Vimbuza The Healing Dance of Northern Malawi

2. Vimbuza as a Possession Cult

   Ϯϯ Chapter 2: Vimbuza as a Possession Cult This chapter deals with the stages through which a Vimbuza dancer passes. The information is essentially that which obtained in the 1970s and 1980s. Latest additions have been included although they do not change much the general outlook. The Vimbuza “Disease” Vimbuza can be defined as a disease caused by the presence of spirits within an individual. The name “Vimbuza” is a generic term which is used to indicate three types of dances: Vimbuza, Virombo and Vyanusi. Thus the same term is used to indicate the presence of spirits in the body of the possessed individual and for the dance which is performed to appease them. It seems that the term adopted by numerous researchers to indicate the spirit which leads to spirit possession is genie. This could be justified in part by the affirmation of the Jinetigi of Mali (specialists of the Water Drums possession cult): “They all say that, if the names of the spirits differ from one people to another, the identity of the spirits remains the same from one end of Africa to another, and of the world.1 It is commonly admitted that Vimbuza started in Zambia among the Bemba and the Bisa. In attempting to verify this information, we first observed that the form of possession which exists there has a different name: Ngulu2 and that it does not present itself after the manner of Vimbuza, for the social organization of the Bemba is different from that of the Ngoni-Tumbuka. While the Bemba are matrilineal and matrilocal, the Ngoni-Tumbuka are patrilineal and virilocal. We then observed that the only connection that exists between Vimbuza and its country of origin seems to reside in the term itself: “Vimbuza." According to Makasa Kasonde, there are three  1 J.M. Gibaal, Tambours d'eau, Paris: Le Sycamore, 1982:169. 2 Interview Makasa Kasonde, Kalabwe Village, Chief Mumpolokoso, Mporokoso District, Northern Province, Zambia.    Ϯϰ words which approximate to Vimbuza on the phonetic level; the first is imbusa, then bana-chimbusa, and finally, ifimbusa. Now, these three terms are not applied to the possession cult Ngulu of which we have taken note above. Imbusa signifies a collection of clay items (pots, jars) which may go beyond fifty in number; this collection is used in initiation ceremonies for girls known as Chisungu. Ifimbusa and bana-chimbusa are the matrons responsible for the education of the girls during the initiation, and while they are at the hearth, the matrons sing a lot during these ceremonies and according to Makasa Kasonde the music would perhaps be the connecting line between the name ifimbusa and vimbuza. We only note that there has been a deformation of the word at the phonetic and semantic level. The distance which the word has covered can explain this evolution. Moreover, the Bemba and the Tumbuka are separated by another ethnic group, the Senga. There are two principal types of possession. The first type is the one where the possessed person is severely convulsed and loses consciousness, perhaps after the manner of the Haitian Voodoo. In the second type, the victim seems to remain mistress of her body, at least in so far as the utilization of her limbs and her voice are concerned. This is precisely what happens in the Vimbuza of the North of Malawi and in the Malombo in the Central Region of the country. After having worked on possession dances in Zambia, W. Brelsford gives a description of the two types of possession which may throw some light on what we are saying: The inharmonious dance is also subdivided into ‘pure’ convulsive dances in which all control is lost of the limbs, which jerk and twitch until the dancer gets into a state of extreme nervous excitement accompanied by wild paroxysm. The ‘weakened’ convulsive dance involves the same movements, but the limbs are always under control, and this dance does not end, as does often the pure one, in unconsciousness…the latter if often characteristic of the travelling exhibition dancer who stands for long    Ϯϱ periods twitching his buttocks and ceaselessly shaking his rattles and rustling his skirts. 3 We are thus led to say that Vimbuza is to be considered as a dance of “mild possession." Nevertheless, it is fitting to draw attention to one exception: the Vyanusi type does not correspond to this definition. We shall return to it later. Another remarkable characteristic...