Kruger, J. 2001. Playing in The Land of God. Musical Performance and Social Resistance in South Africa

Playing in the Land of God: Musical Performance and Social Resistance in South Africa
Author(s): Jaco Kruger

Source: British Journal of Ethnomusicology , 2001, Vol. 10, No. 2 (2001), pp. 1-36
Published by: British Forum for Ethnomusicology
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JACO KRUGER
Playing in the land of God: musical

performance and social resistance in
South Africa
This essay treats the performances of Venda musician Solomon Mathase as a

form of resistance to corruption and poverty at the end of the colonial period.
In his music resistance is religiously legitimated through his concept of
"God's land", a moral philosophy that promotes supportive co-existence.
The tenets of this philosophy are powerfully articulated in communal perfor-
mance through Mathase's manipulation of interactive musical techniques,
which place him in a position of emotionally regenerating ritual power, while
inducing states of intense shared consciousness among the participants in
his performances. Performance thus shapes group identity, while allowing
musicians to express their thoughts on their poverty and subaltern status
and to speculate on creative solutions to their problems. Accordingly, music-
making functions as more than mere reflective symbolic action in that it
provides an ideological foundation for socio-economic change.
One of the most burning contemporary national issues in South Africa is the
urgent need for pervasive economic development. In an era marked by severe
infrastructural deficiency in many rural and urban areas, a rising cost of living
and high unemployment, it is not surprising that public funding of the arts
should decrease, resulting in the demise of several public arts institutions.1
For some, merely reducing public support for the arts in favour of material
development seems to be insufficient. When the South African oil company
Sasol recently announced that it would sponsor Pro Musica, a Johannesburg
symphony orchestra, an irate member of the public wrote an emotional letter
I Thus the demise of the National Symphony Orchestra, the National Chamber Orchestra
and the State Theatre has been marked by bitter recriminations against what is regarded as
the cultural myopia of the South African government. Similarly, a Johannesburg municipal
art curator noted recently that the visual arts are no longer on the agenda of local govern-
ment and that the city may thus become a "ghost town" devoid of museums and art galleries
(Beeld 4, November 2000).
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL. 10/ii 2001 pp. 1-36

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2 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.10/ii 2001
to a local newspaper, condemning the funding of "luxuries" like music

in a time of crippling oil prices.2
The popular perception of music as non-pragmatic "art" which is
mere entertainment, or at best as having some vague relationship
emotions, overlooks its complex, often covert, ritual articulation and m
of structural and conceptual contradictions (Coplan 1987, Scott 199
of contemporary South African musical cultures increasingly address t
penetration of empirical constraints and material demands with au
cultural values and cognitive systems. They reveal the expression
consciousness and the reworking of changes in productive relatio
historically salient musical categories (Comaroff and Comaroff 1
Coplan 1987:430). Many African performance genres in South Af
manifest material and symbolic resistance to the legacy of colon
forms of post-colonial global hegemony.
David Coplan, for example, has shown how marabi performanc
not only articulates an emergent urban social identity but also fun
hub of working-class economic activity (Coplan 1980, 1985). Pa
germane here is his inclusion of another musical style, Sotho lifela
category of spoken art known as lipapali or "games". These "gam
in a contrasting relationship to all forms of social conflict by virtu
"cohesive, continuative actions that help 'construct' society" (Coplan
see Adams 1974). Lifela songs address the contradictory expe
migrants as they oscillate between their homes in Lesotho and th
African mines where they work. Like migrants from other parts of Sou
they often perceive working life as antithetical to home life. This opp
represented by the Tswana tropes go dira and bereka. Go dira signi
personal creativity, or "the work of social life", through which th
and symbolic world is fabricated (Comaroff and Comaroff 1987). In
bereka is alienating, exploitative labour associated with colonial do
which has "use only for your body". This form of labour is familia
generations of African people, and its Tshivenda form (mberego
immortalized by the well-known guitarist Albert Mundalamo (c. 1
his song "Mapani":3
Mberego, mberego ya Mapani, wee. Alas, work, work of Mopan
Ndo vhuya nga milenzhe, wee. Alas, I returned on foot.
Ndi kundwa na tshienda tsha milenzhe. I do not even have shoes.
Ndi shona na u dzhena na hayani. I am too ashamed to come home.
0 vhuya magaweni nga vhakalaha. The old men's overalls have
returned.
Mberego, mberego ya Mapani. Work, work of Mopani.
Mapani refers to white-owned farms in the Limpopo valley, which have enticed
migrant farm labourers from the Northern Province since the early twentieth
2 Beeld, October 2000.

3 Song extract. Recorded at Thohoyandou, 5 June 1987.

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KRUGER Playing in the land of God: musical performance and social resistance in South Africa 3
century. The song laments Mundalamo's working life on a vegetable farm dur-
ing the late 1950s. His duty was to water the vegetables daily, even during the
festive season ("No Christmas, no New Year"). For this he received a monthly
payment of two pounds. His disembodied overalls symbolize his labour, in the
same way that Tswana migrants conceive of themselves as yoked beasts that
stand "outside" creative social life (Comaroff and Comaroff 1987:200).
Mberego has a number of oppositions - such as mushumo, or traditional
work, defined in the saying "Mushumi u Ja zwa biko Jawe" (the worker enjoys
the fruits of his labour), and fhala (to build) - which are used to describe
rewarding processes of both material and symbolic construction. This essay
focuses on the deployment by Venda musician Solomon Mathase (see Kruger
1999b) of another opposition to mberego, namely a performance category
known as mitambo jiveni (from English "jive"). It is a modernized form of
mitambo malendeni, traditional choral dance songs and drama that accompany
beer drinking. It creatively syncretizes traditional and Western musical cate-
gories, and its performance at rural bars is accompanied by guitars and
keyboards (Kruger 2000). Like the Sesotho category of lipapali, mitambo
translates as "games" or "plays" (from u tamba, to play). For the most part,
these "plays" are sites of unobtrusive political struggle involving the creative
articulation of "subversive poetics", through which performers engage in sym-
bolic resistance to various forms of domination and corruption (Comaroff and
Comaroff 1989, 1993; Scott 1993).
Venda musical culture has been an integral part of mutually sustaining
symbolic and material practices invoked in the political reorganization of
Venda during and towards the end of the colonial period (Scott 1993:184; see
Kruger 1996, 1999). The ritual transformations of Mathase's mitambo jiveni
performances correspondingly invoked "the hierarchical relationship between a
conflicted or ambiguous set of relations and some higher-level principle" that
served, at least for ritual purposes, as its generative mechanism or transcenden-
tal ground (T. Turner 1977:61). This concept interfaces with Victor Turner's
(1969) well-known interpretation of social life as a dialectic of structure and
communitas. Thus, the conflicting array of relations refers to social structure as
"a set of classifications which orders public life" by means of a differentiated,
segmented, and often hierarchical system of institutionalized positions, while
the higher-level principle refers to communitas as "an undifferentiated, homo-
geneous whole, in which individuals confront one another integrally, and not as
'segmentalized' into statuses and roles" (V. Turner 1969:127, 177).
Accordingly, Mathase and his co-performers are presented here as "malcon-
tents of modernity", members of a subaltern class whose musical rituals
addressed their perceived lack of power in a world controlled by alien forces,
corrupt political systems and local plutocracies (Comaroff and Comaroff
1993). These rituals preserved links with a morally constituted cosmic order
(Reily in press: 11), which was invoked as a means of resisting the breach
of precolonial egalitarian norms that has accompanied the introduction of a
capitalist economy, a process which is perceived to prioritize the selfish accu-
mulation of wealth. Mathase correspondingly invoked a "higher-level principle"

