Music of Zambia

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Zambia has a rich heritage of music which falls roughly into three categories: traditional, popular and Christian.

Contents

[edit] Traditional music

Traditional Zambian music is rooted in the beliefs and practices of Zambia's various ethnic groups and has suffered some decline in the last three decades. Traditional Zambian music once had clear ritual purposes or was an expression of the social fabric of the culture. Songs were used to teach, to heal, to appeal to spirits, and for mere enjoyment. Despite the decline of traditional music, its influences can still be heard in many of today's Zambian musical forms. The ubiquitous African "call-and-response" can be heard in almost every Zambian song no matter what the style. Traditional drum rhythms and polymeters are evident in many different kinds of Zambian music. Contemporary popular forms such as Zambian Kalindula also exhibit traces of traditional music in the finger-picking style used by guitarists.

[edit] Instruments

Traditional Zambian instruments include a variety of membranophones, both stick-struck and hand-struck. Drums are essential for most traditional dances. Ngoma is the generic central African term for drum but Zambian drums come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and purposes and have specific names depending on their tribal origins and functional roles. The budima drums of the Valley Tonga, for example, are used specifically for funeral ceremonies. Budima drums have a goblet shape and come in sizes ranging from large to small. One of the most interesting of drums is the so-called "lion drum" (Namalwa in Tonga) used at traditional funerals. This is a friction drum which is not struck at all but which has a stick inserted through the drum head that is rubbed. The silimba, a xylophone-like instrument, is another Zambian musical instrument.

Chordophones and aerophones are less common in traditional Zambian music but exist nonetheless. The Valley Tonga play instruments made from animal horns called nyele. Nyele are played using an interlocking technique with individual musicians each playing a single horn and interlocking with other musicians who have nyele of different pitches. A chordophone called a kalumbu was traditionally played by young men to signal their desire to marry. Called a 'musical bow' by ethnomusicologisits because of its bow shape, the kalumbu is struck by a stick. Like many other central African countries, Zambia once had a vibrant tradition of so-called "thumb pianos," each with a different name depending on tribal origins, size and number of tines. Similar to the Zimbabwean mbira, the Tonga kankobela is one such thumb piano. Although the use of traditional instruments has declined in recent years, they can still be heard in rural areas of Zambia.

Recordings of traditional Zambian music were made in the mid-twentieth century by Hugh Tracey and Arthur Morris Jones, both well-known ethnomusicologists of African music. Tracey did his work in the Zambezi Valley before the creation of the Kariba Dam and Jones did his at Mapanza in Zambia's Southern Province. Catholic missionaries, J. J. Corbeil and Frank Wafer have also contributed to our knowledge of traditional Zambian music. Father Corbeil collected and documented the instrumental tradition of the Bemba in Northeastern Zambia. Frank Wafer, a Jesuit priest located at Chikuni, has collected and preserved Batonga music. A community radio station dedicated to promoting Batonga music and culture is also part of the Chikuni Mission Station. They organize an annual festival of Batonga music which attracts as many as 10,000 visitors according to the organizers. Recent ethnomusicological work has been done by native Zambians such as Mwesa Isaiah Mapoma, Joseph Ng'andu, John Anderson Mwesa and others.

[edit] Popular music

After independence in 1964, the most important source of popular music was the Zambia Broadcasting Service and affiliated bands like Lusaka Radio Band. Zambian radio was dominated by Congolese rumba. Record companies soon formed, first Peter Msungilo's DB Studios in Lusaka, and then Teal Record Company (a subsidiary of Gallo Records). The city of Ndola, already known for musical innovation, was the next home for Zambian recording studios.

The northern, copper-producing area of Zambia was known for singers like John Lushi, William Mapulanga and Stephen Tsotsi Kasumali. Their guitar-based music grew gradually into Zam-rock, which used mostly English lyrics in rock songs. Bands included the Machine-Gunners and Musi-o-tunya. The most popular band in Zambian history soon emerged, Jaggari Chanda's Great Witch.

In the late 1970s, President Kenneth Kaunda ordered that 95% of the music on the radio had to be Zambian. He hoped to encourage the formation of a Zambian national identity. Rather than using their folk roots, however, Zambians attempted to become pop stars. By the mid-1980s, the result was kalindula music. Bands included the Masasa Band, Serenje Kalindula and Junior Mulemena Boys. Amayenge is considered one of the best kalindula bands of the past twenty years. An annual concert of traditional bands (not just kalindula) was recently begun by the Chikuni Radio station in Chikuni in the Southern Province. Two of the most popular bands from that festival are Green Mamba and Mashombe Blue Jeans.

In the 1990s, economic problems caused the collapse of the Zambian music industry. Unfettered by rules promoting Zambian music, the airwaves were covered with imported ragga and reggae from Jamaica and hip hop and R&B from the United States.

The most successful record label currently operating in Zambia is Mondo Music Corporation in Lusaka. Their stable of artists includes J.K., Danny, Shatel, and Black Muntu. Sound clips of each of these groups can be heard at their website (see below). The Zambian entertainment industry recognizes popular musicians such as these at its annual Ngoma Awards. The Ngoma Awards amount to a Zambian version of the all-Africa Kora Awards. At the moment K'Millian is a very popular artist.

A unique hybrid form of Zambian music is found in the so-called "banjo" tradition. The Zambian "banjo" (pronounced 'bahn-jo')is essentially a homemade guitar. A wide variety of such instruments can be found in different sizes and with varying numbers of strings. Most are played using a two or three finger picking style and the tuning of each instrument is unique to that instrument. The body is made in various shapes from wood or sometimes tin cans, and the strings or 'wires' often come from disgarded radial tires. Zambian banjos are used in kalindula bands throughout Zambia.

