Representation of music in Zambia: a theory about music

Representation of music in Zambia: a theory about music. In this article, we present a theory about music that exegetes in Chibale and we co-developed. With one exception, the exegetes were healers and leaders of possession cult groups. It started with the interpretation of the very first song we recorded in Chibale. And eventually we could formulate a theory of music that was reasonably accurate according to the exegetes.

Good music does sensenta, a characteristic, recursive form, also found in the flight of the honeyguide.
Music doing sensenta produces and reproduces an effective contact between mpanga and village.
Many structures in Chibale music are related to the sensenta form.
Another key concept, for rituals, is that of heating. Music performance plays a crucial role in this.

Contents

A concise description what music should be

Doing sensenta

Playing down to earth
Melody form
Volume and hotness
An example of the relation between volume and hotness
An uninterrupted continuance in volume
In short

Heating the ritual

Performative conditions of ‘good’ and ‘high quality’
Performative actions to heat the ritual
Tempo and pitch to heat the ritual
In short

Conclusion

A concise description what music should be

Representation of music in Zambia: a theory about music. Let us start with a song that the cinsengwe ing’omba Chitelela brought in the 1930s. Its second line formed a major impetus to the development of the theory about music presented here.

Song 1

A cinsengwe of the cinsengwe ing’omba Chitelela as brought by an ilimba ensemble led by chief Chibale Teneshi Njipika, 1981.

Text of Song 1 ∵ Alila mwinamina akula panshi alila sensenta

Amalimbe fi alila kwa Chibale
Alila mwinamina akula panshi alila sensenta mbanindo
Nashala nenka mwantengamina / bantengamina / owowo

How the malimba sound in Chibale
They sound downward and upward, they drag over the ground, they sound doing sensenta, but why
I am left alone with all of you against me/ with all against me/ owowo

In a highly condensed way, the second line of this song provides essential information about the way music should sound. The translation of this line is literal. We will have to look at each word (group) separately to see what the line conveys.

Malimba

Representation of music in Zambia: a theory about music. Malimba means one-note xylophones. The term also refers to musical instruments in general. And, as is the case here, to songs accompanied by an instrumental ensemble. So, it is plausible to understand the first line as: How the music sounds in Chibale.

Alila mwinamina

The music creates a state of -inamina, a repeated forward movement up and down. For instance, people who mourn while sitting use this movement. Putting their hands on the back of their necks, they bend forward and rock back and forth slowly.

Akula panshi

-kula means to drag, to grow or to cultivate; panshi means on the ground, below, in the human world. Due to the importance of the kula panshi, there are more words for low than for middle and high tones. Like cibonga, cibomba, cimbomba, mbomba and musowa wa cinemba. In many situations going downwards or putting oneself in a low position is the correct form. For instance when doing kupupa, when begging or when greeting the chief. In the chiefly shrine at the edge of the chief’s village the utensils and other paraphernalia of the previous chiefs are on racks. They are put on the ground (panshi) for the kupupa at the Ipupo lya fikankomba.¹Compare Photo 227 and Photo 228 with Photo 230.

Alila sensenta

Representation of music in Zambia: a theory about music. Sensenta refers to a specific movement, the best example of which is the flight of the honeyguide. This bird has a symbiotic relation with humans: it needs humans to obtain its food and humans need it to obtain honey.²See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeyguide. Sometimes the bird tries to attract the attention of a human walking in the mpanga. More often, it will be the human who tries to summon the honeyguide while roaming through the mpanga. In order to summon the bird, he plays the ngolwa.
He laments musowa wa mfwa, partly on the ngolwa to show the bird he is in grave trouble. Listen to Music example 62 and Music example 63,³The image behind the seriousness of the trouble is that of seeking honey to survive in the ‘months of hunger’. In these months (myeshi ya nsala, January and February) there is very little to eat. The honey gatherer therefore has no alternative. The honeyguide then will show itself and fly ahead and return. It skims the ground to show where to go and to show it is still there. Upward and downward again.
In this way the bird leads the human to a bee’s nest in a tree. The human smokes out the nest and takes the honey. He gives the comb with larvae to the honeyguide.
Sensenta is the cyclical forward movement, up and down, in the flight of the honeyguide.