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4 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL. 1 0/ii 2001
that he referred to as "God's land" (shango Ja Mudzimu). Thi

formulation of a wider discourse which advocated a redefinition of the ethos of
capitalism (Austen 1993). Mathase's moral economy was not opposed to capi-
talism; rather, it took the form of a plea for seeing through and behind divisive
social boundaries. This plea was aimed less at erasing these boundaries from
the consciousness of performers than at renegotiating asymmetric social rela-
tions by insisting on a fundamental human commonality (V. Turner 1974, cited
in MacAloon 1984:266).
Although God's land was enacted ritually through various interconnected
expressive codes (Kruger 2000), this essay focuses on the verbal code, repre-
sented here by excerpts derived from a collection of 96 song texts recorded
over a three-year period (1989-92). Although the content and form of these
songs are interdependent, I initially present a number of song texts without
their musical articulation as a means of addressing the moral and emotional
impetus of Mathase's ritual behaviour. In the first part of the essay, song texts
are used initially as a means of discussing the material and historical circum-
stances of Mathase's life and then to provide an illustration of his formulation
of God's land, which articulates his critical reactions to his circumstances.
The way Mathase prioritizes the universal human condition points beyond
the dynamic of material imbalances to highlight the patterns of humiliation
that typically accompany economic deprivation. Experiences of indignity in
situations of submission and forced deference are not necessarily secondary
to explicit material manifestations of domination. Consequently, forms of
symbolic action not only may mitigate patterns of material exploitation and
provide a counter-ideology to social inequality; they can also mark resistance
to habitual insults to dignity (Scott 1993:111, 117-18). I will show that Mathase
experienced the humiliation of his economic and professional subordination
acutely, and that he mediated this emotional condition in his capacity as expert
musician (see Kruger 1999/2000).
Mathase effected a transformation of his status through the performative
articulation of God's land, which allowed him to control experience and thus
construe his own alternative reality (Comaroff and Comaroff 1989:286, Driver
1991:91-2, Tambiah 1985:78-9). The efficacy of Mathase's musical rituals
depended as much on the ideas that are verbally expressed - and the senti-
ments associated with them - as on the power of their non-verbal symbols
(Blacking 1985b:67). Accordingly, the expressive aspects of Mathase's moral
discourse emphasize the need to investigate the modes through which verbal
utterances were presented.
This approach invokes Turner's familiar ritual continuum, which is flanked
by poles of cognitive and affective meaning. Principles of moral and social
order that guide and control persons as members of social groups cluster
around the cognitive pole, while the affective pole constitutes processes that
arouse feelings. Musical ritual thus produces an "intelligence of feeling"
(Witkin 1976, cited in Blacking 1985a:65) through an interchange of ideolo-
gical and sensory meanings which provides ethical norms with an emotional
charge (V. Turner 1967:28-30). It could be argued, therefore, that this form of

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emotional intelligence is a primary modelling system for the organization of

social life, and its powerful capacity to stimulate imagination and expand con-
sciousness can "affect motivation, commitment, and decision-making in other
spheres of life" (Blacking 1985a:65, 69). Aesthetic forms of consciousness
operate as more than narrative models of or for reality; they are instances of the
making of the world by means of various non-verbal aesthetic devices, or the
"poetics of history" (Comaroff and Comaroff 1987). Humans do not abandon
reason for emotion in these circumstances. However, as Blacking (1985a:67,
69) contended, "before decisions are crystallised in words that relate to specific
social and economic problems, the attitudes that influence them can sometimes
be felt and expressed through another kind of reasoning, whose grammar and
content are most effectively, though not exclusively, expressed in non-verbal
language". Thus, in the second part of this essay I look at how the emotional
impact and ritual enactment of the tenets of God's land were effected in per-
formance through the application of certain structural characteristics of musical
patterns. Suzel Reily notes appropriately that
In participatory genres the formal properties of the musical style used in a

given context articulate dialectically with the conceptual orientations and
motivations of the performers, and together they negotiate their perform-
ance practices in the very act of music making. Where sociability is the
prime objective underlying the musical event one would expect participants
to construct their musical performances in a manner which makes extensive
use of the interactive potential of their repertoire.
(Reily in press: 16)
I will show that Mathase made intensified use of cyclic call and response
patterns that not only generated heightened emotions and social solidarity but
which also effected the ritual reversal of his subordinate social status. However,
Mathase's manipulation of form and content did not occur in any uniform or
predetermined way; rather it was controlled by specific ritual objectives. James
Scott (1993:178) notes that ritual domains are marked by various forms of
social conflict and symbolic manipulation, none of which can be said, prima
facie, to prevail. Instead, rituals, as well as the phases within them, employ
specific modes of interrelated symbols at different times (V. Turner 1967:32).
Correspondingly, most Venda dance events feature a dynamic interaction of
discursive and expressive ritual elements (Blacking 1985a). As I will show,
the content and form of Mathase's songs were often mutually reinforcing, and
therefore must be considered interdependently. However, Mathase's perform-
ances also comprised phases in which one quality enjoyed priority. In cases
where the dominant expressive code was dance, instrumental accompaniment
and singing at times served only an aesthetic purpose; yet, as I have argued
elsewhere (2000:89-91), such performance can constitute essential vehicles of
somatic symbolism. Although Mathase's song texts were a basic ritual element,
I will illustrate two instances in which they were subordinated to the manipula-
tion of the cyclic call and response form of the music.

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A history of poverty
A dominant characteristic of Solomon Mathase's life and personali
a vicissitudinous relationship between negative and positive self
often came across in song texts and conversation as fatalistic, wi
such as: "I don't know nothing", and "Whenever I attempt someth
in failure". At other times, especially in performance, he presented h
energetic, goal-directed and optimistic, saying, "I use my heart and m
I can do everything". The roots of his fatalism were embedded in
youth. Mathase lives in his ancestral home in Ngulumbi, a west
suburb of the town Thohoyandou, which developed rapidly as the
centre of the Venda area over the last two decades of the twentie
Mathase's father, Mbulaheni, was a diviner and hunter who died in 19
his son was only three years old. Mathase's mother, Tshinakao (b
only partly active in the local economy4 because she had been a
since her youth. Her physical disability prevented her from providin
children with adequate material support after her husband's death
discourse constantly revealed the scars caused by the untimely d
father and his mother's blindness, as in the following song texts:
Nne ndi dothe. I am alone. 5

Baba vho ntsiela vhusiwana. Father left misery.
Nne thi lali dakani sa kholomo ya mboho. I do not sleep in the forest like
a bull.
Makhulu, nne ndi a nala. Gran, I am angry.
Vho-mme anga: Vho mbeba nga iwa bofu. My mother: You gave birth
being blind.6
Nne ndo jungufhala matsiko hu na I am in sorrow while someone
munwe na nne o ntseavho. is laughing at me.
As a young boy Mathase looked after his grandmother's goats, cattle an

donkeys, and he graduated from murundu, the tribal initiation school for boy
He took up the playing of instruments that are typically associated with herd
and courting - musical bows, the transverse flute and the lamellaphone. H
also made himself a guitar at the age of 14, and he has been an accomplis
guitarist and singer ever since.
Mathase left primary school in 1967 when he was in grade four and already
17 years old:
Nie ndi humbula nga fihwe aluvha. I remember the day

Ndo shavha tshikolo! I ran away from school!7
4 Despite her blindness, she participated in the annual mopani worm harvest. Groups of lo
women visited farms in the Northern Province during summer to collect these worms, whi
were sold as a traditional delicacy.
5 Ngulumbi, 6 June 1992.
6 Song extract, Ngulumbi, 25 May 1991.
7 Song extract, Ngulumbi, 7 September 1991.

