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Wafumuwane mukazgaka wa chihowe

Chikulamayembe Gondwe

Muzungu wanga ndilipile ndizipita (My master, pay me, I want to go home now)

Ndi shuye ndi kalele mwana

Nyama yonsi uninkha amakho (You gave all the meat to your mother)

  • Authors: Chewa men , Hugh Tracey
  • Date: 1957
  • Subjects: Folk music--Malawi , Songs, Nyanja , Nyanja (African people) , Songs, Chewa , Chewa (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Malawi Fort Jameson f-mw
  • Language: Nyanja/Chewa
  • Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/160763 , vital:40535 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR099-01
  • Description: This group had no drums so they brought three tins (beer mugs) along as substitutes. The Nyau dance is performed with the head covered with feathers and with masks. In Nyau dance songs the young men often sing in feigned voices, no doubt on account of the fact that in the actual dance itself, and not for the purpose of this recording, they would be wearing grass and wickerwork masks and would wish to hide their identity. Nyau dance song with (tins used as drums)
  • Full Text: false
  • Date Issued: 1957

Atshakongwe wamwe muno kuwala kwawo (The women of this country all wear the same kind of dress)

  • Authors: Five Nyasa men , Hugh Tracey
  • Date: 1957
  • Subjects: Folk music--Malawi , Songs, Nyanja , Nyanja (African people) , Songs, Chewa , Chewa (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Malawi Likoma f-mw
  • Language: Nyanja/Chewa
  • Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/160804 , vital:40547 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR099-06
  • Description: The drum was played with a stick in the left hand tapping on the side of the drum alternately with the head. The right hand kept up the rythm in the usual way. During this lively performnace the bottle player shattered his bottle into fragments, continuing to beat the neck of the beat which remained in his hand until that too disintegrated under the blows of the six inch nail. At the end of the first item the player dashed off to a nearby hut and produced the next best substitute, a new hoe blade. This recording was made by Nyasa workers at a Citrus Estate near Nelspruit, Eastern Transvaal. Party dance with double headed drum, concertina and bottle.
  • Full Text: false
  • Date Issued: 1957

Tyingabenga (The Giant)

  • Authors: Five Nyasa men , Hugh Tracey
  • Date: 1957
  • Subjects: Folk music--Malawi , Songs, Nyanja , Nyanja (African people) , Songs, Chewa , Chewa (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Malawi Likoma f-mw
  • Language: Nyanja/Chewa
  • Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/160799 , vital:40546 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR099-05
  • Description: The drum was played with a stick in the left hand tapping on the side of the drum alternately with the head. The right hand kept up the rythm in the usual way. During this lively performnace the bottle player shattered his bottle into fragments, continuing to beat the neck of the beat which remained in his hand until that too disintegrated under the blows of the six inch nail. At the end of the first item the player dashed off to a nearby hut and produced the next best substitute, a new hoe blade. This recording was made by Nyasa workers at a Citrus Estate near Nelspruit, Eastern Transvaal. Party dance with double headed drum, concertina and bottle.
  • Full Text: false
  • Date Issued: 1957

Salimwendo (The one legged man)

  • Authors: Genye Chiwaula and Chewa lads , Hugh Tracey
  • Date: 1957
  • Subjects: Folk music--Malawi , Songs, Nyanja , Nyanja (African people) , Songs, Chewa , Chewa (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Malawi Fort Mlangeni f-mw
  • Language: Nyanja/Chewa
  • Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/160826 , vital:40550 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR099-08
  • Description: There was once a man with one leg called Salimwendo. Now Salimwendo was a thief. He married a young girl and he told the girl "I have plenty of goats, fowls and sheep at home and you will not be short of relish if you marry me." One day he went out stealing a goat, and he was chased by the owner who called out his friends "catch him-Salimwendo, catch hm". Salimwendo ran away to his owm house and quickly sang to his wife inside. "Open the door for me, quickly, your share will be the liver". So she opened the door and he was safe inside. But he did not give her her share. The next day Salimwendo went out to steal a fowl. He was chased again, but he was not quick enough. The owner caught him outside his own door as his wife had refused to open the door. Salimwendo was taken by the man to the Chief who said he must give back both the goat and the fowl and on top of that his wife left him as she did not like to live with a greedy man who also told her lies about his goats, fowls and sheep. "There is Salimwendo, catch him. the one with one leg, catch him." "Girl open the door for me quickly, quickly. I will give you your share. the liver." Nthanu story.
  • Full Text: false
  • Date Issued: 1957

