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"The father of magic is the fear of the future, and the mother of magic is the hope that the future will be kind to us." Hugh Tracey

HUGH TRACEY ISAIAH SHEMBE PRINCESS MAGOGO MASHIZOLO MADALA KUNENE MADOSINI IBHUBESI ELIMHLOPHI

BUSHMEN PEOPLE

"South Africa was formally abandoned with elands, hartebeest, gemsbok, quaggas, zebras, giraffe, rhinoceros and a great number of beasts of prey."

Until the first century AD , South Africa was inhabited solely by Stone Age hunter gatherer people whose descendants are known as the Bushmen."

"They must have occupied South Africa continuously for an enormous period. They were a 'special creation' adapted peculiarly to South Africa."

Men were expert at animal identification and animal behaviour and could read tracks with uncanny accuracy. Women were superb field botanists. They could identify plants individually. Knowledge was shared.

"The Bushmen people were passionately fond of music, and might have been termed the most musical people in Southern Africa as in both the number of their tunes for dances and the variety of their musical instruments."

Harmony was the way of life. And from the sacred order of the interconnectivity of all living things came music.

"And, by some strange dispensation of Providence, the Kalahari Bushman constructs a shooting-bow of such a length (about three feet long) and with a string of such a thickness and at such a tension, that the fundamental note of the string yields an harmonic series which can be isolated and resonated by the changing cavity of his mouth over the persistent tone of the fundamental."

/Ka/Kanasi is a primitive instrument played only by old women. It consisted of a long string of twisted sinew, looped round a knobkerrie which was stuck in the sand. The string passed through her toes and up to her chest where she secured them to a length of 'riem' which passed round her body and was knotted behind her. Between the riem and her chest she placed a roll of dried hide to serve as a resonator.

WEAPON BECOMES MUSICAL INSTRUMENT

The tinkling sound of the string of the hunting bow attracted the attention of the hunter.

By striking the hunting bow with the shaft of the arrow, the hunter could reproduce the pleasant sound at will, and thus the bow became an instrument of music. The Bushmen called it KHA:S

"Expert players used to be sent to entertain the old men of the tribe, when having completed their discussions of weight matters, they were seated round the sacred fire."
A Bushmen rock painting was copied by a British soldier in the Maluti Mountains of Lesotho. It shows a man tapping on the strings of seven hunting bows which have been fixed into the ground (probably by the other men) who are in the background dancing.
The Bushmen of Southern Africa were joined by the Khoi tribes along the Western coast, the Bechuana tribes from the central North, Bantu from the Eastward and the Europeans from the sea.

"The Bushmen forage for ideas - they show an openness to other cultures and a readiness to adapt to outside customs and practices."

"Goods in themselves were not an end in themselves, but a means to a wider, social end - to create and solidify bonds of friendship, which may also become bonds of mutual help," Bushmen term is XARO.

The spirit of sharing was adopted in all cultures and the uniquely Southern African philosophy of ubuntu - people depend on other people to exist as people was adopted.

"Bushmen filled the important role of rainmakers among the Bechuana tribes from Bechuanaland. The Bushmen rainmakers assimilated with the Xhosa of the Eastern Cape."

"The Xhosa got all their clicks and music from the Bushmen."


FREQUENCY AND FUNDAMENTALS

The Kalinga resembles a musical bow, it is often referred to as a ground bow or earth bow. More like a harp, it is a very old instrument. A calabash is secured in the ground and a string from this is attached to a growing sapling. Bebey called the sound "a curious voice that seems to emanate from the earth." It was mainly a children's instrument. In Pygmy culture it was said to 'make the ants dance!' The Bushmen call this instrument !gamakha:s.

To make the bow audible a resonator is required. The resonator is the means with which the musical instrument gets a grip on the air, and thus amplifies the frequency of the sound.

The mouth was used to amplify the sound of the string.

Hollowed out objects such as the calabash (pumpkin) is ideal as a resonator to amplify the sounds produced by the string.

The bow provides the scales of all Southern African music.

Bows produce two fundamental notes. An open note (the player not touching the string) VU and a closed note (the player touching the string) VA :

All the other notes of the scale are there - within the fundamental note. These are the partial vibrations known as harmonics.
Changing the shape of your mouth, or moving the opening of the calabash too and from the breast will bring out these harmonics. Harmonics are over and above the fundamental note. Harmonics lead to melody.

The term music is expressed by 'ingoma' to mean songs : 'izicaba' are the sung text lines of a song. The bow performs izicaba which means it is singing the texts of the song. Melody is (umculu) and this means footpath.

The bow is popular amongst maidens. It is a transport instrument. "The bow is solitary and meditative because the player cannot talk or sing whilst playing. Her thoughts are free to wander as her walking feet become absorbed in the rhythmic complexity of the overall musical process."

Young Zulu maidens (izintombi) play idyllic and nostalgic songs about their personal feelings and love affairs and yearnings for future husbands. umakhweyana plays a significant role in their courtship procedures.

When you strike the string of the bow and watch it vibrate, you will notice that the string moves most in the centre and least where it is tied to the bow.

