IS ZAMBIAN MUSIC DEFINABLE?
Last Updated on Saturday, 08 September 2007 09:16 Saturday, 08 September 2007 09:16
By Malama Katulwende
To be sure, any criticism levelled against me is alright and very welcome provided it is objective and impersonal. On the other hand, I also ask my critics to understand that my attitude to Zambian hip-hop and art in general is not born out of spite. It is, I believe, intended to challenge our views on the contemporary Zambian art-forms and creative life so that the bases of our works and what we espouse to be objective, artistic values and truths are tested in the light of reason rather than natural instinct, blind faith, loyalty, propaganda and chance.
In the present article, therefore, I shall advance some arguments to counter the objections raised by N.K. The objections shall be reduced to two basic positions – namely: the constitution of Zambian music, and the possibility of freedom in the creative act.
The question, then, of what constitutes Zambian music is both answerable and definable. A tree, a dog, or an apple beside me does not constitute “Zambian music”, nor does music by Papa Wemba, Antonio Vivaldi, Sergey Prokofiev, Beyonce, or 2Tupac Shakur. Yet my fancy takes Zambian music to denote the art and activity of systematically arranging sounds through human voices or various types of instruments such as drums, gongs, sticks, flutes, and so on, in rhythmic, melodic and harmonic form with the intention of expressing joy, sadness, or other emotion that have been directly inspired by the cultural, social, economic and political conditions of a country we designate as “Zambia.”
By “cultural”, “social”, “economic” and “political” conditions I refer to the ordinary meanings of the terms as they define a fixed and peculiar set of attitudes, beliefs and traditions of our people in their temporal and spatial settings. Furthermore, I take these conditions to be determined by changes in the manner in which our people reproduce their existence, or the physical forces which characterise, influence and alter their material intercourse of life.
Now since music is a representation of a feeling made audible in time, “feeling” and “time” being physical conditions derived from and reduced to the material basis of life, it follows that Zambian music ought to draw its existence from the living conditions of our people. On the other hand, a superficial reference or allusion to the “living conditions of our people”, like in the case of Crisis, is not enough to pass off as authentic “Zambian music”. There’s a rule of proportion. By this I mean that the choice and origination of musical forms, contents and meaning should be determined more by local conditions than foreign influences. In other words, Zambian music ceases to be so defined if it is not consciously expressed in terms of the cultural, social, political and economic relationships of our people in time and space.
The above definition provides an identity of what, in my view, constitutes “Zambian music”. Unlike NK who falsely believes that “Zambian music will only develop when it becomes inclusive …including true rap’s ability’s to convey powerful messages…” I fear it is this “inclusiveness” or vague universality which presents the greatest threat and challenge to the authenticity and individuality of our arts and creativity as Africans. Let me illustrate this further with the following examples.
In their study of African tribal, sculptural forms, William Fagg and Margaret Plass were struck by the immerse varieties and uniqueness of tribal art. They observed that just as language, religion, social institutions and customary law distinguished a tribe from its neighbours, so did art. ‘In Africa,’ they observed, ‘art does know frontiers, and tribality is its essence.’
In his work, “What is art?” Leo Tolstoy observed that a work of art must originate from the artist and not from imitating accepted artists. In yet another treatise, “Critique of Judgement”, Immanuel Kant argued that art was a form of production through freedom. Unlike imitation, however, it is a productive activity preceded by a deliberate and rational use of reason with a specific end in view. Yet this “production through freedom” does not in any way imply the renunciation of the past achievements of a particular art form. It is, on the contrary, an appreciation of the preceding generations as no advancement in the arts, sciences or indeed any field whatever, is possible without first situating oneself in the total context of what the giants of the past had done. That is to say, the great achievers of every age have reaped their successes after rooting their intuition and theoretical insights within the light and framework of the past. As Margaret Trowell remarks in “Classical African Sculpture”, it would therefore be a great mistake for present-day African artists to turn a blind eye to the intellectual achievements of their past, for ‘it is to a great extent through the appreciative study of the past that the modern African artist may hope to develop in his turn the undoubted artistic genius of his race.” Lastly, Kwame Nkhrumah said - in “Consciencism” - that: ‘Our philosophy must find weapons in the environment and living conditions of the African people. It is from these conditions that the intellectual content of our philosophy must be created…’
On the other hand Crisis, like some young, upcoming, Zambian artistes such as Kapuka, has abandoned the drums and dances of his land and embraced American hip-hop in a belief that he was free to do so. But whether or not he was indeed “free” is an open question that begs answers. For my part, though, my position is very clear: African artists should not exist as if they were totally detached from the culture in which they were born. Instead, they should reflect and manifest that culture in terms of the aesthetic, metaphysical and material values that it typifies. To quote K.C Anyanwu:
‘Individuals are born into a community and their obligation is to manifest the spirit of the community in them by sharing in collective beliefs, works, duties and results. The African artist is an individual in relation to the community and this community embraces the past and future generations. His expressions embody both the individual and the communal characters.’
It follows, therefore, that in so far as art is essentially self-expression (self-expression being the ability to communicate to others that-which-one-is), then self-identity is only meaningful in relation to the community. However, self-identity, self-awareness and self-disclosure as such do not come about by accident; they arise from a deep knowledge of what shapes one’s destiny in relation to all that one is not. The self (whether defined, for example, by Rene Descartes as an immaterial thinking substance which is connected to the body in a mysterious relationship of mutual interaction, … the thing which thinks, feels, desires and perceives; or defined by David Hume as an organization of memories, beliefs, and perceptions, …or lastly by B.F Skinner and Gilbert Ryle, respectively, as derived from an understanding of environmental influences and subsequent changes in observable human behaviour), is still a dynamic identity and representation which doubts, hopes, laughs, cries and emanates other emotive feelings that have an allusion to one’s existence.
Now ‘existence’ here refers to the act of emerging, issuing from, or being made visible or manifest in relation to other things. But to be truly visible or to be in the light one has to assume an identity that is peculiar to oneself so that one’s properties are distinguished from other things that are not one. In other words Crisis, in so far as he has not defined himself in the context of our existentiality except that of American rappers, is a shadow wrapped into nothingness…He is a nobody.
Malama Katulwende
LUAPULA ARTLAND
BLESSINGS SHOPPING MALL
Northmead
+260 955 - 914759
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written by Malama Katulwende , December 07, 2008
If you really read and understood the article, "Is Zambian music definable?" you should have seen that I am not bringing down Zambian music in general. I am a great supporter of Zambian music, not just through my writing but through material help to struggling artists. But I dare say CRISIS is not the future of Zambian music, and I have advanced philosophical reasons why I do not suppose so. All criticism is welcome but please produce reasons!!!!
written by lady B , December 06, 2008
written by Malama Katulwende , December 06, 2008
written by anon , November 26, 2008
written by terrence jones a.k.a TJ , June 09, 2008
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I didn't see your comment, man. IF CRISIS inspires you - well, so be it. But it is in doing music that you become a good musician or a bad musician. All I also from people like you is first to search your roots in African aesthetics rather than stay in the shadows of 50 Cents or some other rappers. Define yourselves in African terms. An please read the article carefully!