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Vhabebi vha ri: Zwithu zwi a tshintsha. My parents said: Things are
changing.
Vhonani, namusi a thi na na tshithu. See, today I do not have anything.
Shango ngoho-ngoho Jo tshintsha. The country has changed much.
Ho fhaliwa zwikolo na mashopo. Schools and shops have been built.
Ho rengwa ngoho dzigoloi. Cars are being purchased.
Zyamusi mmawe thi na na tshithu. Mother, today I do not have
anything.
Ene Mudzimu u a (Iivha. Only God knows my suffering.
Mmawee, ndo zwi wana! Mother, I am in trouble!
Ndi humbula na baba vhanga. I remember my father.
Vho khakha nga u lovha shangoni. The problem is that he died.
Thanwe arali vha hone shangoni. If only he could be here. Because he
Hone vho mbeba vha alo nthusa. conceived me he would have
helped me.
Hunger caused by poverty had driven the Mathase family to partial reliance
on wild fruit and edible plants. This impoverished diet may have contributed to
an eye condition which prevented Mathase from seeing the school chalkboard
properly. However, he saw his temporary weak vision as a manifestation of
spiritual intervention. His father's spirit appeared to him first in a dream during
this troubled period. This appearance initiated a process of life-long communi-
cation with the ancestral spirit world. The spirit informed Mathase that he
would guide his son through life if he observed ancestral morality. This spiri-
tual revelation led Mathase to reflect on his life, and he realized that the only
logical solution to his poverty would be employment. He left home soon after-
wards to become a migrant labourer. His father's spirit also performed a song
in his dream and it served as the inspiration for one of his best-known songs,
"Nwana wa vhathu" (A poverty-stricken man), which is discussed below. This
dream allowed Mathase to become a member of the zwilombe class of musi-
cians. Zwilombe (tshilombe, sing) are expert semi-professional musicians who
act as social critics. Like Mathase, they usually receive supernatural sanction
for this role from ancestral spirits who appear to them in dreams (Kruger 1999/
2000). Mathase's role as tshilombe would offer him both psychological refuge
and financial support for the rest of his life.
After leaving school Mathase went to live with an older cousin in
Johannesburg. Despite the spiritual intervention of his father, leaving home
was a traumatic experience:
Nne ndo tambula I suffered.

Makhadzi wanga, ilani ni shele maali. My aunt, sacr
Note ndi ya ngafhi? Where should
Ndi kha tshino nga fhano Whenever I attem
zwi a fanama. it ends in failure.
Muzwala, note, i4ani, ri fuwe. Cousin, come, let

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8 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.10/ i 2001
Nda nala hayani. I am forsaking home.

Buretse ndi tsini nga milenzhe. Brits is not far to walk to.
Thi ngo funzwa. I am not educated.
Nnte ndo lisa mbudzi ndi kale ngoho. Long ago I looked after go
Noie thi na na tshithu ndifhano. I do not have anything h
Baba, wee! Alas father!
This song describes a ritual performed by M

head of the family) prior to his departu
ma1i, it involves squirting water from the
bled ancestral spirits and to ease person
three ("Where should I go?") not only ref
migrant leaving home for the first time, i
cal and cultural disorientation concomitant
Mathase never worked at Brits (line 8), a
ever, the history of Venda migrant labo
labour in this area.8 By referring to this t
his work experiences to all other Venda
that addresses shared experience is a basi
is one of the preconditions for effective ri
Mathase first worked for one of Johanne
building assistant in 1970. He left after onl
Zulu foreman, whose language he did
worked as a machine operator at a proce
eventually rising to the position of section
caused jealousy among his co-workers, w
relations. Because of a love affair, he arriv
factors led to his dismissal. During the nex
assistant, security guard and gardener in J
fractured work pattern was the difficultie
control regulations. He became unemploy
return to Venda.
Mathase established a permanent performance pattern during his stay in

Johannesburg. He bought an acoustic guitar and started to perform at weekend
beer drinks. He received gifts of money from beer drinkers, earning around
?6 over a weekend. He also joined a band featuring guitars, piano and drums.
The other members of the band were all Northern-Sotho speakers, and they
translated some of his Venda songs into their mother tongue. A local record
company recorded two of these songs on solo singles. The first song was
8 Labourers were fetched from Venda by truck to be employed as "six-to-six" labourers

(i.e. working daily from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.) on vegetable and tobacco farms. Guitarist Albert
Mundalamo remarked that, although the wages of farm labourers were low, they always
received free food (particularly farm produce) and beer. There were also many "widows"
in this area (referring to the keeping of lovers). In contrast, he complained, tea estates in
Venda did not offer these "benefits".

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recorded during the 1970s. It was popular for a while, and Mathase received
a royalty of ?100. The second song was recorded in 1985, for which he was
paid ?55.
The financial situation in the Mathase household became tense on Mathase's
return to Venda in 1985. His wife, and his mother and adult sister who lived
with them, did not work. Hunting had been made illegal, and population
increase had put severe pressure on local natural food resources and land.
Consequently, very few local families farmed extensively. The Mathase family
had a field at a neighbouring village. Because of its small size and the difficulty
of maintaining it at a distance, however, it made little contribution to the house-
hold economy. Mathase therefore decided to trade in marijuana, for which
he earned a relatively good income of as much as ?60 a month, but he was
reported to the local headman, who reprimanded him. Mathase defended him-
self by stating that the only options available to him as an unemployed worker
were either to engage in the marijuana trade or to let his children become
thieves. The headman's brother intervened (no doubt prompted by Mathase's
threat that the royal avocado orchard would be targeted first by his thieving
children) and helped Mathase gain employment as a labourer in the technical
services section at the University of Venda in 1986.
Mathase continued his performances at beer drinks on his return to Venda.
He once was paid ?6 for recording songs for Radio Thohoyandou, the local
station, and he occasionally received about ?2 a month from the radio station
when it broadcast these songs. He sometimes was invited to perform at stokfel
credit association meetings at month ends,9 for which his remuneration varied
between ?10 and ?15. Occasionally Mathase also performed at student hostels
on the campus of Venda University, especially when he was in dire financial
need. Students gave him small amounts of cash, and he sometimes made about
?10 at these events. The amounts he received for musical performance were
a valuable supplement to his inadequate salary. When I met him in 1989 his
net salary was ?35 per month. His monthly income increased to ?40 in 1990,
?46 in 1991, ?50 in 1992, and ?59 in 1993. These amounts were insufficient to
support the Mathase family, which consisted of four adults and five children
(Figure 1). Mathase became bitter about his financial difficulties, and he
described his income caustically as "peanuts".
James Scott (1993:114) notes that "damage to one's dignity is particularly
severe in a person's personal circle and his subordinates to whom he stands in a
relationship of power". Indeed, Mathase became embarrassed because his wife,
sister and mother sometimes quarrelled over their poverty. He consequently
gave his last-born son (b. 1992) the name Avhatakali, meaning "They are not
9 David Coplan (1985:102) describes stokfel as a credit ring "in which each member con-
tributes a set amount each week in anticipation of receiving the combined contributions of all
the other members at regular intervals. Commonly, each member, in turn, uses the lump sum
she receives to finance a stokfel party, at which other members and guests pay admission and
buy food and liquor and even musical entertainment. Profits go to the hostess of the week."

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10 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.1 0/ii 2001
3V :X
-A:
Al~
Mi: 1
Owl I
Figure 1 Mathase family at Ngulumbi (c. 19

wife Sandra, sister Mbilummbi and Solomon
Phatushedzo, Michael and Nyadzani.
happy", to reflect his family's emotio

which alluded to his domestic conflicts:10
Tshihwe tsho n1a phana1a. I was threatened in front.