[edit] Christian music

Not surprisingly, music in today's Zambian Christian churches exhibits traditional, colonial, and popular musical elements. Traditional influences can be heard in the call-and-response method of performance practice and in the use of traditional drums and percussion instruments in some churches. Vocal timbre also reflects traditional aesthetic preferences. Ululation is a frequent feature employed by women when religious sentiment is particularly high. Although most early Christian missionaries to Zambia frowned on the use of traditional instruments in worship, the use of drums has become increasingly more common since the middle of the twentieth century. Dance has also become a regular feature in some Zambian worship.

Popular influences can also be heard in the newer repertory, some of which is borrowed from urban contemporary gospel, some from so-called "contemporary Christian music" from the United States, and some from Zambian popular idioms. The use of electronic synthesizers and guitars has also made its way into the church. The flow of influence between church music and the popular realm can also be heard in recordings by groups such as The Glorious Band, Zambian Acapella, and Glorious Hosanna Band.

The influence of Euro-American hymnody is also evident in the music of many Zambian congregations. Hymns from British and American hymnals continue to be part of the musical fabric of many churches, and many harmonic practices are derived from Western hymn influences. Among the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a unique system of notation called Tonic Sol-fa is used to transmit hymns. Invented by John Curwen, the system was imported into Africa by the British in the nineteenth century. The Heritage Singers Choir and Heritage Brothers of the SDA church helped popularise this form of harmonious music.

[edit] References

  • Brown, Ernest Douglas. "Drums of Life: Royal Music and Social Life in Western Zambia." PhD diss. U. of Washington, 1984.
  • Graham, Ronnie and Simon Kandela Tunkanya. "Evolution and Expression". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East, pp 702-705. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books.
  • Jones, Arthur Morris. "African Music in Northern Rhodesia and Some Other Places." The Occasional Papers of the Rhodes-Livingstone Museum; New Ser., No. 4; Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia: Rhodes-Livingstone Museum, 1958.
  • Kubik, Gerhard. African Guitar: Solo Fingerstyle Guitar Music, Composers and Performers of Congo/Zaire, Uganda, Central African Republic, Malawi, Namibia, and Zambia: Audio-Visual Field Recordings, 1966-1993, by Gerhard Kubik. videorecording. Vestapol Productions; Distributed by Rounder Records, Cambridge, Mass., 1995.
  • Longwe, Sara H., et al. Woman Know Your Place: The Patriarchal Message in Zambian Popular Song: A Research Report from the Women in Music Project. Lusaka, Zambia: Zambia Association for Research and Development, 1990.
  • Mapoma, Mwesa Isaiah. "The Effects of Non-Musical Factors on the Performance of Some Vocal Music of the Bemba of Zambia." Kassel. Bärenreiter, 1981.
  • -----. "A Glimpse at the Use of Music in Traditional Medicine among the Bantu: A Case of Healing among the Bemba Speaking People of Zambia." Muntu: Revue scientifique et culturelle de CICIBA.8 (1988): 117-23.
  • Ng'andu, Joseph, and Anri Herbst. "Lukwesa Ne Ciwa - the Story of Lukwesa and Iciwa: Musical Storytelling of the Bemba of Zambia." British Journal of Music Education 21.1 (2004): 41.
  • Thomas, Dwight W. "Inyimbo Zyabakristo: The Chitonga Hymnal of the Zambian Brethren in Christ Church." Brethren in Christ History and Life 28.3 (2005): 502-66.
  • Tracey, Hugh. Ngoma: An Introduction to Music for Southern Africans. London: Longmans, 1948.
  • Tsukada, Kenichi. "Kalindula in Mukanda: The Incorporation of Westernized Music into the Boys' Initiation Rites of the Luvale of Zambia." In: Tradition and Its Future in Music Osaka, Japan: Mita 1991. 547-51.

[edit] Recordings

  • Brown, Ernest. Songs of the Spirits: The Royal Music of the Nkoya of Zambia. Lusaka, Zambia: University of Zambia Institute for African Studies, 1976.
  • Baird, Michael. Batonga across the Waters. Utrecht, The Netherlands: Stichting Sharp Wood Productions, 1997.
  • ---. Zambia Roadside Music from Southern Province. Utrecht, The Netherlands: St. Sharp Wood Productions, 2003.
  • Daddy, Zemus. Chibaba. Lusaka, Zambia: Mondo Music Corp., 1999.
  • Guitar Songs from Tanzania, Zambia & Zaire. Tivloi, N.Y.: Original Music, 1982.
  • Hosanna Gospel Band. Lesa Tupepa. Lusaka, Zambia: Mondo Music Corp., 2004.
  • J, K. JK. Lusaka, Zambia: Mondo Music Corp., 2001.
  • Shoprite Zambia Hit Parade. Lusaka, Zambia: Mondo Music Corp., 2001.
  • Tracey, Hugh. "Kalimba & Kalumbu Songs, Northern Rhodesia Zambia, 1952 & 1957: Lala, Tonga, Lozi, Mbunda, Bemba, Lunda." Historical recordings / by Hugh Tracey Variation: Tracey, Hugh.; Historical recordings. Utrecht, The Netherlands: Stichting Sharp Wood Productions; Grahamstown, South Africa; International Library of African Music, 1998. 1 sound disc; digital, mono.; 4 3/4 in.
  • Zambian Acapella. Zambian Acapella. Corsicana, Tex.: Paradox Music, 1993.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


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