Nashala nenka mwantengamina

This is a particularly dark line. After praising Chibale music and describing its efficacy, the protagonist⁴Or somebody, for instance one of those present, is quoted. See the use of quotations in song texts. turns out to be in an ultimately lonely and dangerous position. The text applies to all situations where one feels like one is about to get into serious trouble. Sometimes the singers mitigate the dark mwantengamina and bantengamina to owowo (mourning sound).

You can also use the word sensenta to refer to the complete transport of a very heavy object by two or more persons from one place to another. Every time they lift it, move a little further and then put it down again. Like the sensenta of the honeyguide, it involves co-operation, and it involves energy and strength (maka).
Alube Mika ∵ personal communication, 2004.

Representation of music in Zambia: a theory about music. For other interpretations of Song 1 by exegetes and by the general public in Chibale see the third article on variation in song text interpretation.

Skimming the ground

Song 2

A song sung by children during and after the first rains. Sung here by Mika Mwape Chungwa and Basil Chisonta, 1986.

Text of Song 2 ∵ Swallow, skim the ground

Kamimbya kunkula panshi
Banoko bele mukwela

Swallow, skim the ground
Mother has gone to winnow/bail fish

The swallow’s flight and the movements made in winnowing and bailing fish are similar to the sensenta form. The second line promises the child, who misses the mother, that there will be something to eat soon.
People also use the word sensenta for the gathering of heavy rain clouds. A gathering that, especially with the first rains, arouses expectation and enthusiasm. There is a connection between sensenta and expecting something good.

Conclusion

Representation of music in Zambia: a theory about music. We can conclude that the second line of the song explains precisely how music should sound. The words mwinamina, –kula panshi, and sensenta indicate that good music moves downward to the ground. Then it moves over the ground and goes up again. Mwinamina and sensenta refer to the repetitive nature of this process. In this context ‘earth,’ ‘ground,’ and ‘below’ belong to the village and ‘above’ to the mpanga. Therefore, this is a representation of the exchange defined in the story⁵See Story 7, the central story in the worldview of the possession cult leaders.., emphasising the role of music in the contact between mpanga and village.
For brevity, we refer to the complex movement and form evoked in the second line with sensenta and the sensenta form.

Representation of music in Zambia: a theory about music.

Doing sensenta

Representation of music in Zambia: a theory about music. The word sensenta evokes an image. Something that belongs to ‘above’ (the honeyguide) comes down through the mediation of mourning and giving to the mpanga music (cinsengwe) to yield something good (the honey). The mediators in this process are the honeyguide and the ngolwa player. Analogous to the dancer and the drummer as well as Kaluwe and the hunter. The means of mediation is music. The music of the ngolwa player produces and reproduces the flight of the honeyguide, sensenta. The flight of the honeyguide serves as a model for a productive contact between the mpanga and the village. Music that does sensenta produces, and reproduces, this contact.

The sensenta form is the model for many structures in music.

Playing down to earth

Representation of music in Zambia: a theory about music. Playing slanting downward, playing ‘down to earth,’ so that the sound moves over the ground and bounces up, is the normal playing position for all musical instruments in kupupa music in Chibale. The following practice provides a further formulation of the acoustics of the shing’anga. Music has to be played in an easterly direction in order to have it return. This is to ensure its repetitive, cyclical character. The drummers in the dance circle, for instance, always have their drums point slanting downward in an easterly direction. See Figure A: The dance circle at the rituals where the possessed perform. At all rituals where the spirit-possessed perform that I visited the drummers stood at the eastern side of the dance circle. See Figure K: Five ground plans of dance circles at rituals.
All this leads to the desired movement of the drums’ sound, resembling the sensenta form. Going down, go over the ground and go in eastern direction, so that the sound return.

