Musical Instruments of the Indigenous People of South Africa. Percival Kirby
does not sound well’, a proverb which ridicules a girl who has had much to do with young men. Bryant adds that ‘Since the Zulu war, however, it has almost completely fallen into disuse, and is now scarcely known to young girls.’ Samuelson defines ingungu as ‘a native drum made by stretching a goat-skin, cleaned of its hair, across the opening of a cleaned out piece of wood, and then securing it to the wood’.
Now while it is obvious that all these authorities have described the same instrument, the discrepancies between them are manifest. After considerable search I found several Zulu who knew how to make and to play upon the ingungu.
Figure 2.7. Swazi men playing upon the intambula. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.
One of these came from Nkhandla, in Zululand, and I observed him both making and performing upon the instrument. He obtained a black clay beer-pot, or imbiza, and a goatskin of suitable size and thickness. From the latter he removed the hair and roughly trimmed it to a circular form. This circular piece was then wetted thoroughly and laced on to the pot with strips of hide, the inside of the skin being outermost. The method of lacing was as follows. A double ring of hide strips was made, just large enough to fit the flat base of the pot. A strip of skin, wetted and rolled between the palms of the hands, was passed through a hole made on one side of the circular piece and attached to the ring of hide. Then to the opposite side of the circular skin a second strip was fastened, and this also was secured to the hide ring. This lacing was similarly continued all round the drum until the ‘head’ was evenly stretched over the opening. It was then allowed to dry. Meanwhile, the native obtained a piece of reed, about eighteen inches long and about three-eighths of an inch in diameter, and this he carefully smoothed wherever knots occurred. He then squatted down upon the ground, placing the ingungu before him, and held the reed vertically upon the drum-skin. Wetting his fingers in a pot of water beside him, he drew those of either hand alternately down the reed, causing it to vibrate strongly. The vibration of the reed was communicated to the drum, which responded with a roaring sound of considerable carrying power. From time to time he wetted his fingers afresh. I learned that in more recent times an iron pot has been used in place of the imbiza. Sometimes the player will lean over the ingungu, and will steady the reed with his chest, or even with his mouth. Again, a second native may pour water upon the reed while the performer is playing upon the ingungu. Under these circumstances the drum head gets very wet. The Zulu who demonstrated this method of performance insisted that the ingungu must be dried in the sun after use. The instrument which was played upon this occasion is in my possession. It is of large size, being about a foot in diameter, and the reed is two feet long and three-quarters of an inch thick. I have also a drawing of the omula dance, in which the ingungu was used, which was drawn by a young Zulu who had learned to use pencil and colours. In it the player is depicted performing upon a particularly large ingungu, while an attendant pours water from a calabash upon the reed. It should be noted that ngu, according to Bryant, means ‘to give forth a dull booming noise, as a drum’. Figure 2.8 shows a Zulu playing upon the ingungu, which he made in my presence, and Figure 2.9 shows a fine example of the instrument from Mpofana’s location, near Greytown, Natal. In this specimen (which is 7¾ inches in height) a disk of skin replaces the ring of skin strips described above. Mr. H. C. Lugg, lately magistrate at Verulam, Natal, gave me a description of the ingungu which endorsed what I myself have observed, adding some extremely valuable information regarding the occasion of its use. It was employed, he said, only at the omula ceremony at which a young woman was initiated into the marriage state by her father. At this ceremony a goat was slaughtered, and the girl was sprinkled with the contents of the gallbladder, the bladder itself, inflated by air, being worn on her head. Next day a beast was slaughtered for her, and its skin was used for the ingungu. After the ceremony the skin was removed, but not destroyed, nor was the pot. The omula ceremony has been well described by Bryant. The ingungu, it will be seen, is a true friction drum, and, moreover, an example of a friction drum in which the reed is not permanently attached to the drum skin. Since, as has been shown, the instrument itself is not permanent, the ingungu would appear to be the survival of an early stage in the evolution of this type of drum, in which the reed or cord which is made to vibrate is usually attached to the skin.42
Figure 2.8. Zulu playing upon the ingungu. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.
Figure 2.9. Zulu friction drum, called ingungu. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.
Figure 2.10. Venda khamelo, or milking-jug, and murumbu, a drum. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.
A type of drum more frequently met with in Africa consists of a conical resonator of wood or other material (with or without an opening at the base) covered with a single ‘head’ of hide. This type is found among the Venda, Pedi, Chwana, and Sotho of Basutoland. The Venda form of the instrument, which is called murumbu, is carved from a single piece of soft wood, movambangona, mofula, or mukonde being popular. It is made by a wood-carver, and the usual tools, the adze and chisel, are used for fashioning the instrument, and sometimes for decorating it. The height of the drum is usually about twenty-four inches, though the diameter at the top varies from ten to twelve inches. The ‘head’ is generally of ox-hide, and is pegged on to the drum while wet, hide strips being afterwards laced between the pegs. The head is tightened by being wetted and placed in the sun or before a fire. The shape of the instrument is significant, as it follows almost exactly that of the khamelo or milking-jug, which is also carved out of wood. The presence of the large handle in both drum and jug emphasizes the similarity, as also does the position in which both are used; for the khamelo is held between the legs of the operator when he is milking a cow, and the murumbu is likewise held between the legs of the performer while it is being played. The drum, however, has an opening at the base, while the milking-jug is closed. This apparent connexion between milking-jug and drum may be compared with the similar connexion between the //hoes and the /khais of the Hottentots described above (vide p. 25). A typical khamelo (10½ inches in height) and murumbu of the Venda are shown in Figure 2.10, and two specially carved specimens of the murumbu will be seen to the right and left in Figures 2.17 and 2.18. In performance the player standing, holds the instrument firmly between her legs, and taps it with a clean staccato action with the tips of the fingers or palms of either hand. Two distinct types of sound are elicited from the murumbu, the first being produced by the flat palm striking the ‘head’ near the centre, and the second by the tips of the fingers striking it near the rim. A great variety of rhythms is executed by combining these strokes in different ways.
Figure 2.11. Venda girls playing upon the murumbu. Photograph by P. R. KIRBY.
The instrument is always played by women. Typical performers will be seen in Figure 2.11. A musical example of the use of the murumbu will be seen in the description of the reed-flute ensembles of the Venda on p. 219.
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