The Sunday News
A mottled cow hide stretched over a massive, intricately decorated drum carved from the trunk of a huge tree lies in the dust, facing the burning sun of a Binga afternoon.
Five similar drums, diminishing in size, face the same direction, while a seemingly aimless crowd mill around, sharing stories and maybe a smoke. They are Tonga musicians, the drummers waiting patiently for their ancient instruments to be tuned to the correct pitch by the almost palpable waves of the fiery sun. With a loud clatter, their leader, the Keeper of the Horns rolls out a strange collection of large and small antelope horns (nyele) from an old sack.
The horns are to be played by the 20, 30 or 60-odd musicians present, and their warm-up begins by blowing vigorously over the rim of the horn to produce a loud note, an eerie sound, mournful yet lively, hollow yet piercing in short sharp bursts; each player with one horn, one note.
The player of the smallest drum beats out a staggered rhythm, a commanding tattoo which echoes over the harsh ground for miles around; a mysterious call that brings people running from far off. At a given signal, four bigger drums join the rhythm, and then, at last, enters the Budima, the big drum, held by two men and pounded by a third with a closed fist, producing a deep resounding boom that anchors, and drives, the entire song which unfolds.
The nyele horn players surround the drums and start up a wild staccato which seems to be a random cacophony of sound and yet is the carefully composed and orchestrated ancient music of the Tonga people of the Zambezi Valley — the Ngoma Buntibe Women singers and dancers join in stunning traditional bead costumes — a flurry of colour that bursts into action as they swirl around the group of musicians, stamping out the complex rhythm with insaka (hosho/ seedpod) percussion, singing the words, telling the story.
These are among the dances that Nhimbe’s Nyawo Lwami project aims to identify, document and perpetuate through intergenerational transmission from elderly keepers of culture deep in the rural areas, to young musicians who have migrated to the cities, to secure such rich legacy of dance expression for future generations.
Their amazing music culture remained shrouded in ignorance until the early 1990s, when the late Zimbabwean musician, composer and ethnomusicologist, Keith Goddard, went in search of the legendary music, of which little was known, even in Zimbabwe. He arrived in the small community of Siachilaba in the Binga district, which covers the western end of Lake Kariba on the Zimbabwean side.
In Binga he found a group of musicians known as Simonga — the composers, players and singers of ngoma buntibe music, who shared their music with him. Goddard wrote at the time:
“The music of the Valley Tonga is as extraordinary and distinct as it is beautiful.
To date, however, it remains almost totally unexplored by researchers and academics (except in regard to musical instruments as artefacts of material culture) and it is virtually unknown outside the Tonga area.” The Nyawo Lwami team has engaged with the group Simonga and musicians in Siachilaba, and assisted by Chief Siachilaba and other Binga authorities, has held a workshop on Awareness and Inventorying.
The objective of the Nyawo Lwami project by Nhimbe Trust is to enhance the capacity of communities to safeguard traditional dance expressions as performing arts heritage in western Zimbabwe. Funded by UNESCO under its 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the project will involve communities across six districts of Matabeleland, and Bulawayo. — Nhimbepulse