Tshihwe tsho na1a murahu. I was threatened from behind.
Nda wana zwo nkanganyisa. I was confused.
Ngwena-vho i vhamba ngwena. Crocodiles are clashing.
For Mathase, the main symbol of his poverty was his traditional thatched
homestead. He often remarked that his home was unattractive and dilapidated,
as in the following song:'1
Nne ndi dzula hayani hu I live at a home which is not
songo naka na vhahwe vhathu, beautiful like that of others,
mu1ini wo vhifhaho. the dilapidated home.
Nne vha a ntsea na vhahwe vhathu. Other people laugh at me.
Vha a mmbenga. They hate me.
Vha ri ndi a iwala. They say I am possessed.
Most local homesteads, like that of the Mathase family, had thatched roofs
walls of clay brick which required ongoing maintenance and expense. M
10 Ngulumbi, 7 September 1991.

'' Ngulumbi, 7 September 1991.

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KRUGER Playing in the land of God: musical performance and social resistance in South Africa 1]
TM:
,AL
Figure 2 Solomon and Takalani (June
was not only ashamed of his that

for his expanding family. Improve
tions, and he expressed it by mea
"That song" was a reference to t
became a metaphor for his strugg
than that: musical performance m
process started in 1992 when M
course. He passed the course and w
was very proud. This not only ga
also enabled him to start building
a number of small building loans
window frames with this loan a
By 1998 he had only to complet
situated on his plot such that a g
house the car he was determined to
Another basic condition of povert
his family. Thus he performed th
on a bleak, bitterly cold June aft
wore a woollen cap (Figure 2). He
while Mathase sang:
12 People like Mathase who lived on anc

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12 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.10/i i 2001
Nne ndo shengela, nte ndo tambula. I suffered, I suffered.

Nnze, tambulani, nne, nwana wanga. I, suffer, I, my child.
Tolelani nnte, Takalani. Look at me, Takalani.
Tolelani nwana wanga, Taki, Taki, wee. Look my child, Taki, Taki, ala
Nnze ndo swogola. I struggled.
Nne ndo shona. I was ashamed.
Thumbu khalini. We are hungry: Our stomachs
are waiting at the cooking pot.
Mathase explained his poverty by means of two core metaphors that

the concepts of orphanhood and the extended family. Orphanhood (v
is widely associated in African cultures with poverty and suffering. Eve
Mathase had a mother and other family members, the death of his fath
such an impact on him that he considered himself an orphan. He also
no significant moral or financial support from his relatives. When h
the victim of a pickpocket, he was forced to turn to his employer, who
him an advance on his salary.
Several songs contain references to the extended family (lushaka)
members are not identified by name but by their position as parents, si
cousins, or aunts. The extended family metaphor thus embodies the
belief that having relatives and friends is a form of wealth. Ultimate
means not only lacking such wealth but also being abandoned by th
state. Mathase's final return to Venda in 1985 coincided with the emerge
an increasingly repressive regime of traditional leaders. Enticed by an of
autonomous rule by the apartheid government, these leaders came to pow
1979. They consistently repressed all political opposition during a tu
ten-year period marked by massive strikes and political violence. H
public opinion eventually turned against them, and the Venda military c
out a bloodless coup in 1990. A military regime ruled uneasily until V
reincorporated into South Africa in 1994 (Kruger 1999, forthcoming).
Mathase attributed his poverty and suffering partly to the incom
corrupt leadership of the ruling Venda National Party. He accused Frank
who led the party during the late 1980s, of being power-hungry an
having the welfare of his people at heart. Ravele, popularly described as
who had a "helicopter for a taxi", became representative of all incompet
uneducated leaders whose failures were mirrored in their "ugly faces":
Havha Vho-Ravele vhone vho dzhia This Mr Ravele took the
position
hetshi tshidulo tsha president P.R. Mphephu. Of president P.R. Mphephu.
A si zwavho, vho tou renga. It is not yours, you bought it.13
INamusi zwo fhela. Today that is over.
Vha fana na nnte naa? You are now just as poor as me.
Ndi khwine vha mpfare. It is better to arrest me.
Ndi khwine vha ndzhie. It is better to arrest me
13 This accusation derives from Ravele's elevation from councillor to chief

appointment as president, a step regarded as illegal.

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(Singing continues in English)

It is better to get rid of me by ritual murder.
But yesterday you were the president.
But because today you are suffering.
But because your position is not your position.
Where is the helicopter from Thohoyandou to Nzhelele?
Is the S.T. Solomon Tshinetise Mathase is speaking.
Better to come to catch me,
but because I am talking too true.
Anytime I am ready.
But because this people is long time you robbing that people,
another people, and me also.
And so, on top of that I am a poor man.
You want again another money.
So my salary is very small.
Corrupt politicians were contrasted with leaders like Nelson Mandela, who
was seen as "breaking" apartheid and stimulating political consciousness, and
military coup leader Gabriel Ramushwana, who was "concerned about orphans"
and streamlined the paying of old-age pensions. However, ultimately there
were no fully competent leaders, and Mathase asked the perennial question,
"Who is good?":
I vha ri, muvhuya ndi nnyi They say, who is good

shangoni Ja Mudzimu? in the land of God?14
I vha ri, wa vhukuma, ngoho, They say, where can a good
u bva ngafhi? person be found?
Nne ndo mangala hoyu Ramushwana I was amazed when Ra
a tshi ri Venda lo vhuyelela murahu. said that Venda had b
reincorporated.
I vha ri, sedzani Gatsha Buthelezi They say, look at Gatsh
na zwithu zwawe. and his tricks.15
Nne ndo mangala i hoyu Mandela I was amazed when M
o lwa na musadzi. argued with his wife.
Winnie Mandela o lwa na munna. Winnie Mandela fought with he
husband.
Mboho ndi mbili. Two bulls were clashing.

Winnie Mandela na ene ndi mboho. Winnie Mandela also is a bull.
Ndi ngazwo ndi vha vhudze: That is why I am asking:
Muvhuya ndi nnyi? Who is good?
Muvhuya ndi Yehova. Only God is good.
Mulinda Israela ha eleli. The protector of Israel does
not sleep.

15 This comment relates to the jostle for power between the African National Congress and
the Inkatha Freedom Party (led by Buthelezi) prior to the elections of 1994.

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Mathase's criticism extended beyond the political domain to addre

ing cleavages along class lines, and the widespread lack of com
general immoral behaviour accompanying social change. Although V
wealth belonged to all, the poor reaped few benefits. Nepotism a
was rife, people engaged in destructive competition, and the inc
between the wealthy and the poor caused jealousy, witchcraft a
"greedy rich" did not only not care for the poor, they also had no re
feelings. This theme is addressed in several songs, such as those bel
Vhapfumi - Rich people16

Nne ndo dzhia vhurukhu na badzhi yanga. I handed in my trouser
Ndo isa diraikilini. jacket at the dry cleaner.
Nwedzi wofhela: Nne a thi ngo hola. The month has ended: my pay
is inadequate.
Nda kundwa na peni. I am virtually penniless.
Havha vhapfumi vha longa nga vhathu. These rich people swank
uncaringly.
Vhonani, ndi Gudu Furaidei. See, it is Good Friday:
a time of feasting. But I have
A thi na vhurukhu. A thi na badzhi. no money to collect my
clothes.