A variation of the bow (known as braced bow) is to tie the string or the calabash in the centre. The player can therefore play either portion of the string therefore producing two sets of fundamental notes.

Among the Venda, the making of the string was a long process. It involved removing bark fibres from a broken branch, the continuous rolling of the fibres between the palms of the hands until a strong string had been formed. Lugube is made and played by girls or young married women.
An Ndebele man by the name of Zulu Monge used the hair from the tail of a giraffe for his string. He added to his performance by whistling through the sides of his mouth. He carried a plectrum of thorn and carried a spare one in his brother-in-laws hair. (as he was bald).

DIVINE INTERPRETATION

"When I play my instruments, the idea is to tell the people that without nature there is no life and without life there is no music. These are the foundation stones for humanity." Madosini

Music is the foundation of African education. Ancestral spirits mediate between the living and their God, the supreme being 'Mulingqangi'. His only pleasure is music and dance. Isangoma when broken down means that which is like music / dance. Common to each healing situation are the healer, the sick and the song. Divination is a musical event

In the case of Nosinothi Dumiso she became ill, and began to go blind in one eye. This was interpreted as a call from the ancestors that she must become a diviner (thwasa). The way she chose to become a medium was to take up playing the uhadi. Thus, both her illness and her playing of the bow were considered primarily as due to the ancestors

"Playing the bow is a relief, a means of relaxing ones body and mind from tensions." Thandile Mandela
The prophet, Isaiah Shembe, would overcome physical fatigue and spiritual depression through long hours of meditation, an act which would involve singing to the accompaniment of his ugubhu musical bow throughout the night.

Princess Constance Magogo kaDinuzulu kaCetshwayo kaMpande kaSenzangakhona is a direct descendent of the Zulu royal lineage. She is blessed with many grandchildren, to whom she makes a point of passing on treasures from the Zulu and Buthulezi musical heritage.

This is music completely rooted in the body of the performer as much as in the body of the universe. The creation of this sound is a communication of the passing of time, birth, death, evolution.

The sound of the bow dissipates moving further and further into the atmosphere, releasing the performer into the universe, from the foundation of their deep seated centre in the physical world.

"If the composers know their own hearts, they become our mouths." HUGH TRACEY

_________REFERENCE

All other information is extracted from the ILAM library through the courtesy of the Director, Diane Thram. Primary resource is : "The musical instruments of the Native races of South Africa." Percival R Kirby : Secondary resources include the thesis by Tandile Mandela , Deidre Hansen , Yolisa Nompala , Jaco Kruger , BN Mthethwa and David John Dargie. Notes on the Bushmen extracted from George Stow 'Native races of Southern Africa'.
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The most common form of musical instrument is the human voice. We use our voices for making musical notes and also for expressing thoughts in words. It is the combination of notes and words which makes the voice such a wonderful instrument. The producing of any sound in the voice is controlled by the same five factors we find in musical instruments which turn energy into sound.

Umngqokolo is overtone singing in a gruff style. "to sing in a hoarse bass voice, producing the sound far back in the throat, and keeping the mouth open." The singer uses shaping of the mouth to select and amplify overtones for the performance of melody, as in playing the umrhubhe bow. One of its leading exponents, Nowayilethi Mbizweni of the Ngqoko group calls her version Umngqokolo ngomqangi - overtone singing in the style of umqangi. Umqangi is the name of a certain beetle which naughty boys impale on a thorn, and then use the mouth to resonate overtones from the loud buzzing noise as it tries to fly away.

Sefinjolo derived from Dutch viool means violin. Setinkane derived from English tin can, is a guitar. In Zulu the instrument is also known as udloko. It means : "one who takes care of the journey." Khoisan name is !gauwkha:s

"Ever take a piece of grass between your lips and blow it to make noises?"

The Bushmen gora evolved a method of extracting sound from the string by air vibration, by fixing a spatulate piece of quill taken from the feather of a korhaan. By applying the quill end to the mouth, the lips surrounding but not touching the quill, the player could produce quite powerfully by inspiring and expiring vigorously, certain harmonics of the string.

There is the tale of a boy, who as it rained, lay on the ground, playing upon the t'ha (gora) in the manner of //kunn, a famous rain doctor, who was in the habit of threatening to use his enchantments to stop the rain from falling when he was angry with the people. As the youth played, the storm became more violent and the mother of the youth screamed out in pain as the rain beat upon her. The tale ends in the conclusion of the youth that he was wrong.

"You play it by yourself. It makes you forgetful of things, and you can be your own company."

Sotho adopted gora and called it lesiba (feather). It is their national instrument.

As an adjunct to the dance , rattles of different kinds are almost invariably used. These are also known as idiophones as the initial vibrator is solid material that vibrates by virtue of its own rigidity.

Primary rattles are held in the hand and played. Secondary rattles re worn on the body of performers and activated by their movements, or attached to other instruments as modifiers.

The Bushmen Nxonxoro consists of a bow bent under the tension of the string. Notches are cut into the bow and a stick is rubbed along these notches and causes the whole instrument to vibrate powerfully, while the mouth acts as a resonator.