Proverb 235

Kumbonshi takuya ubwela – Kumbo takuya ababwela
A person or something human that goes west will not return

Literal translation: the one(s) who return(s) did not go to the west. Only spirits return from the west.
For the south of Congo van Malderen⁶Van Malderen (1941: 118, 121). gives the following song text brought by a shing’anga at the initiation of a possessed (like the Cibombe ca cisungu): “The child goes eastward and returns from the west”. This means: The patient/initiate goes away as a human being and returns as a spirit, that is a medium during possession.

Melody form

Representation of music in Zambia: a theory about music. The number three is very prominent in (older) Chibale music

The middle instrument of an ensemble of three instruments or the middle of the three tone groups of one instrument starts the music. The high one follows and then the low one. Sometimes the high one starts, followed by the middle, then the low one. Similarly, a melody starts in the middle tone group and then goes upward, or sometimes it starts in the high tone group, while every melody ends in the low tone group.
Low and high are used synaesthetically. Mashiwi ya panshi literally means ‘words/tones of below’ and mashiwi ya pamulu ‘words/tones of above.’ These two together with the middle tone group (cibitiku) form the music of the singing in three: nyimbo sha kwimbila patatu. Music cannot do sensenta if it does not contain tones from all three groups in the order middle-high-middle-low or high-middle-low. This order is the paradigm for the form of the melody in kupupa and related music.
Some even feel that this form is also producing and reproducing contact between the two major spirits of old Mulenga wa Mpanga and Mushili Mfumu. The music then would (re)produce a kind of reconciliation between two older local, central cults.

Volume and hotness

Representation of music in Zambia: a theory about music. The way volume (loudness and intensity) expresses sensenta is that during the performance of each song the overall volume (and the number of people involved in the performance) moves from small/high (soft) to big/low (loud) and, at the end, back to small/high again. When the ritual is hot, all attendants contribute to the volume level by singing along, cheering, ululating and the like. This is to have the music go as low as possible, preferably for a long period. For an example of the heating of the ritual by the attendees, listen to Music example 12.

In addition, the term for ‘silence’ (absence of volume) is the same as that for ‘coolness, coldness’ (-talala or -tontola⁷Also in Madan 1913: 286, 318.). Conversely, a song that is long and loudly performed is a heating song.

An example of the relation between volume and hotness

An example from outside the possession rituals may clarify the relation between silence and coolness, intense loudness and hotness.

In former days when the chief died, his body was put to rot on a special stool in a special house. The matter coming from the corpse was collected in special pots. During the entire period of rotting there was continuous music near the rotting-house. By day, people sang mourning songs. During the night famous mediums (ing’omba) brought songs and danced. Or, people danced social dances, at which occasion sexual contact between dancing partners was appropriate.
When after some three months only the bones were left, they wrapped them in a cow’s skin. This package and the pots were brought in procession to the burial place of the ruling clan, some thirty miles to the east. This procession should be without interruption. And everybody continuously made as much noise as possible, both with the voice and on any sound producing instrument. During the night at a special resting place, mediums danced and non-possessed people danced social dances. This was called kwipike mfumu, cooking the chief. At the river near the actual burial place the handed over the package and the pots to the kansanda. That is the special person who buries the chiefs and other prominent persons of the chiefly clan.
After this, the people returned in complete silence. After burial, drumming was forbidden for a period of time in order to allow the area to cool down. At the end of this period of silence a kwilimuna ritual to open the drums, Cilili ca kushilwila ngoma, was organised.
Mika Mwape Chungwa ∵ abridged version of personal communication, 1986.
Another description of this whole process can be found in Von Hoffman (1929: 175-186).

