Musical instruments in Zambia: roarers

Musical instruments in Zambia: roarers. In the past, Chibale had three types of instruments that made a soft or louder roaring sound. A bull-roarer, a spinning top and a friction drum.

Bull-roarer

The cimwimwi is a bull-roarer. In the 1980s, children played it sometimes or someone used it to scare people for fun. Some remember that it sounded at the chief’s Cililo at which all kinds of sound producing instruments played, see also under lusonsolo. Another name was cimwimwi ca musowa wa nkalamo: ‘lion-roarer’.
The onomatopoeia cimwimwi could also denote the friction drum, see below. The same double use of the term we find for the Lamba region, under another name: “The term intambangoma [friction drum] is also applied to the lendya, or bull-roarer, the bulb of the gladiolus plant twirled on a string. But among the Lambas the bull-roarer is but a child’s plaything, and has no further significance.”¹ (Doke 1931: 367)

Spinning top

Musical instruments in Zambia: roarers. In Chibale, the lindya is a toy, also called ntandangoma. The player first wound it up and then played it for a long period since it rewound continuously on one of the two sides. The instrument made a soft sound: voung-voung-voung. There still is a drill that works on the same principle.
A special song accompanied the playing of the lindya.

Friction drum

Musical instruments in Zambia: roarers. Some remember a friction drum but know little about it. Its name was cimwimwi ca ku kaole but other names were ngoma ya bukali (drum of fierceness) or ngoma ya buloshi (witch drum). These latter names may indicate a connection to occasions related to killing and serious allegations. Some say they only played it at the chief’s Cililo. It is likely that the cimwimwi ca ku kaole disappeared long ago since the last ‘traditional’ Cililo of a chief was in 1925. Furthermore, some say that the rubbing stick did not pass through the skin but that the player pressed it upon the drum skin. This seems to indicate that in a later stage tehy used a normal drum with a separate rubbing stick instead of a specially built friction drum.

The friction drum in other areas

In the Lamba region, too, there was a link with chieftainship in the first quarter of the last century.²Doke (1931: 365-367).

Intambangoma, the friction drum. This was associated with the chief, and particularly with his war affairs. Unlike that of the ordinary drum, the diaphragm at the end was pierced, and through the hole was inserted a piece of reed with a wad at the end to prevent its slipping out. To sound this type of drum the wet hand is worked up and down the reed, when a loud, booming noise is produced. The Lambas call this drum ingoma yabukali, the drum of fierceness, and it could not be used for any trivial matter. When it was heard they knew that there was an important matter on at the chief’s village.
The intambangoma was used on the following occasions
(a) On killing a man. A. is sent by the chief to such-and-such a village to kill B., who has committed an offence. On A.’s return to the chief’s village the villagers sound the intamba­ngoma, and A. performs his dance of triumph (ukwanga). The women sound their shrill lululu-ing (ukulisho lumpundu), while the man leaps about with his spears and bow and arrows. At times he shouts, “It is I who killed him, and if the chief sends me to slay another man I’ll slay him too!” He then rushes to his companions, shouting, ciweleni! “Shout ye!” and they all shout and sound the intambangoma.
(b) When the chief sets out on the war-path he does so with one intambangoma ahead and another behind the caravan.
(c) When an umulenda [shrine] is being erected in honour of the spirit of a departed chief, and when light beer is being drunk as a similar honour, the friction drum is used.
These drums used to be held in great respect, and were only found at the village of the paramount chief, but in these days they are made and used by anyone.

For the Ila region in the same period⁴Smith & Dale (1920, part II: 265):

“The namalwa is a friction drum, a hollow cylinder carved from a solid log. It is open at the base. The head is covered with a skin, like the kayanda [conical drum], but has a hole in the centre through which passes the end of a reed, secured outside with a peg. To play the namalwa a man takes some sodden grass in his hand and grasps with it the reed inside the drum, and then draws his hand backwards and forwards along the reed. He sits with the drum between his legs, the head outwards: and as he plays with his right hand, with his left he grasps the string to steady it. This drum produces a deep, booming note.
It is used in giving announcement of war, or accident or disaster of any kind. Also, when cattle are to be crossed over a river, they send this drum ahead in a canoe and the cattle follow.”