Vimbuza The Healing Dance of Northern Malawi

3. Vimbuza as a Social Fact

   ϳϱ Chapter 3: Vimbuza as a Social Fact The preceding chapter presented two social functions. It concerned, in the first place, the therapeutic of the Vimbuza dance. Secondly, we described the role played by diviner/healers in the struggle against sorcery. Apart from these two functions, it is important to include several others. The great value of Vimbuza is without doubt its aptitude to embrace qualities which one ordinarily attributes to other genres of oral literature such as the tale. From the analysis by G. Calame-Griaule of oral literature in Africa, we shall retain, in what concerns us, the following extract: The social role played by oral literature in Africa remains in effect considerable. Permeated with cultural realities, it constitutes an irreplaceable testimony on the institutions, the system of values, the vision of the world belonging to a society. 1 It seems that its capacity to play several social roles is due to the birth of a Vimbuza which we shall qualify as “profane." According to Kwenda Phiri, the difference between the “sacred” dance and the “profane” dance resides in the composition of the songs and the way the dance is performed. Furthermore, he affirms that this type of dance is of recent origin. In the analysis which follows we shall endeavour to study the six principal functions which Vimbuza comprises in its role as a “profane” dance. We insist, in this connection, on evoking as many as possible of the elements which characterize them. Finally, it is fitting to underline the fact that we shall use some songs as supports for the ideas advanced. Kwenda Phiri calls the songs with a satirical tone in Tumbuka nyimbo za vigerembo or nyimbo za vigetyo (satirical songs).2 This type of songs is, as we have just mentioned, associated with profane Vimbuza. We are not in a position to give the exact date of its birth, but we estimate that it was  1 Geneviève Calame-Griaule, “Pour une étude ethnolinguistique des littératures Africaines,” p. 25. 2 Interview Kwenda Phri.    ϳϲ in the 1920s. We have already seen, in this connection, that Vimbuza dancers were accused by the authorities of spreading the disease. People believe, in fact, that this rumour was well founded. It was then a question of false possession. There is a plant known by the generic name seketela which serves as an antidote to a possible attack by abused Vimbuza spirits. In this way, a person may dance as if he is under the influence of real possession. This plant also makes it possible for the person not to feel tired even if the performance lasts so many hours without interruption. The plant, which is also called mphelele, was at first used in the Malambo area, in eastern Zambia, among the Senga. Siyayo Mkandawire, professional dancer at the national level; is without doubt one of those who have recourse to it in our day. This practice is not unique in Africa. G. Rouget reports a similar situation: Among the Hausa, the non-initiated young girls undergo crises of possession owing to the taking of a drug, the datura metel.3 This ‘profane possession’ presents all the signs of the normal possession crisis, except that ‘the gods do not evidently show themselves’. These false possessions are produced when the young girls want to imitate the followers of the bori and swallow to this effect grains of datura. 4 The introduction of this plant constitutes an important turning point in the history of Vimbuza. It is, in fact, from that moment that the functions which we present in this chapter start appearing. One of the characteristics of this “false possession” is the fact that there are more women than men. People believe that women seized the opportunity to express a profound malaise which concerns their status as spouses. They feel heavily crushed by the patrilineal and virilocal system of marriage. In this way, benefiting from the “sacred” nature of the dance, these women understood that they could question the position of the man in Ngoni-Tumbuka society. Speaking of a situation which corresponds well to the one we are describing, I.M. Lewis reports the following: For all their concern with disease and its treatment such women’s possession cults are also, I argue, thinly disguised protest movements  3 Also called "Devil's Trumpet." 4 G. Rouget, La Musique et la Transe, Paris: Gallimard, 1980, p. 108.    ϳϳ directed against...