Photo 1, Photo 2 & Photo 3 ∵
The rotting-house and the cishala of Mwape Mondwa

After the burial of chief Chibale Mwape Mondwa in 1925, they burnt the house in which his corpse had been rotting.⁸Photo from Von Hoffman (1929: opposite p.186). At that very spot, near the Milombwe stream, a shrine (cishala or kabungo) for Mwape Mondwa was erected. And it has been preserved ever since. On the ground of this shrine there are three pots, turned upside down. They do kupupa there mainly in times of distress. Shrines like this were erected and are preserved for all deceased chiefs of Chibale. Each at the place where the chief’s body decayed or, for the chiefs after Mwape Mondwa, where the chief died.

An uninterrupted continuance in volume

Representation of music in Zambia: a theory about music. The period of rotting was one of uncontrolled heat that they tried to contain as much as possible by music. It ended by controlled heating: the cooking of the chief. After that, they observed a period of cooling down (silence).
This may serve as an example against the use of simple dichotomies. It shows that (controlled) heating and cooling down can serve the same purpose. A person or an inhabited area to be good has to be cool. A village, a co-operation between people or a large group of people to be good has to be kept warm. And, for a ritual to be effective it has to be heated. A sick person or disturbed area is hot and a bad village and ineffective ritual are cool.⁹Akaba: he is ill, literally: he is hot. Kupola: to cure a sick person, literally means: to cool down a sick (=hot) person. For a person coolness is connected to mano: wisdom, brains, and hotness to mutima: heart, emotion.¹⁰Mutima wakaba – the heart is hot: to be angry (or expressing another strong emotion).

During the first section – the heating period – of all rituals at which the spirit possessed perform, the same uninterrupted continuance in volume as that during the procession and the ‘cooking of the chief’ is the ideal.

In short

Representation of music in Zambia: a theory about music. Music produces, and reproduces, the sensenta form in a number of ways. The playing position and playing direction, the melody contour, the way a song starts, and the way the performance develops.
More important than the oppositions between musical aspects (high/low, soft/ loud, and so on) linked to these items are the transitions that occur through, or in fact: are, the sensenta in music.

Heating the ritual

Representation of music in Zambia: a theory about music. Ritual creates an opportunity for controlled contact between the mpanga and the village. This contact can only take place when the ritual is hot (being cooked). It is the task of the mediums to lead the heating of the ritual, which is called kukafye cila.¹¹Kukaba means to boil or to be hot. Kukafya means to cook or to make hot. And icila here means gathering with dance or ritual. There is a variety of ways to cook the ritual, all contributing to the following sequence.

kumfwana (optimal relation between the spirit and the possessed) →
the spirit can bring a good song through the possessed →
the chorus is good →
the drumming is good →
the spirit can dance well →
the chorus remains good →
the drumming remains good →
the dancing remains good →
the song is long and of a continuous uninterrupted volume.

This whole sequence is part of another one:

high quality in music → high quality (hotness) of the ritual → high quality of the result.

In this, good and high quality refer to the following performative conditions.

Performative conditions of ‘good’ and ‘high quality’

A good song is a song that can be taken over quickly by the chorus, contains an informative or teaching text (kufunda), with a meaningful message making. The latter makes the chorus sing the song for a long time, enough to learn it by heart.
A good chorus sings loudly and sharply (kutumpula) and sustains the last tone of the chorus line loudly for a long time (kuwela).

They should sing with happiness since they represent life.
Mika Mwape Chungwa ∵ personal communication, 1985.

The drumming is good when the two drummers who establish the basic texture play loudly, clearly, and untiringly, keeping the song ‘straight’ (-olola) and enabling the master drummer to generate energy in dancer and chorus.
The dancing goes well when the dancer shows freedom within certain structural boundaries, so that the chorus does not get bored and the drummers have to continue. The dancing itself is also hot. Half of the terms used for the dance movements of the possessed can also be used to refer to various sexual positions or movements. Some terms directly refer to hotness, such as ciwilewile (dancing in ecstasy): that which is very hot.

