PROVISIONAL TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION DURING PROF. WIM VAN BINSBERGEN’s VISIT TO THE NKOYA COMMUNITY IN LUSAKA AND ZAMBIA IN THE CONTEXT OF THE 2011 KAZANGA FESTIVAL, July 2011

From 5 to 21 July 2011 Prof. Wim van Binsbergen hopes to be in Zambia, in the context of the 2011 Kazanga festival. During this period, he will be the guest of the Kazanga Cultural Association, both in Lusaka and in Kaoma. Wim van Binsbergen has a long-standing relation with the Shikombwe Royal Establishment, Njonjolo, and with Shumbanyama village, Kazo, going back to the early 1970s. Wim van Binsbergen’s Nkoya name is Tatashikanda – his daughter Shikanda received her name from Mwene Kahare Kabambi († 1993) in commemoration of the latter’s formidable ancestress Mwene Shikanda. Identifying as Kankoya, and ranking among the heirs of Mwene Kahare Kabambi, Wim van Binsbergen has published a few books on Nkoya history and culture, and a large number of scholarly articles; many of these materials can be accessed at the website on Nkoya history and culture which he established (http://www.kazanga.bravehost.com/index.htm) in 2004, or at his general website http://shikanda.net. The year 2011 means a turning point in Wim van Binsbergen’s career in that at the end of the year he will formally retire from institutional academic work, hoping to reach the age of 65 in February 2012; but, with the blessing of God (Mwene Nyambi) and the ancestors (bapashi), he is still enjoying good health, and retirement will give him all the more time to devote to his ongoing research. Therefore it is now opportune to take stock of existing knowledge, to correct earlier mistakes, to fill in gaps, and to further local, regional, national and international platforms for the preservation of that knowledge and its transmission to younger generations.

During his stay in Zambia, Wim van Binsbergen hopes to address the following topics in discussions with Nkoya Royal Chiefs (Myene) and Elders (Bahekulu), with the Kazanga executive, with other prominent members of the Nkoya community, and with the members of that community at large:

1. How can we protect and advance Nkoya culture under present-day conditions? The annual organisation of Kazanga is obviously a key event in this connection. In the past, attempts have been made to establish a Nkoya Museum, and a Cultural Educational Centre, around the Kazanga festival and its grounds. An inventory will be made of the progress and bottlenecks on this point, and of future steps to be taken.

2. On a world-wide basis, the most obvious way to advance Nkoya culture is to have the Kazanga festival recognised by the UNESCO (United Nations Educational and Scientific Committee), and to have this Zambian cultural achievement proclaimed by the UNESCO in the context of the UNESCO’s Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, under the associated themes ‘Traditional performing arts / Rituals / Social practices’ (see Appendices 1 and 2, below). This involves a very long and complicated bureaucratic process, that requires a sound local and regional organisation, government support at the national level (Zambia), and the preparation of an extensive (50 pages and more) description of the Kazanga tradition, its current organisation, and its cultural and social significance at the regional and national level – and an evaluation in the light of current thinking on social and cultural relevance, human rights, harmful cultural practices, etc. In fact, it is not the local or regional cultural organisation, but the national government at ministerial level, that in consultation with the local / regional level makes the application with UNESCO. In addition to national-level official recognition and esteem, the UNESCO proclamation, if it ever materialises, is likely to bring further international fame for the Kazanga festival, attracting not only many international visitors but also offering a sounder institutional and financial basis for the Kazanga Cultural Association, and for Nkoya culture in general. In the mid-2000s, Wim van Binsbergen was involved with the UNESCO in various ways, and he served as the scientific advisor on one such application, involving a cultural achievement / country outside Zambia. Current procedure may have slightly changed, and full details still need to be explored, but given the central place of Nkoya music throughout Western Province (notably at that Province’s royal establishments), the UNESCO would appear to be the most obvious, and most comprehensive, level on which to represent and further Nkoya culture. Discussion of possible UNESCO links will be an important discussion theme during this trip.

3. The book Tears of Rain (available at http://shikanda.net/general/gen3/tearsof.htm ), Wim van Binsbergen’s most extensive statement on Nkoya history and culture, appeared in 1992 in London, and in an inexpensive and widely circulating Zambian edition in 1994. No doubt the book was one-sided or even wrong in some of its statements, despite the comprehensive participation of prominent Nkoya advisors in its realisation, and despite the author’s caution and his awareness of his personal limitations. An inventory of critical reactions after nearly twenty years could help to set the record straight, and to make necessary corrections for a new edition and for further work based on this book. This process need not be completed within the duration of the visit, but can be continued afterwards, and communicated by e-mail etc.