Wezulu walila (The Zulu are crying)

Mancawa we ndumo

  • Authors: Gordoni Mwale and Tumbuka and Ngoni men and women , Hugh Tracey
  • Date: 1950
  • Subjects: Folk music--Malawi , Songs, Zulu , Zulu (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Malawi Kasungu f-mw
  • Language: Zulu
  • Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/160916 , vital:40561 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR099-18
  • Description: A song of rejoicing after killing a lion. Note the way in which the pitch of the song continually rises. The solos in the song are normally accompanied by 'Nkugiya' pas seul, after the Zulu fashion. The words of the song appear to have lost their meaning and the singers could not enlighten us. The melody must be an old and authentic one, brought up with the Jiri people from Zululand in the early 1800's. Hunting song (after the hunt).
  • Full Text: false
  • Date Issued: 1950

Munkwele

Nkurira nyama (I cry for meat)

Ndevinepo ndamwana mdiki (Let me dance myself the small child)

Amai anda nena mangwila-ngwila (My mother always told me not to touch anything in the house)

Uyalelano = What are you crying for?

Uya muona Mbelwa = You will see my Chief Mbelwa

  • Authors: Muandila, Timeyo , Tracey, Hugh
  • Date: 1950
  • Subjects: Folk music--Malawi , Songs, Zulu , Zulu (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Malawi Mbelwa f-mw
  • Language: Zulu
  • Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/160862 , vital:40555 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR099-12
  • Description: This Gubu bow seems to be related to the Zulu 'Ugubu' in name, but Natal would be called Makweyena. The bow was tuned to two fundamental notes 93 and 74 vs. with a stopped note of 98 vs. It was 5 ft. 7 inches long and the stopped note was produced by pressing the knuckle of the second finger of the right hand onto the string. "You have seen a young man waering feathers." Praise song with Gubu stressed musical bow.
  • Full Text: false
  • Date Issued: 1950

Naba baNgoni bagwaza ngomkhonto (The Ngoni fight with spears)

  • Authors: Ngoni men , Hugh Tracey
  • Date: 1958
  • Subjects: Folk music--Malawi , Songs, Zulu , Zulu (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Malawi Dedza f-mw
  • Language: Zulu
  • Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/160835 , vital:40551 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR099-09
  • Description: This item was recorded in the Eastern Transvaal where the performers had come to work on a citrus estate. In spite of over a century of osolation from the main Ngoni peoples, these Ngoni of Nyasaland still retain in their music, dancing and customs, the traits of their distant relatives in the South. Musically it is interesting to note that many Ngoni seem to be able to sing in either the pentatonic modes of the Zulu groups or adopt the heptatonic modes of their mother's people who have married into the Ngoni clans. Ngoma wedding song with stamping and hand clapping.
  • Full Text: false
  • Date Issued: 1958

Chigwinini chikuko mana nawo (A man with 2 wives has no wife)

Mbaya mwana wane bamutya cimbwe (Mbaya, my child, is called a hyena)

  • Authors: Ruben Tankadi Mbuluwundi and group of 5 Tumbuka men , Hugh Tracey
  • Date: 1957
  • Subjects: Folk music--Malawi , Tumbuka (African people)--Music , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Malawi Rumpi f-mw
  • Language: Tumbuka
  • Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140216 , vital:37849 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR054-06
  • Description: A man who was working away from home on the Copper Mines, had a girl sent to him to marry from his own village. But when she arrived she was so ugly he said: "Marry you, never! You look like a hyena!" So the girl went back and told her mother who rushed out of the house shouting to her husband in great hanger: "My child Mbaya has been called a hyena!" From what the Welfare officers say, it appears that this situation is a common experience on the Copperbelt where girls are frequently sent by their parents to get themselves married to their absent young men on the mines, with the same painful rebuff if not acceptable. Humorous song.
  • Full Text: false
  • Date Issued: 1957

Mwaba woli bani (The decitiful wife)

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