The longer the performance of a song lasts and the shorter the interval between two successful songs, the hotter the ritual.

Performative actions to heat the ritual

Representation of music in Zambia: a theory about music. Everything that strengthens one of the links in the chain is called pa kukafye cila: in order to heat the ritual. Some musical actions are specially known as pa kukafye cila. Encouraging interjections by the starter of the song, certain singing techniques such as a very fast la-la-la-la-la sung by the starter, singing by the starter while dancing, shortening (kuputula) the solo-line, the playing of the same pattern on two high drums instead of one, the playing of the pattern of the higher drum with a stick on the side of the master drum or with a shaken idiophone, and cheering, ululating and clapping by the chorus like in Music example 12.

Many of the actions in order to heat the ritual aim at volume increase and volume continuation. In that way the -kula panshi (controlled contact between mpanga and village) lasts as long as possible. And the music will be as effective as possible in the effort of being granted ishuko or preventing or resolving ishamo. The long-lasting high volume is the result, as well as the expression, of correct contact between mpanga and village. It is aroused by the dancers (spirits, mpanga) and performed by the drummers and the chorus (village).

Tempo and pitch to heat the ritual

Until now we have concentrated on the heating of the ritual in each separate song. For the sequence of songs during the ritual it is important that the break between two songs is as short as possible. Furthermore, a medium may use increase of tempo and rise of the fundamental tone of every new song to heat the ritual. For example, the first, second, fifth, sixth and seventh song brought by Kansenkele at one Ipupo in 1981 had the following tempi: 275, 275, 335, 370 and 370 quarter notes per minute, while the absolute pitches of the fundamental tones were: a flat, a, b flat, b and c’. A sequence of songs in a non-ritual context does not show these increases at all.
The increase of tempo and the rise of pitch relate to the amount of energy, maka, the mediums put into the singing and dancing, and the amount of energy they arouse from the drummers and the chorus¹²See the article on Strength (maka) .

The form of the first section of the public part is similar for all rituals where the possessed perform. It lasts three to five hours and contains the heating, the optimising of the circumstances. When this is attained, the important actions specific to the ritual follow, such as the treatment of the patient or the introduction and revealing of the initiate, and beer is distributed. After that the rituals show differences.

In short

During the ritual, the mpanga indeed brings new or important things to the village, such as songs, information, a successful transition, a healing. The spirits (dancers) together with the people (drummers and chorus) create the correct circumstances (hotness) to receive the products. Furthermore, the people get the opportunity to give to the mpanga, both through enthusiastic participation and through the giving of gifts, mostly money, to the dancers (kutaila). It is noteworthy in this context that the word for clapping (kutota) means ‘to thank’ and that the oral notation of the 2-against-3 basic clapping pattern of the chorus is citaila or kutaila: to give ritual gifts.

Conclusion

Representation of music in Zambia: a theory about music. Music is a mediation means between the human world and the mpanga. For the exchange between the two, the transitions or contacts between the aspects of a limited number of basic concepts are crucial. Music produces, and reproduces, these transitions and contacts.
The basic musical form for the transitions and contacts is the sensenta form and the form for ritual is ‘heating, cooking.’ Both forms express and provide the controlled circumstances under which exchange between the human world and the mpanga can be effected. Music is obtained from the spirits for information, but even more so to make the ritual in which the contact between the human world and the mpanga takes place effective (to heat it). Furthermore, it is most suitable for giving to the mpanga both communally (ritual and feast) and individually (during work, in the evening, or the like).

The view of music presented here focuses on the structural similarities within a diversity of musical and other features found in the possession cults in Chibale. In the article on the representation of individual features of music, attention is given to the freedom of the performer in a real, specific performance context. In the concluding article of this series on the representation of music in Chibale, we compare the two forms of representations. We will see that the theory about music presented above is influenced by the ideal of light music and has problems explaining the efficacy of heavy music in healing.