4. Since the mid-1990s, Wim van Binsbergen has embarked on new lines of research, usually greatly inspired by what he had learned in Nkoyaland between the early 1970s and the mid-1990s, but (forced by the dynamics of academic organisation and funding) largely conducted outside Zambia and with reference to other peoples and cultures than those of Zambia. It is now time for a feed-back, confronting these new research lines directly and critically with the Nkoya evidence, so that they can be further expanded and corrected, and brought to fruition. These lines of enquiry are mainly the following seven. Obviously, they cannot all be covered during this short trip, and none can be covered in any great detail, but again, the proposed explorations may be continued afterwards, and communicated by e-mail etc.:

1. Comparative mythology: Worldwide, most specialists studying the myths and legends of humankinds’ many different cultures assume that there is an enormous difference between African mythologies, and the mythologies found in Europe and Asia. However, having extensively used Nkoya myths and legends throughout Tears of Rain, Wim van Binsbergen found that there is not a big difference between Nkoya and Asian-European myth – on the contrary, there is an amazing continuity, suggesting extensive historical links between Nkoyaland, the rest of Africa, and the world outside Africa. A long article published in 2010 makes this claim very strongly, and substantiates it by reference to dozens of narrative themes circulating among the Nkoya, taken from the sphere of creation myths, flood and tower myths (cf. the Nkoya story of Kapesh Kamunungampanda 'The Kapesh [ Tower? Gable? Carriage-Beam?] Who Joins Forked Branches'), entertainment narratives, and especially kingship (Wene). See:

van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 2010, 'The continuity of African and Eurasian mythologies: General theoretical models, and detailed comparative discussion of the case of Nkoya mythology from Zambia, South Central Africa', in: Wim M.J. van Binsbergen & Eric Venbrux, eds., New Perspectives on Myth: Proceedings of the Second Annual Conference of the International Association for Comparative Mythology, Ravenstein (the Netherlands), 19-21 August, 2008, Haarlem: Papers in Intercultural Philosophy and Transcontinental Comparative Studies, pp. 143-225, also at: http://www.quest-journal.net/PIP/New_Perspectives_On_Myth_2010/New_Perspectives_on_Myth_Chapter9.pdf

Going through this recent text with well-informed senior Nkoya people will ascertain to what extent the connections claimed are genuine and may be supported at the level of the owners of Nkoya culture themselves, or to what extent they are only based on the author’s over-interpretation of Nkoya material twisted and forced in the process.

2. A South and South East Asian (‘Sunda’) connection? Many kingships in Zambia and surrounding countries trace the origin of their dynasties back to a legendary land ‘Kola’, situated perhaps somewhere (but how far away?) North East of their present locations. Xylophones (chilimba); hourglass drums (mukupele, cf. Sri Lankan Sinhalese mahabela, ‘big drum’); other musical instruments; the nature and arrangements of royal orchestras in general; the layout of royal establishments (zinkena); games such as that in which stones are moved between rows of cups made in the ground (shinsolo?); the circulation of royal names such as Shikanda, Kale, Mangala; the ceremonial use of elephant tusks; the emphasis on boat-centred royal ceremonies (Kuomboka) elsewhere in Western Province among the Lozi people whose cultural traditions intersect with those of the Nkoya etc. – all this (and much more) suggests that at some point in history some of the kingships of Western Zambia may have had an input from across the Indian Ocean. Of course, the influx of dynasts and merchants from the Swahili coast in the course of the 2^nd millennium CE has long been recognised as a firm fact of African including Zambian history; the existence of Indonesian or South Asian kingdoms, not only on Madagascar but on the continental East Coast of Africa (R. Kent), has been a much contested point – as is Frobenius’ claim of a large, presumably Buddhist kingdom Mbedzi (‘Moonland’?) in Southern Africa. There are also genetic and linguistic indications in the same direction, and they even extend to West Africa, where kingships very similar to those of Western Zambia may be observed. Must all this remain a mere conjectural construction by European outsiders, or it is possible to retrieve, from Nkoya traditions, specific data that either support or refute the Sunda connection? (for provisional discussions of the Sunda idea, cf. http://shikanda.net/topicalities/cameroon_2006/tripto.htm ; http://shikanda.net/topicalities/supervis.htm (scroll deep down); http://www.shikanda.net/topicalities/Buddhist_Africa_Thailand.pdf ; http://shikanda.net/topicalities/Introducing_Sunda_thesis_2007/index.htm

3. healing cults and female puberty rites – their connections in space and time: Wim van Binsbergen’s research among the Nkoya started out with his explorations into Nkoya rituals and ceremonies taking place in Lusaka in the early 1970s: various healing cults (Bituma, Mayimbwe, Mwendapanci, etc.; largely treated in his book Religious change in Zambia, 1981; now available as Google Book at: http://books.google.com/books?id=yq49AAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=religious+change+in+zambia&hl=nl&ei=aRf9TdytF8PsOYm5hagG&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false ); girl’s initiation ceremonies (kutembwisha kankanga; see his description at: http://shikanda.net/intercultural_encounters/chapter_3_intercultural_encounters_female_puberty_rites_Nkoya.pdf ). All these themes have played an important role in his subsequent research outside Zambia, and it would be nice to revisit these rituals – if they have survived to this day – once more in their present-day Nkoya form, and interview their ritual leaders.

