Musical Instruments of the Indigenous People of South Africa. Percival Kirby
and Bethlehem having described it; but no specimens are to be found in that area, so far as I have been able to find out.
Yet another form of the moropa, used for a similar purpose to the form just described, is met with, though rarely, among the Pedi of the Transvaal. This drum, which is a secret instrument, is made secretly by the women, and is played in secret by initiated old women only. This instrument, which is called moshupiane, is generally made of wood, and it is shaped like a bowl. There is no opening at the base. Another type is built up of staves, like a barrel, with this difference, that the staves meet at the bottom. Cowhide is bound over the whole instrument, with the exception of the opening over which the drum-head proper is strained. The ‘head’ is of goatskin, and is lashed in position by a thong which encircles the rim, a groove having been made to prevent it from slipping. Figure 2.16 shows a specimen of the first (the more usual) type, which was with great difficulty obtained by Mr. W. P. Barnard, of Sekukuniland. It is 6¼ inches in height and 6¼ inches in diameter at the top. No example of the second type could be secured.
Figure 2.15. Sotho (Bas.) woman playing upon the clay moropa. Photograph by P. R. KIRBY.
Figure 2.16. Pedi friction drum, called moshupiane. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.
The moshupiane is used in connexion with the female koma, or initiation ceremony of the Pedi girls. When the girls have completed one stage of the ceremony, they are escorted home at nightfall by a number of initiated women, who surround them and completely conceal the old woman who carries and sounds the moshupiane. This old woman holds the instrument under her left arm, and with a bundle of kafir-corn stalks tied together when dry, but wetted for performance, she rubs the ‘head’ counter-clockwise, when the moshupiane emits a weird screaming sound. It is only used on this occasion, and when the party arrives at the kraal the drum is burned. Should the initiates ask what the sound is which they hear, they are told that it is the spirit of the hills which has been guarding them and which is returning to its haunts again. This spirit is supposed to be in the form of a bird, the night-owl. No boy or man will impart any information about the moshupiane, since it belongs to the women.
The moshupiane, it will be seen, is a true friction drum of an elementary nature. Its use may be compared with that of the ingungu of the Zulu (vide p. 34), and also with the hand-struck moropa of clay, used in the female initiation ceremonies by the women of Basutoland.
A drum of much larger size, and quite different in construction and in use from all those hitherto described, is found only among the Venda of the Northern Transvaal and their immediate neighbours, who have manifestly borrowed it from them. This is the ngoma, a single-headed drum with a hemispherical resonator carved out of solid wood. In constructing these instruments, a suitable soft-wooded tree (movambangoma, mofula, mukonde or marula) is felled, and a piece of the trunk of the requisite size cut off. The ‘shell’ of the drum is then cut out of this piece, the instrument being fashioned across the grain, (as shown below). The carving, which is undertaken by a skilled specialist, is done with adzes, axes, and chisels of iron. The upper portion of the drum is ornamented with four ‘handles’ which interlace in pairs, the space between the handles being filled by a band of carving in relief. One particularly large ngoma at the kraal of Chief Sibasa has a plaque on which human figures have been carved between the handles. This drum is, however, of recent manufacture, having been made in 1929, and cannot be regarded as typical. Stayt (1930)45 says that six ‘handles’ are sometimes to be found on the ngoma. I myself have never come across a six-handled specimen; the score of examples which I have examined in different kraals in Bavendaland had four only. These ‘handles’ present a curious problem. Undoubtedly they are useful for carrying the drum, which is of considerable weight, from place to place; and on certain occasions, and under certain circumstances, the drum is suspended by two of them from a frame.
But two handles only would surely have been sufficient for either of these purposes. A close examination of the looped ‘handles’ reveals the fact that the carved portion is carried round the drum from handle to handle on a continuous band of which the handles form a part. The whole scheme suggests to me the survival, in the form of decoration, of interlaced ropes, the original function of which may have been either to secure the ‘head’ firmly to the pegs used for straining it over the drum, or perhaps to fasten the instrument on the back of some animal, just as in the case of the pairs of drums, called naqqareh, of the Arabs, and kindred drums. The fact that among the Venda these drums are on most occasions used in pairs lends colour to the suggestion. A narrow circular rim is left projecting from the ‘shell’ of the ngoma at its base, and in the centre of the circular space so enclosed a small hole, about three-eighths of an inch in diameter, is bored through the shell. The shell itself is hollowed out until the walls are about three-quarters of an inch in thickness. Holes, from two to three inches apart, are bored with a hot iron round the rim of the shell, for the reception of the pegs which are driven in to keep the head in position. The head is of cowskin, the hair having been removed from a circular patch in the centre, and it is stretched over the drum while wet. Before it is placed in position, one or more stones, called mbwedi, are dropped into the shell. These have been supplied by the doctor, and they are supposed to have come from the stomach of the ngwenya or crocodile (Crocodilus niloticus)
As the manufacture of the ngoma is a long and difficult process, the cost of an instrument is high, being one ox or its equivalent, about five pounds. I have known even higher prices asked for an ngoma, but only for newly made specimens. Old instruments are exceedingly difficult to obtain, since they have all been ‘doctored’, and are tribal rather than individual possessions. The ngoma is sounded by being struck with a single beater of hardwood. Two specimens large and small, which are beautifully decorated, are shown in Figures 2.17 and 2.18. These are from Chief Masekwa’s kraal, and are among the largest examples to be seen in Bavendaland.
Figure 2.17. Venda ngoma and murumbu. Photograph by P. R. KIRBY.