You are the rich man.
But because, me, I'm a very poor man.
I don't know nothing.
But because Jesus is Jesus.17
Havha vhapfumi vha Jonga nga vhathu. These rich people swank
uncaringly.
Ni songo sea. Do not laugh.
Vhone, Vho-Nyemaorani, vha songo You, Mr
kola nga vhathu. do not swank uncaringly.
You are the rich. Me, I'm very poor man.
But because I haven't got nothing.
Please try to help me.
Heli shango - This country18

Heli shango, heli shango Jo naka. This country, this countr
beautiful.
Vha ri, Ji dinwa nga vhathu. They say, it is troubled by people.
NnZe ndi humbula vhusiwana. I remember misery.
Nne tho ngo funzwa. I am not educated.
16 Ngwenani, 30 March 1991.

17 An appeal to the Christian ethic of love and sharing

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NnZe tho ngo ya tshikoloni. I did not go to school.

NnZe thi ~Iivhi na u vhala. I do not how how to read.
Vhaiali a vhafheli. There are many clever people.
NnZe ndi khwine ngauri ndi a1abaalaba. I am better because I am
ignorant.
Nnze thi vhoni ndi tshi ndinaho. Nothing troubles me.
Ndi khou amba nga u safunzwa. I say this because I am not
educated.
Ndi khomphethisheni. There is competition.
Ndi mupfufhi u sa mphire. Everyone wants to be at the top.
Vho tou thanyesa. They are too clever for their
own good.
Vhotswotswi - Criminals19
Vhotswotswi vho nnyimela dzikhoneni. Criminals are waiting around

corners.
Ri khetha ifhio ndila? Which way should we take?

Ri bva nga yafhasi. We will take the bottom path.
Ya ntha i na mini? What awaits us on the top path?
I na nwando. There is dew that will make
us slide.
The emotions accompanying Mathase's poverty and subordination were

extremely powerful. Of these, indignity, embarrassment and shame were para-
mount. Mathase recognized that not all the factors causing his poverty were
extraneous. He remarked that if he had been more obedient to his mother as a
child, perhaps he would not have struggled in adult life. He blamed himself for
absconding from school and home and for not listening to his parents, who told
him that society was changing:
Nnze ndo kholwa Buretse! I absconded to Brits!20

Nne ndi khou tambula. I am suffering.
Nne, ndo shona-vho. I am just ashamed.
Phungo i bva mudini. There is a rumour from my
Nga heyi phungo yanga yo home about me.
nnyisa kule hafha shangoni Ja hashu. This rumour has spread all over.
Nnze ndo kholwa Buretse. I absconded to Brits.
Nnze ndo kholwa vhone nga I abandoned home
ndavha ya hone vhusiwana. because of poverty.
Nnie, ndo shona-vho. I am just ashamed.
A neighbour once remarked that she could not understand how an ugly man
like him could have married such a beautiful woman. In addition, his wif

20 Madamalala, 2 June 1990.

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had passed grade eight at school and could write and speak pass
Mathase was embarrassed because he had a lower school qualifi
struggled to express himself in English. He consequently describ
a "guitar-bashing baboon" who only made music and drank beer, th
ing his hungry family. He often remarked that he was drunk, m
He also applied the concept of ugliness morally to evaluate him
because he felt he did not provide adequately for his family. Matha
no solution to his problem of poverty during the period I studi
making, remarking that he always would be poor. From this k
born a sense of hopelessness that made him question his very
remarked that he should have died when he was born (Nze ngav
ndife) and that his insecure existence had one certainty only: "
ground - six feet".
The land of God: an idealized social alternative
God's land was a symbolic environment constituted by a discourse on m

relations of production. In essence, it was an attempt to provide a frame
for the redefinition of asymmetric social relations on the basis of Chri
and ancestral moral imperatives. The seeming contradictory nature of
model emerged from the role of religion in colonial social reorganizatio
well as from Mathase's own worldview. As indicated before, Mathase's main
religious observances took the form of communication with his ancestral
spirits. However, he was also a nominal Lutheran who was fully aware that
Christianity provided a powerful discourse of public negotiation. The first
mission in central Venda was established in 1872 by the Lutheran church
only a few kilometres from the Mathase home in the neighbouring suburb of
Maungani. The church soon established schools in the area, and the primary
school that Mathase attended was built by the church during this time. The
church controlled school education until the 1950s and, with other local
denominations, it continues to suppress various forms of precolonial culture.
It influenced the appointment of teachers and civil servants, who were
expected to be Christians, making church membership an important require-
ment for social mobility. However, Mathase thought that church attendance
was a waste of time because it prevented him from engaging in the weekend
music-making that generated much-needed income and anchored him in a
supportive social network.
Although Mathase internalized a religious discourse of colonial import to
communicate and persuade others, he did not do so in passive submission.
He captured its potency in the autonomous form of God's land, which not only
revealed the colonization of African consciousness but also his consciousness
of colonization (Comaroff and Comaroff 1989). Accordingly, he argued that
those who professed to be Christians had to act out their religious conviction.
They had to love and help him because God cared and "did not disassociate

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himself from his creatures". Good and helpful people were those who had
God's spirit in them and who were "inspired" by Him. He often remarked in
song and conversation that "Jesus is Jesus", "I am a child of this God, Lord
Jesus", and that his was a Christian home.21 He explained these statements by
remarking that "God created all of us, while Jesus died for the sins of black
and white people. This means that we are the same. We all breathe the same
air, and we will all end up under the ground. The only thing separating us is
language." This Christian discourse was invoked in tandem with shared as
well as distinctive ancestral moral imperatives, especially those pertaining to
the power of traditional authority, and the importance of kinship, friendship,
sharing, inclusiveness, respect, and formality:
Humbulani vhakale - Honour your ancestors22
Humbulani vhakale. Honour your ancestors.

Nwananga, namusi no humbula-vho. My child, today we are just
honouring.
N.lamusi na inwi no nkhumbula-vho. Today you are just honouring.
Ndi tshi amba ngauralo ndi humbula I am saying this because the
ancestors
ngauri vhone vho siya ifa langa. left me a heritage.
Pfananani - Mutual understanding23
Vha ri muzila kha u vhuye They say tradition24 must return

shango Ii lale. so that there can be peace.
Vha ri tshikale kha tshi They say the past must return
vhuye shango Ii lale. so that there can be order.
Na nne ndo zwi vhona And I realized how
zwa ri nndwa i bva ngafhi. conflict started.
Vha ri, vhatshena na They say, white people
vhone a vha fani vholhe. do not all behave the same.25
Tshikale kha tshi vhuye. The past must return.
Ri tshile rolhe. We must all live.
21 When he conducted the naming ritual (bvisa hwana) of his youngest son
(b. 1992), he invited his family while his wife Sandra invited members of her c
United Apostolic Church). Mathase bought a goat for ?12 as well as beer to feed hi
While the women sang hymns and prayed for the child inside the house, Mathase e
his male relatives outside around a bucket of beer. Later during the afternoon
moved into the courtyard and performed drinking songs.
22 Ngulumbi, 23 May 1992.
23 Ngulumbi, 23 May 1992.
24 Literally, tribal tax.
25 A simultaneous acknowledgement of the destructive effect of colonization and t
avoid racial stereotypes.

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Hulisa vhabebi - Respect your parents26
Inwi Ii Ihonifheni You must have self-respect here

shangoni Ja Mudzimu. in the land of God.
Vha ri, nwana o bebwaho They say, a child is expected
u ene na milayo. to be obedient.
Inwi, nwana, no bebwaho ai You, child, are expected to have
Ihonifheni shangoni Ja Mudzimu. self-respect here in the land
of God.
Vha ri, hulisa khotsi au na mme au. They say, respect your father
and mother.
Na inwi no begwa ndi shangoni. You were born after me.