The Venda use monkey oranges with stones inside for the rattle. They call it Tshizambi: The Shangaan / Tsonga name is xizambi The Zulu name is derivative, it is xizombi.

In the Venda exorcism ceremonies there is a special official called maine vha tsele (the diviner of the rattle). This diviner is responsible for singing the special Malombo song of exorcism.

The departed are not far away and they are believed to be watching over their families like a 'cloud of witnesses'.

Uphondo is the general term for the horn. Impempe or unondonga is a police whistle. The siren whistle is called isikhona (name for an owl). A whistle called utwi-twi-twi is made from the stalk of a red petal flower.

The traditional ox horn isigodlo yields one tone and was used as a signal horn to announce an important event in the community, a war, a meeting of the chief in council, or a hunting expedition.

The Venda ocarina (tshipoyoliyo) is a hollowed out monkey-orange with three holes drilled through. The largest is used as embrouchure, and the two smaller holes are stopped in one of two ways. The songs are compared to bird calls.

A famous horn ensemble was from the Valley Tsonga people recorded by Hugh Tracey before their forced removal from Kariba District.

The flute, umtshingo is very popular with the herd boys. It is a zulu cultural norm that when a boy brings the cattle home, he must hide his flute somewhere outside the homestead. He literally thows the flute away where he is sure to find it again. The root of the word flute - tshinga - means to throw away.

A heritage of the Bushmen are the ditlhaka reedpipe sets played today by only one Tswana group, the Lete.

Nyanga panpipe made from bamboo or river reed are tied together after tuning. Most panpipes consist of four pipes, some three.

Tshikon was the Venda national dance used for solemn occasions such as the installation of a new chief, the first fruits ceremony and prayers to the ancestors of the royal clan. In tshikona the men move in file anti clockwise around the women who play the drums, each dancer plays a single reed pipe.

Drums are the most important channel to express a societies shared values, knowledge and experience.

Of the Bushmen it is the women who made and played the drums for the men to dance. The Bushmen had a friction drum made from a clay pot or wooden cylinder covered with a thin membrane, with a tiny perforation in the centre through which a straw was passed and secured on the under side. The performer wetting his fingers, drew them along the straw, and the strong vibration gave forth a roaring sound.

The Shangaan xigubu drumming school teaches (1) drum manufacture (2) drum instruction (3) learning of didactic ideophones (4) learning of drum and voice conversations (call and response between voice and drums) (5) the learning of a special body of songs (6) the organization of a xifase competitive dance team which visits other villages.

Exorcism (macomane) is one of the more important musical practices among the Shangaan, involving possession dance, playing the special ncomane tambourine, from which the rite obtains its name. The distribution of this tambourine is as far as Siberia and Mesoamerica, usually with a medicinal use.

The percussion drum used by Xhosa and Zulu diviners and Zionist church musicians are bass drum types, developed from the example of the bass drums used by the British military in the 19th century.

One of the Zulu words for shield is ihawu and is one of the principle drums of the Zulu. Pedi drum is called moropa, hollowed out of a single block of wood. The moropa is used to summon the girls of the tribe to the gathering place which has been appointed for the Koma, or girls initiation ceremony. The drum of the Venda is ngoma. It has considerable weight. Before the skin is stretched over the Drum, one or two stones, called mbwebi, are dropped into the shell. These have been supplied by the doctor and have come from the stomach of the ngwenya or crocodile, which is the totem animal of the Venda.

The ngoma is beaten by the chief himself in order to bring rain. The sound of the drum is like thunder, and thunder preceeds rain. Invocations would be chanted and two or more of the men 'inspired by the spirits' would play a squeker 'Sitlanjani which represented the voices of the Gods'.

Umngqungqo is a womens circular dance whose principle use is at the ijaka gathering at girls initiation. Men do not join in. The women form a circle and move around slowly, without clapping. They hold sticks in their right hands in imitation of men. They raise their feet well off the ground, and the feet meet the ground with a resounding thump.

The followers of composer, leader, and prophet Isaiah Shembe come together to perform a slow stamping dance to the accompaniment of giant drums and lengthy bulls horns. This is the sacred dance of ukusina.

The xylophone is known as mbile in Venda, mohombi in Shangaan and dibila in Lobedu. It is on the Chopi of Mozambique's TIMBILA that the Shangaan model their mohombi xylophone. The xylophone is constructed from the mutondo tree which is of special significance to the Venda. The mbila maker always tries to find a dead tree.

In earlier times the xylophone maker planted his own crop of calabashes. The growing and collecting of calabashes is apparently the task of Venda women. The Venda national dance tshikona uses xylophone. The first fruits ceremony (theuhula?) is closely associated with the dancing of tshikona.

The marimba was brought to South Africa in 1980. It was developed in Zimbabwe. Robert Sibson was an electrical engineer, flautist and the moving spirit behind this. He wanted to promote African music. Sibsons friend Nelson Jones (mathematician) designed the marimba. In 1980 Dave Dargie and the Catholic Church brought them to South Africa. They began to be made by a Catholic Brother in Umtata and broke out in schools. One group in Cape Town, Amampondo were the first group to become famous with marimba. Limba is the singular of Marimba. It is a one note xylophone.