Songs and dances in Zambia: kalindula

Songs and dances in Zambia: kalindula. The most recent new form of social dance is the kalindula. It has been around since 1979. People believe that it came from the area in Congo west of Luapula Province and arrived in town and in Serenje District via people from Luapula Province. It came to Chibale when a band from Muchinda chiefdom played at two Sandauni in 1979. Immediately after that, bands formed and the Cila was revived.

Kalindula in Chibale

While kalindula songs are different from all other songs in Chibale, they share some common features with christian songs.
Kalindula songs are not accompanied by the set of three drums. The original Kalindula band even only had the kace. The music is more metric than polyrhythmic. The texts are long and often have a stanza-refrain form and sometimes a coda. The melodies do not fit within a single musango or within a limited set of musango.
Kalindula song texts can be about many subjects. They are topical and when educative (kufunda) the teaching is direct, less multi-layered than in many older songs.

Kalindula dancing

Songs and dances in Zambia: kalindula. The kalindula dance is a hip-dance. There is no dancer formation. People dance alone or in pairs. Women tend to stay on one spot and slowly bend their knees, then rise steadily again while ardently shaking their hips.

Songs and dances in Zambia: kalindula. Sometimes people dance around the kalindula band, see Film 8.

An example from 1981

Song 82

A fragment of a kalindula song brought by the Ngalande Kalindula Band at a kalindula Cila, 1981.

Text of Song 82 ∵ Ngalande has won

Zamara yawira mayo
Tulelumba ba Chibale mayo
Cezela pa manda mayo
Ngalande yawina mayo
Twatota Kaunda mayo
Sekela ba Mebo mayo
Ba God ceule mayo
Mbombola matako mayo

Zamara has come mother
We are praising chief Chibale
Sing all night at the grave
Ngalande has won
We thank Kaunda
Be cheerful, Mebo
God is fond of flirting
Push around your buttocks

Each text line is sung four times: the solo is repeated by the chorus, and then the chorus sings the text as a refrain, on a different melody.
This song begins with five references to modern, outside life: Zamara, yawira, cezela, yawina, Kaunda. Zamara (Zambia-Malawi railway) was the name of the railway that many people at the beginning of the 1980s hoped that would be built. Chibale had no station at the Tazara (Tanzania-Zambia railway) built by Zambia, Tanzania and China in the 1970s to provide landlocked Zambia with a port, Dar es Salaam. The hope was that Chibale would have a station at the Zamara railway. Yawira and cezela are ciNyanja, the lingua franca of Lusaka; yawina derives from the English ‘to win’ and Kaunda was Zambia’s president at that time. The last three lines are internally directed and neither modern nor old-fashioned.
Sing all night at the grave is an exhortation to all to sing as well as they can. Ngalande is the Chibale section the band comes from. God is the short form of the name of the leader of the Ngalande Kalindula band, Godfrey Kabamba.

Localisation of kalindula music

Songs and dances in Zambia: kalindula. From the very start kalindula was localised. First only one banjo of the original three was retained. Listen to Song 82 from 1981. Secondly drums were added using rather simple patterns. And after that, the drumming became more complex. A crucial event for the adding of drums was the visit of the band Tula Twabane from Mulilima (near the border between Muchinda and Chibale) to a Sandauni near Chibale village in October 1985. Listen to Song 83. In the 1990s, the drumming became more complex as we can hear in Song 14 from 2004. It also reduced the role of the babatoni, as babatoni playing was partly reproduced on the Iyikulu with various techniques like pushing the skin with the elbow. Listen to Music example 42.

An example from 1985

Song 83

A kalindula song brought by the band Tula Twabane at a Sandauni at banaFale’s, 1985.

Text of Song 83 ∵ Sisi, you are not good

Lyapyo lyapyola natuye twingile
Ba cikumbe baletwita natuye twingile
Natuye twingile ba cikumbe wa bwalwa
Oo Sisi we tawaba bwino
Ne misango yobe tayaba bwino
Ne mibelo yobe tayaba bwino
Wamona ba Banda ee ba Banda bobawama
Wamona ba John ba John bawama
Sisi we tawaba bwino
Kiora kiora ee kiora ee
Yoo yoo yoo
Ana anina motoka oh shimeshi mayo pa Ndola
Shimeshi mayo pa Ndola muli Jane ee
Muli Jane ee   – muli Jane ee

The signal, there’s the signal, let’s go and enter
The brewer is calling us, let’s go and enter
Let’s go and enter, the brewer of beer
Oh, you, Sisi, you are not good
And your manners are no good
And your habits are no good
You see Banda, ee Banda is nice
You see John, John is nice
Sisi, you, you are not good
Kiora kiora ee kiora ee
Yoo yoo yoo
Ana gets in a motorcar, oh smash, mother, in Ndola
Smash, mother, in Ndola into Jane ee
Into Jane ee – into Jane ee

The band members get some beer at the beginning of the Sandauni and then are signalled by the organiser (brewer) to begin. Sisi, from ‘sister’, can be any woman, like Ana and Jane, who are too fond of men. The smash of a crashing car is meant as a warning against promiscuity and adultery.

Text localisation

Songs and dances in Zambia: kalindula. We see in this song that the text is also more localised. There is something to be learnt from this song. The smash in Ndola stands for bad things that happen under the influence of town life. In the course of the 1980s, young people came to realise that town life was not that attractive and not a viable alternative for living in Chibale.

An example from 2004

Listen to Song 14 and to the new master drumming techniques in Music example 42 below.

Music example 42

Iyikulu playing for kalindula by Mwape Ali of the band Twesheko, 2004.
There is more variety in the playing than in the older Kalindula, and babatoni-like sounds are incorporated.