927: 7) for the Lamba region in the first quarter of the 20th century.
- 5These words are chanted to the ‘music’ of the bellows.
- 6A term of respect for a man, used even to a son-in-law.
- 7These words are chanted to the ‘music’ of the bellows.
- 8The native forge is always outside the village.
- 9He was ashamed of having been suspicious of his father-in-law.
- 10Doke 1927: Story IV, notes from Doke.
- 11The pipe of the bellows runs to the furnace that can just be seen at the bottom right.