Ndi hone u (to kona u lalama shangoni. You will live longer.
Shangoni, shangoni Ja Mudzimu. In the land, the land of God.
Vha tshi dzhena mudini 27 - Manners
Mudzimu o vhumba vhathu God created people

shangoni Jawe. on his earth.
0 nakisa shango. He made a beautiful world.
Vha tshi dzhena mulini, When people enter home, they shou
vha ri: "Hee ndaa!" greet politely in our customary way.
Vha wa musadzi, vha ri: "Hee aa!" And women should say: "Good day!"
Vharathu vhanga, no My brothers, why do you
vhetshelani mulayo? ignore this custom?
NYamusi no fhunguwa. Nowadays you have no respect.
Ho dzhena Tshikhuwa. You follow a Western life-style.
The most important organizing principles in God's land related to the ethics
of equality and interdependence. These concepts were verbalized in a number
of interrelated song expressions of which the most prominent were "We shall
all live" (Ri khou tshila rolhe) and "We are all the same" (Rolhe ri a fanana):
Ri khou tshila rolhe - We shall all live28

Nne na vhone, muhwe na muhwe, Me and you, all of us,
ri khou tshila rolhe.: we shall all live:
Hu ri na mushai rolhe. The poor.
Hu ri na mupfumi. The wealthy.
Hu ri na bofu. The blind.
Hu ri na dzingandevhe. The deaf.
Hu ri na tshimuma. The dumb.
Hu ri na vhafunzi. Church ministers.
Hu ri na dabataba. Fools.
26 Ngulumbi, 7 September 1991.

27 Literally, how to behave when entering a home. Ngulumbi, 16 November
28 Song extract, Madamalala, 2 March 1991.

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Rolhe ri a fanana - We are all the same29
Vho pfuma hani? How rich are you?

Vho naka hani? How beautiful are you?
Vho vhifha hani? How ugly are you?
Vhahwe ndi mpengo. Some are mad.
Kana ndi Idabadaba ? Or are they just fools?
Ri khou vaya samu. We are leaving together.30
Rolhe ri a fanana! We are all the same!
Ro begwa rothe nga We all were brought
Mudzimu washu. into this world by God.
Ndi khwine vha mmbenge. It is better to hate me for saying t
Humbula vhakale vha nthuseni. Honour the ancestors so
that they can help us.
However, Mathase's conceptualization of equality did not negate status

differences, since as councillor (mukoma) in charge of a local subward he w
part of the local power structure.31 He remarked that people should be free to
be lawyers, magistrates or traditional leaders but that they should not ign
shared humanity in pursuit of their professional objectives. All hate, sland
gossip, discrimination (especially nepotism) and other forms of witchcraft wer
forbidden in the land of God. According to Mathase, poor people genera
engaged in witchcraft because of jealousy. Witches were "strange" people w
did not conform to the norms of God's land (see Figure 4, below). They we
encouraged to build a country without jealousy ("Kha ri fhaje shango hu si
vhutshivha"). Selfish and individual desires should not undermine the requi
ordered framework of existence. As one musician explained, "'We shall all l
means you cannot always have your own way."
Although the land of God was conceptualized by means of musical thoug
and practice, Mathase enacted its tenets in a number of non-musical contex
As I explain below, his promotion of friendship and support was particular
evident in his performances. Suffice it here to add that this philosophy was al

30 A reference to joint travelling (usually on foot or by minibus taxi) by people living in
close-knit community.
31 Mathase inherited this unpaid position (jokingly described by him as a "half-chief"') fr
his father, who never explained how their non-ruling family became part of the local po
structure. The Mathase ward comprised about 50 families. Amongst other things, he had
summon people for meetings at the headman's homestead and deal with issues such as mari
conflict, accusations of witchcraft, and failure to pay village tax. Although Mathase had li
time for buffoons and could be cutting with his tongue, he also was polite, tactful a
intelligent and apparently enjoyed popular support as ward head. Mathase never addressed
status as ward head in his song texts and conversations, and it is unclear how it may h
affected his self-image and ambitions. However, it should be noted that traditional leaders
became increasingly irrelevant to many people with the advent of democracy (Kruger 199
forthcoming).

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evident in his hospitality. A significant number of his performances t

at his home. It is customary for visitors (even casual ones) in Ven
nities to be offered refreshments. Despite Mathase's poverty, he
purchased buckets of homemade beer when people gathered at his
music-making. In addition, he often turned the arrival of visitors
musical dramas by greeting them politely in song at the entrance to h
yard and escorting them in this fashion to their seats while dec
affirming their family or friendly status.
The concept of interdependence also was enacted as a by-product of
sacrificial rites. The grave of his father is situated about one hund
from his homestead on ancestral land. Mathase land used to be mu
However, as the local population increased, the grave became part of th
patch of a neighbour. The site has no grave stone, only a very low cem
in rectangular shape. Mathase had planted a castor oil tree and sug
the rectangle. At the end of each month he put a few rand on the gra
of sacrifice. This money was accepted by his father's spirit, and it disa
Mathase once found a coin and a few eggs on the grave. This he too
come from his father's spirit. He put the money under his pillow and
as a way of promoting prosperity.
Musical practice in God's land

As indicated above, Mathase's mitambo jiveni performances were
contemporary complex of musical styles accompanying beer drin
The main ritual settings of these performances were informal b
tshipoto, from English "spot"), although some performances (usual
raucous) took place at the Mathase homestead (Figure 3). These bar
of private houses whose owners sell homemade and bottled beer. Th
beer trade is a basic mode of survival in impoverished communities
for women. Bar owners encourage musical performances in the hop
customers and boosting beer sales. The sound of weekend singing
ming carries far in the relatively quiet countryside, attracting p
Mathase's regular presence at the bar of Masindi Netshiavha in the
ing Madamalala area helped to boost her sales, allowing her eventua
a large gas fridge to cool beer. She often told me that she was ver
with the effect music-making had on her sales. On a number of occasi
on a Saturday afternoon, she dragged Mathase back to her house
music-making as he and I attempted to make our way home after
few hours at her home.
Bars like those of Mrs Netshiavha functioned as sites of veiled ideological
resistance (Scott 1993), since they were viewed as places of debauchery by
the very strong local fundamentalist Christian grouping. The associations they
had with drunkenness, violence, adultery and prostitution made them ideal
marginal spaces, the possible seditious functions of which could be easily dis-
avowed. Although the bars at which Mathase performed sometimes involved
drunkenness and consequent physical squabbles, in my experience this type of

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...................... .............
..........
. .... ....
.............. ...
-low
4M::::
Vs. -
Zo :
. . . ....
.........
F
the right.
behaviour never had any serious consequences. Mathase was quite careful in
his selection of performance sites, ensuring that he always visited bars of "old
people". These were not places frequented so much by the elderly as by people
of all ages who conformed to the time-honoured values of God's land. These
usually were unemployed or worked as low-paid labourers in the civil service.
They rolled their own cigarettes from cheap tobacco and strips of newspaper,
could only afford "walkie talkie" meat (chicken heads and feet) and relied on
the meagre yield of the land and borrowing from one another to eke out an
existence. They usually had only a few years of primary schooling and were
semi-literate. A considerable number of unemployed men took on casual labour
when possible. Most such labour was in the form of house construction and the
annual thatching of roofs prior to the start of the rainy season. A few men
worked as gardeners for residents of Thohoyandou. Some of the unemployed
men used to be migrant labourers. Some lost their jobs, while others found it
difficult to cope with urban life and decided to return home. Most of these peo-
ple did not like the insecurity of their existence. They complained about being
idle and of not knowing where their next casual employment would come from.
Their worries and hardships were reflected in their prematurely wrinkled faces
and rough hands.
Mathase used the name "Ngulumbi Band" to describe all those who per-
formed with him. Because he was a roving musician who performed at various
local bars, the constituency of Ngulumbi Band was huge and constantly shift-