4. Kingship and regalia: Inevitably, given the central place that kingship (Wene) occupies in Nkoya society and culture, much of Wim van Binsbergen’s Nkoya research over the years has concentrated on kingship. This is particularly the case for Tears of Rain, but also for his numerous articles. Against the background of general social and political change in Zambia, Nkoya kingship is likely to have undergone considerable change since the 1990s, when Wim van Binsbergen last witnessed it in action. Taking part in the Kazanga festival is to bring considerable updates on this point, and these could be backed up by general discussions on the topic. Given the recent shift, in Wim van Binsbergen’s research, towards long-range comparisons in space and time, and the usefulness of material objects for this purpose, it would be nice if during this visit the regalia (royal objects) of the various Nkoya Myene could be inspected, documented and photographed in far greater details and completeness than has been the case in Wim van Binsbergen’s earlier Nkoya research. 

5. Divination and its connections in space and time: ku-wuka, ‘to find out’, has been a constant feature of Nkoya traditional systems of diagnosis and healing. The ecstatic dance in the healing cults is also a form of divination, for the patient will only respond properly (i.e. as a first step to healing) to the music and dance specific to the one spirit that is making her or him ill. This may be called ‘spiritual divination’, whereas other forms of divination make use of material apparatus e.g. axe handle divination, water-gazing, the throwing of bones, and the casting of wooden or ivory tablets. However, although much of Wim van Binsbergen’s later research has concentrated on comparative and historical research of divination throughout Southern Africa, Africa as a whole, and even worldwide (cf. http://shikanda.net/ancient_models/divination_keynote_leiden2005/web%20pages/keynote_divination_leiden_2005.htm ), he has only known the Nkoya forms of material divination by hearsay; therefore, during the present visit it would be nice to visit some practicing diviners at work and interview them on their practices.

6. The pre-colonial and early colonial forms of Nkoya arts, crafts and games: cultural connections are often most conspicuous from the specific form and use of material objects, as produced and used in arts, crafts and games. The spate of witchcraft eradication and missionary activity in the Nkoyaland in the first decades of the 20^th century has caused the almost total disappearance of ancestral material objects (e.g. statuettes, ancestral images, protective objects) from village life – with a few notably exceptions, such as the kara shrine associated with the Mutondo kingship. In the same vein, we still see the survival of musical instruments, utensils associated with the processing and consumption of food, storage baskets, and mats. Yet Nkoya products of material culture rarely emerge in the tourist curio trade, and they are very rarely found at Zambian Museums (although the Livingstone Museum reputedly has some Nkoya items in its collection). It would be great to have the opportunity, during this trip, to trace, view and photograph some remnants of what must have been a rich material culture still alive only a century ago.

7. Indigenous astronomy: The ancient Nkoya were great hunters, who travelled hundreds of kilometers across the then much more sparsely populated land largely covered with savanna forest; reputedly, their knowledge of the stars and of the movements of the heavens over time enabled them to return safely to their village. Such knowledge is no longer needed, and it may have died out. Yet it is hoped that, during this trip, senior Nkoya may be met who still possess some of this alleged astronomical knowledge, and are prepared to share it.

This list of priorities will be circulated widely, so that as many people may contribute in this phase of Wim van Binsbergen’s Nkoya research. Feel free to contribute by e-mail to: wimvanbinsbergen@gmail.com  

Appendix 1. The Makishi Masquerade (Lovale people), the only uniquely Zambian cultural achievement proclaimed by the UNESCO in the context of the UNESCO’s Third Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and INtangible Heritage of Humanity, under the associated themes ‘Traditional performing arts / Rituals / Social practices’ (see: http://www.unesco.org/culture/intangible-heritage/42afr_uk.htm ). 

Appendix 2. The Gule Wamkulu dance of the Chewa (‘Nyanja-speaking’) people, a cultural achievement shared by Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia, as proclaimed by the UNESCO in the context of the UNESCO’s Third Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and INtangible Heritage of Humanity, under the associated themes ‘Traditional performing arts / Rituals / Social practices’(see: http://www.unesco.org/culture/intangible-heritage/22afr_uk.htm )