Ways of working for description
The material for the description of Chibale musical repertoires was collected with ethnographic and historiographic ways of working.
For the 1981 research, the local authorities organised sessions in various parts of Chibale where people gathered to bring songs. People were interviewed at the spot. The material collected was discussed with a small number of persons mentioned at these sessions as authorities on Chibale music: the shing’anga Mwela (Mika Mwape Chungwa), bamukaKunda Mfwanti (banaSibilu, Ailini Chibale Musonda) and Chalebaila (Salati Mukoti), the Ciwila ing’omba Chisenga Machingo (Sitifini Nunda) and Kansenkele (Shemu Mambwe), the instrument maker Kambele and Teneshi Njipika Mukosha who was chief Chibale.
In 1985/86, I continued to work together with these exegetes. In that year and also in 1987 and 2004, surveys were held in which, among other things, the familiarity with the names of all instruments, musical gatherings and song types collected until that time came up for discussion. In these surveys, new names of instruments, gatherings and song types as well as the names of authorities on music, dance, text and ritual were collected. This method turned out to be very effective. In the qualitative research only two instruments and no song types were encountered that were not mentioned in the surveys. Also, the lists of authorities collected in 1985/86 and 1987 were nearly the same as the list compiled in 1981. Only the big shing’anga bamukaNdubeni (banaNshimbi) was added. I worked with her intensively from 1985 to 1987. Later, I also worked with Mbomba (Sheki Mambwe) and Kamimbya (Munteta Chalebaila). From 2004 to 2007, I worked especially with Alube Mika and, as in the whole research, with Basil Chisonta.
For short life stories of the exegetes who contributed to this site click on their names.
Certain passages from existing literature on Chibale1Madan 1908, Madan 1913, Hoffman 1929, Stephenson 1937, Pope Cullen 1940, Rukavina 1951, Long 1968b, Long 1992, Seur 1992. and the cultural area of which it is a part2Smith & Dale 1920, Melland 1923, Anley 1926, Doke 1927, Doke 1931, Marchal 1933, Munday 1940, van Malderen 1941, Munday 1942, Edme 1944, Lambo 1945, Brelsford 1948, Jones 1949, Jones 1950, Stefaniszyn 1951, Jones & Kombe 1952, Grevisse 1956, Munday 1961, Blacking 1962, Stefaniszyn 1964a, Stefaniszyn 1964b, Davidson 1970, Mensah 1970a, Mensah 1971, Chilivumbo 1972, Chingwalu 1972a,b,c,d & 1973a&b, Stefaniszyn 1974, Ranger 1975b, Marks 1976 and Bantje 1978, Kubik 1988, Verbeek 1992, Verbeek 1993, Verbeek & Mutambwa 1997 and Verbeek 2001. were discussed with the specialists which often led to new historical information. All the material collected was discussed with the exegetes, often as a by-product of other discussions about music, dance, text, ritual, healing, hunting, religion and history. A short description of each item was checked with them in a type of small dialogical editing. With the rather concrete subjects musical instruments and music gatherings, this worked well. With the song types it did not. Reasons for this were the complexity of the subject and the fact that initially I put too much emphasis on classification. From the other side, this failure eventually brought us to uncover the relations between the major song genres.
Support from non-specialists was significant. Some 400 people attended special sessions where music was collected, more than 500 people participated in the surveys, dozens of people were interviewed because of a particular skill or special knowledge, dozens of people helped in the production of local media products and, lastly, many passed by to share a song, a story, a proverb or the like.
Footnotes
- 1Madan 1908, Madan 1913, Hoffman 1929, Stephenson 1937, Pope Cullen 1940, Rukavina 1951, Long 1968b, Long 1992, Seur 1992.
- 2Smith & Dale 1920, Melland 1923, Anley 1926, Doke 1927, Doke 1931, Marchal 1933, Munday 1940, van Malderen 1941, Munday 1942, Edme 1944, Lambo 1945, Brelsford 1948, Jones 1949, Jones 1950, Stefaniszyn 1951, Jones & Kombe 1952, Grevisse 1956, Munday 1961, Blacking 1962, Stefaniszyn 1964a, Stefaniszyn 1964b, Davidson 1970, Mensah 1970a, Mensah 1971, Chilivumbo 1972, Chingwalu 1972a,b,c,d & 1973a&b, Stefaniszyn 1974, Ranger 1975b, Marks 1976 and Bantje 1978, Kubik 1988, Verbeek 1992, Verbeek 1993, Verbeek & Mutambwa 1997 and Verbeek 2001.