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ing in accordance with the performance location. As I explain below

important consequences in terms of the wider social efficacy of hi
making. But this efficacy also related to the fact that Mathase not only
lated his personal experiences but also addressed communal concern
1999/2000). He was quite aware of his role as musical healer, and he
this in a number of ways, such as in his song texts, of which the follo
an example:
Vhahwe vha khou takala. Some people are happy

Vhahwe vha khou tambula. while others are suffering.32
Vhanwe vha khou shengela. They are in despair.
Vhanwe vha khou swogola. They are struggling.
Hu Jiwa vhurotho vhu si na tie. They eat bread without tea.
Hu nwiwa tie a i na vhurotho. They drink tea without bread.
Vha Ja vhuswa a vhu na muroho. They eat porridge without
vegetables.
A hu na batha, a hu na dzhamu. There is no butter, there is no jam.
A hu na na mini. There is nothing.
Vhanwe vha khou pembela But some people are dancing
excitedly
dzofarwa nga ene, Razz Mathase, because he, Razz Mathase,
henefha ndi kha lone bogisi is in charge of the Pick-a-box
Ja poswo ndi 2309 Radio Thohoyandou. Show on Radio Thohoyandou.
Dzo farwa nga ene S. T Solomon Hey you listeners, it is he,
Tshinetise Mathase henengei S.T. Solomon Tshinetise Mathase
Ngulumbi, vhone muthetshelesi. from Ngulumbi.
Here Mathase assumes the identity of his cousin "Razz" Mathase (whose nick-
name appropriately derives from the term "razzmatazz"), who is a popular local
radio personality. Mathase is comparing the professional role of his cousin to
his own as healer, as one who entertains people and makes life more bearable
through the razzmatazz of his musical performances.
As suggested above, however, Mathase's full healing potential was also
dependent on the nature of his musical articulation. The musics of supportive
communities such as Ngulumbi Band often are shaped by egalitarian ideals
(Feld 1984, Hansen 1981, Reily 1995, Roseman 1984, Turino 1989). The
structural principles of these musics include extensive repetition and the dense
layering of individual parts through techniques such as counterpoint and
hocket. Similarly, the most basic structural aspect of Mathase's music was its
cyclic call and response form. Call and response singing in Venda music takes
place between a song leader (musimi), who "plants" a song (from -sima,
to plant), and chorus singers (vhabvumeli), who respond (from -bvumela, lit.
thunderous acknowledgement). Musicians also regularly increase harmonic
density by adding vocal lines above or below the call and response pattern
(Blacking 1970).
32 Madamalala, 28 July 1990.

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The call and response cycle is important here in two respects. The first is
that the role of the song leader usually is concomitant with an elevated social
status. The second is that its effective performance is dependent on group
involvement. Communal participation does not only allow musicians to explore
shared experiences, it also puts a Durkheimian ritual process in motion which
produces intensified emotions and moral solidarity. The creation of emotional
experiences in musical ritual is related to the nature of certain musical struc-
tures and the cultural attributes of the voice. The responsorial structuring of
song lines is an aspect of daily responsorial situations in which people adapt
their speech patterns and rhythms to one another. Such adaptations are char-
acterized by the synchronization of body movements with speech rhythms
(Collins 1988:201-3). Speakers also synchronize pitch register and range,
loudness, tempo, and the duration of syllables - the kind of synchronization
that is also fundamental to successful musical performance and which helps to
create highly emotional conditions. Although neuroscience has revealed little
so far in terms of the brain's perceptions of the voice, the tone quality, texture
and force of the voice are regarded widely as affecting the emotions (Rousseau
2000). As in other African communities (Coplan 1988), Venda culture priori-
tizes sound over sight in cultural experience and accords high value to the
practical and magical qualities of the voice. Chorus singers often are urged to
respond enthusiastically in performance, thus ensuring a dialogue that tempers
the individuality of the leader. In fact, the singing voice is regarded as so
central in the musical construction of Venda society that any unexplained
weakening is attributed to witchcraft. Singers are fond of remarking that their
voice is as effective as a piercing arrow ("Ipfi langa Ji nga musevhe"),33 and
that it can entice lovers and magically produce babies for women struggling to
become mothers.
I now give a brief description of four of Mathase's performances to show
how he applied the responsorial cyclic structure of his music to enact some of
the tenets of God's land. I indicated above that content and form are mutually
reinforcing in some of Mathase's performances, and that therefore they should
be considered interdependently. On one such occasion Mathase and his elder
brother Robert spontaneously created the following fascinating musical call
and response exchange (Figure 4):34
(Call)
Vhana aforoba thina. The children of our place.
(Response)
Vhana /oroba thina, The children of our place are
vha na pemberera. dancing excitedly.
(Call)
Tambani zwakanaka. Dance well.
33 Unlike other Bantu-speaking groupings in South Africa, the

in warfare.
34 Video recording made at the beer house of Masindi Netsh
1991.

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= 120
Call -IL.I I I L r
I Vha-na!o-ro-b
Response L -..
(ka). Vha-na o-ro-ba thi-na.Vha na pe-mbe- re - ra.
u)(E) (? toend) (A)

(strum)'-'] i" P J ( to end)
-N.M'dA.W I . , I\ I
Vha-na pe-mbe - re'. I vha ri ta- m
Vha- na o - ro- ba
) thi
(E)- na.Vha-na
(B) - mbe - re
Ta- mba- ni zwa- ka- naka. 'Si mba'i- we.

A I-I I I I
ka. Ta-mba-ni zwa-kana- ka ma - si - mba'i- we.
(E) (A)
Si - mba'i - we. I vha ri ta - mba zwa-kana'.
Ta - mba- ni zwa- ka- naka ma - si - mba'i- we. Ta- mba zwa - ka - na -

(B) (E) (B)
(
Ngu-
" we ngu-
1 we
1 'tha-kh
i
()'Tha kha-ti ka loya. 'T a-kha-ti ka Io- ya.
(E) (A) (E) (B
L(Dal segno)
TI-. . I I .i .I . .
Ngu-we ngu-we 'tha-kha-ti ka lo'. I vha ri ta-mba zwa-ka-na'.
'Tha-kha-ti ka lo'. Ta-mba zwa-kana-

(E) (A) (E) (B)
Figure 4 Vhana gioroba thi

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(Response)
Tambani zwakanaka masimbana, iwe! Dance well, you with the
skin clothes!
(Call)
Nguwe, nguwe! It is you, it is you!
(Response)
Muthakhati ka loya. One who bewitches.
(Both singers)
Vhana vha Vhanyai. Children of Zimbabwe.
The message of this song is that people should cooperate in their dail
dance is a metaphor for social cooperation. Thus, the song discourages
(identified by their skin clothes) from engaging in their anti-social behav
However, it also has a deeper meaning that relates to Mathase ancestr
song is an adaptation of one that Mathase heard on Radio Zimbabwe.
formance stimulates memories of clan identity for Mathase, since his
belongs to the Nyai clan, which is of Zimbabwean origin (see last song lin
When the two brothers performed this song, they did so as siblin
had shared a troubled family history. Robert Mathase lived near Solom
he was a labourer in the Department of Public Works. His struggle to
was not facilitated by his complex, enigmatic personality, which di
diverse qualities ranging from harshness to love. He usually spoke lit
because he could be emotionally and materially demanding, Mathase w
critical of him.
This song was one of the brothers' favourites. They regarded it as a for
religious expression through which they honoured their ancestors (es
their father) and promoted ancestral morality. However, the mode of exp
the brothers used in their singing also helped to counteract the conflicts
relationship. They sat facing each other closely in performance, with
leading the song and Robert responding. Both singers moved their h
torsos on the beat. As the song progressed, they moved closer, singing di
into each other's faces. They pouted their lips, raised their eyebrow
opened their eyes wide at each other when singing their respective pa
shook their heads rhythmically together. Mathase lifted his strummin
at times to point rhythmically at his brother. These performance practic
not only help to foster an awareness of shared lineage; cyclic call and resp
patterns generally "articulate cooperative behaviour and aesthetic str
forging coherences across multiple levels of musical and social organi
(Blacking 1971:104).
A related kind of relationship between content and its personal a
lation was evident in a performance of one of Mathase's most popula
"A poverty-stricken man" (Nwana wa vhathu). This song deals w
experience that one of Mathase's friends, Ntshavheni Thovhogi, had
urban setting. Like Mathase, Thovhogi was a migrant labourer who w

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Johannesburg. The song describes how Thovhogi's girlfriend ac

from him and then cheated him with another man:35
Ngoho, ha na na tshithu. He really has nothing.

