Musical instruments in Zambia: kalindula

Musical instruments in Zambia: kalindula instruments. In 1980, a kalindula band from Muchinka, a chiefdom north-northeast of Chibale, was invited to play at a Sandauni organised in Chibale. This performance sparked kalindula in Chibale. Soon local kalindula bands began to perform throughout the area.
The instruments of the visiting kalindula band were an ndindula (bass), three banjo, all struck, not plucked and playing different patterns, a cisekele in the form of a bicycle wheel rattle and one kace (small conical drum). The bands in Chibale swiftly changed this lineup to: a babatoni (bass), a banjo, a cisekele and a kace.

Contents

Large string bass

Banjo

Rattles

Drums

Localisation of kalindula

Large string bass

Musical instruments in Zambia: kalindula instruments. The babatoni, sometimes called ndindula or cimbombo, is a large chordophone about two metres long. The body is half an oil drum. The maker stretches cow skin over each open side and tightens them with leather straps. It has two strings¹In rare cases three. tuned to an interval that differs for each player: a whole tone up to a fifth. The strings are fixed to the skin edge and pass over a bridge. The player tunes the strings with tuning screws on the other side of the long neck. He can shorten the strings, mostly to two thirds of their length with a nail attached to a piece of rubber wound around the neck.

The player plucks the strings. The patterns are drum-like. In fact, the sound is felt more than heard.
The player usually makes the strings by tightly winding the thin plastic strips used to weave maize bags. Therefore, the volume obtained by plucking these strings is not very high, forcing the player to play tones at relatively quiet moments. This is an example of Nketia’s assertion that context problems, in this case the lack of proper material for strings, may be reflected in the very structure of music.²Nketia (1967: 26)

Banjo

Musical instruments in Zambia: kalindula instruments. The banjo³See https://second.wiki/wiki/banjo_sambia for a general description for Zambia. is a small chordophone some 45 centimetres long, with three or four strings, tuned (relatively): a-d’-g’(-b’). This tuning differs from the most frequently used tunings mentioned by Kubik⁴Kubik (1989: 13, 26). A gourd, or tin can, forms the body. Over its open side the maker stretches a thin skin, sometimes thick plastic. In some cases, it is a larger square can (paraffin container), see Photo 186 below. In most cases, the neck passes through the body.
The strings are fixed to the edge of the skin passing over a bridge. The player tunes them with tuning screws at the other end of the neck. When playing in a band, the player strikes chords with a plectrum, mostly: a-d’-a’(-d’), b-d’-g’(-b’) and a-e’-a’(- c‘). Especially since the rise of kalindula, the player can also play the instrument, usually casually, alone or in a small group.
Only male adolescents play the banjo. After marriage, most young men lay down their instrument.

In Zambia in particular, it [the banjo] has become an instrument which promotes age set identity, somehow compensating for that identity that was provided by other ‘traditional’ institutions in the past. … … the making and playing of a home-made banjo has become a positive stage in a male’s life in many Zambian societies. ∵ Kubik (1989: 6).

Because of the addition of more drums and cisekele, the banjo, with its low volume, functions in the ensemble more for symbolic (‘this is modern music’) than for musical reasons. Since the banjo is the starter of each song, it’s only clearly audible at the beginning. After that, one only hears the strumming sound if one is close enough.

Music example 53

The banjo as the fading starter of kalindula songs. The chibalisation of kalindula involved the addition of drums and cisekele. Therefore, the banjo –which is the starter– is only clearly audible at the beginning of a song.

Rattles

Musical instruments in Zambia: kalindula instruments. The rattle used in kalindula, called musekele in town-fashion, consists of one or two half bicycle rims. The maker fixes the middle of the curved rim to a flat piece of wood that serves as a base. One or two parallel iron rods connect the two upright sides. And these rods run through perhaps a dozen small pieces of iron. The player hits the rod or rods with two sticks. Sometimes the instrument consists of a full bicycle rim with a central rod on which the iron jinglers are mounted. In that case, a boy holds it with his hands or it is placed on a tripod.

Similar to the musekele are the iron plates nailed to the bita and played by the bita player. The plates have a hole in the middle and are fanned like a flower, see Photo 182.

Drums

Musical instruments in Zambia: kalindula instruments. In 1985, most bands had added two to three drums to the ensemble: the iyikulu conical drum and the bita, possibly with a kaoma (small drum) next to it. The bita is a drum resembling the body of the babatoni. The player hits one of its sides with a beater operated by a pedal. It plays the crude beat.

The makers of kalindula instruments, except for the kace and iyikulu, are the players themselves.

Localisation of kalindula

Musical instruments in Zambia: kalindula instruments. People generally have the opinion that the addition of more drums, especially the iyikulu, chibalised kalindula. This happened in a period of about five years in the first half of the 1980s. After that, the composition of the kalindula ensemble did not change very much.

Click for more on kalindula and national kalindula.