Songs and dances in Zambia: musowa wa mfwa

Songs and dances in Zambia: musowa wa mfwa. One type of mourning practised at Cililo needs special attention.

Low sound for the corpse

At the evening of the death, and especially early in the next morning, the close relatives of the deceased lament their musowa wa mfwa at the place where the body lies. Musowa wa mfwa means low sound of death, low sound for the corpse. Short mournfully spoken lines concerning the deceased are alternated with ‘sung’ mourning lines. Every person has her own way of lamenting the musowa wa mfwa. Only the text differs according to who has died and the circumstances of the dying.

The musowa wa mfwa is not sung (-imba) but lamented (-lila). Though people recognise that a part of it is like singing, it is not a song because it contains the opinion and feelings of one person and therefore can contain lies (bufi). See the article on the impossibility for songs to lie. If the musowa would have been a song, it would have been the only music, not coming from outside, composed by human beings.

Music example 54

A passage of the musowa wa mfwa of Yunishi Kamwanya for her grandfather at his Cililo, 2007.¹Recorded by Lafenda Mpyakula and Benadi Mika. In the background the musowa wa mfwa of others can be heard.

Text of Music example 54 ∵ the musowa wa mfwa of Yunishi Kamwanya

Babapele lunda bama
Mwalya ibu mungalokupakila malampu bashikulu … tali bufi
Bamayo oo  ee
Ngapali balalume … iyo nshima
Nganaeba ati … leteni
Tukapoke nshima iyo mwasakubapela
Bama oo ee
Bamayo wanji ee
Bamayo oo  iye ee
Ye ee
Bamayo ee

Ngale bamayo nemwine ngabakopitana ku menso
Ngabakoti  koya mukwisha nabamayo munsaka

Bama ee oo
Bamayo ee

Iye oo
Cipala mfumu nemwine bama ee
Cipala mfumu nemwine bamayo
[Kunuma] Mwalya poisoni banaKunda mwe
Bababikila munshima baku ee
Ni munshima bababikile baku ee
Kalumba kaikila munshima baku ee
Bambuya imwe yo ee
Baku wanji ee
Mayo oo
Tabalefwaya kulila
Bashale nkunta baku ee
Baku wanji ee
Mukamposeshe bana mayo

Translation of the musowa wa mfwa

He was given poison,  mother
You ate it yourself, why give food lumps to my grandfather … it is deceit
Mother ee oo
If there were men … that nshima
I would have said: “Bring it over here”
We’d have gone to collect the nshima you gave him
Mother oo ee
My mother ee
Mother oo iye ee
Ye ee
Oh my mother

Oh my mother, may he [grandfather] pass once more in front of my eyes
Asking me to pass time with my mother in the nsaka

Mother ee oo
Mother ee oo

Iye oo
To me he was a chief, mother ee
He was a chief to me, mother
[In the background] You have eaten poison, banaKunda, you
They put it in the nshima of grandfather ee
It is in his nshima that they put it ee
It is the lightening that struck/entered his nshima ee
Hey you grandmother ee
My grandfather ee
Mother oo
She doesn’t want to mourn
She has remained heart-broken, oh grandmother
My grandfather ee
Kindly greet my children [on my behalf]

Songs and dances in Zambia: musowa wa mfwa. Other occasions at which the musowa wa mfwa is used are for mourning in the mpanga by hunters or ngolwa players. When playing the ngolwa (ocarina) to attract the honeyguide to guide you to a bee’s nest, it is important to show the honeyguide that you are in a desperate state. Listen to two examples and read about the interaction between the honeyguide and the human. Also short musical formulas in Ciwila music are references to the musowa wa mfwa.

Musowa wa mfwa and history

What follows is hypothetical.
It is not impossible that the musowa wa mfwa is a remnant of the culture of older inhabitants of the area (‘pre-Lunda-Lala’). These people used the musowa wa mfwa in various situations involving contact with the mpanga and certain specialists had their particular musowa that was important in keeping up a good contact with the mpanga.
It could well be that the new-comers (the Lala coming from Lunda area) needed to get hold of this ‘system’ if they wanted to get any hold of the area. An option for them would have been to stimulate the use of a fixed, not improvised set of songs that were present or that they had taken along. Another option would have been to get hold on the specialists’ contact with the mpanga by claiming contact through possession by certain spirits from the mpanga. New texts would then have been put, in musowa wa mfwa style, on a certain melodic frame, the musango. The repertoire of hunting songs is an example of the first, the songs of Ciwila possessed and ing’omba of the second option.