Na vhurukhu a vhuho. No trousers.
Na badzhi a i ho. No jacket.

Na tshienda a tshiho. No shoes.
Na watshi a i ho. No watch.
Na tshelede a i ho. No money.
O liwa ngafhi? Where did he spend all his money?
O Jiwa Soweto. He spent everything in Soweto.
Na musadzi haho. No girlfriend.
Tsere-tsere ndi ya What is that shuffling noise
mini ngomu nduni? inside the house?36
Vhudzisani ngoho kha vhane vha mudi. Ask the residents.
Vha do amba ngoho. They will tell you.
Thus, Mathase not only empathized with the jilted lover but also, im
with all migrant labourers who had experienced financial difficulties an
liness in town. Most importantly, however, the song had particularly po
meaning for Thovhogi, who happened to be present at the time, and pr
participated in its performance as the centre of attraction. He not only
a counter-tenor line of vocables that hovered clearly over the singing o
and other musicians, but also performed a loose-hipped solo dance in the
of the ritual arena to enthusiastic shouts from bystanders.
The remaining two examples consider more specifically the status
experienced by Mathase in ritual performance. I suggest that Math
process took on characteristics of Goffman's familiar theatrical soc
(Goffmann 1971, see DaMatta 1984) to illustrate how ritual power
"backstage" performances provided him with the self-esteem needed
teract his emotionally debilitating professional and financial status. In t
this model, people assume different identities and perform concomi
depending on the social situation in which they find themselves. Ma
a labourer who found himself in a low position in the professional a
economic hierarchy. Like guitarist Albert Mundalamo, he experienced h
as alienating mberego. He had low professional self-esteem and co
constantly of bad pay and lack of promotion. He was upset about a
had been his subordinate when he was section head at the process
factory in Johannesburg where he worked. This person was appoint
University of Venda at the same time that he was but in a higher
Mathase complained that he had "come down" in life, while the othe
who initially had a lower position, had surpassed him in profession
He also complained of employees who were appointed several years a
35 Song extract. Video recording, Ngulumbi, 25 May 1991.

36 Referring to the not so private sexual liaison between Thovhogi's girlfriend and

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They were on the same professional level as he was but they received higher
salaries. This led him to present himself at work as a deferential, unassuming
man in old working clothes who went about carrying cement buckets, digging
trenches, following orders, and, when possible, escaping round the back of his
workshop to sleep in the sun. Thus, his professional role was largely experi-
enced as external to a meaningful social existence. It took on the quality of
Goffman's "working consensus", in terms of which people enmeshed in asym-
metrical power relations have little option but to suppress their ambitions to
avoid "an open conflict of definitions" (Goffman 1971:8-9). His professional
tactics took the form of disguise and deception, while he maintained an out-
ward impression of willing consent (Scott 1993:17).
In contrast, it is in the home sphere that the dominated and destitute often
become human (DaMatta 1984). Mathase's home environment was the arena of
mitambo jiveni, of social interaction that awarded him the power to control
decision-making in his capacity as expert musician and ritual leader. As I
explain elsewhere (Kruger 1999/2000), Mathase had a special ability to attract
an audience when he performed at beer drinks. He dressed neatly on such occa-
sions, sometimes wearing a brightly coloured shirt with the name Ngulumbi
Band embroidered on the back. His lean frame belied the assertiveness and
energy he possessed. He sometimes sang for several hours almost without stop-
ping. His voice often became hoarse from too much singing with a group of
rowdy drinkers.
I often observed raucous but good-natured battles between Mathase and
older women who wanted to perform traditional beer songs (malende), or
other guitarists who wanted to play their own songs. Mathase deliberately
ignored them by playing and singing louder than they did, thus forcing them
into submission. They usually admitted defeat laughingly and joined in his
performance. Indeed, Mathase has a remarkable ability to take control in
performance settings. This he put to particularly effective use in the call and
response form of his songs, as in his performances of the well-known song
"The whistle is blowing".37 This is a very popular drinking song, thought orig-
inally to have been performed at weddings (Figure 5):
(Call)
Tshiliriri tsho lila. The whistle is blowing.
(Response)
Tsho lilela Selinah. It is blowing for Selinah.
(Call)
Ho saina mama/papa. It is a sign mama/papa.
(Response)
Saina, saina, saina. A sign, a sign, a sign.
(Call)
Mukusule ndi mini? What are dried vegetables?
37 Video recording made at Mathase's house, Ngulumbi, 25 May 1991.

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= 120 (call) (response)

, L. L I * ",
f.s.i: ", 1
A4 i \ ITshi
1 1 i r i - i i ) 1 '1 ,.[7-
- if!id . ri
(verse) 2Mu- ku-su-le ndi mini? Ndi ,a- ma ya Vha- ve nda.
-
3 Tshi - di - me - la ndi mi - ni? Ndi tsi - mbi dza ma - khu wa._
Guitar (E) Ie I (B (Bchord replaced

(strum) (E) ' " ( toend) (B) by E as described)
(call) (response)
(refrain) Ho sai - na ma - ma. Sai - na sai na sai na.

(E) (A) (B) (E)
Figure 5 Tshitiriri
(Response)
Ndi nama ya Vhavenda. They are the favourite Venda food.
(Call)
Tshidimela ndi mini? What is a train?
(Response)
Ndi tsimbi dza makhuwa. It is the iron machine of white people.
This song refers to Venda migrant labourers who marry girls from other ethnic
groups. A marriage contract is signed because such a marriage is regarded as
risky. As the train takes the couple back to Venda from an urban area, the
husband informs his wife about the food preferences of his people. The sound
of the whistle indicates the departure of the train as well as the start of the
wedding ceremony.
During one performance of this song Mathase remained at line five ("What
are dried vegetables?"), repeating it several times, while the other singers
answered with the standard response, "They are the favourite Venda food".
Furthermore, Mathase introduced a tonic ostinato on the guitar that clashed
briefly with the dominant chord at the end of the response pattern. This clash
was engineered deliberately. It seemed as if Mathase was balancing the chorus
singers precariously on a musical precipice, halting movement by creating
tension between the unchanging chord on the guitar and the vocal harmony.
It was a moment of tense, risky control that became the seed of exuberant
new life. Without warning Mathase suddenly went on to the next solo line,
"What is a train?" The group, so conditioned by now, continued to sing the
same response as before. There was uncertainty among them for a fleeting
moment, followed by embarrassed laughter and shouts of pleasure when they
realized they had been manipulated.
Even I could not escape Mathase's ritual control. During a beer drink38 at
38 On 10 August 1991.

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S=78
Ma-si-ndi o fa-rwa. A si- a ma- bu-ndu na Ra- ma na halwa.
0 lila a 4i-phi-Ana mu-ja-ni wa-we mu-ia-ni wa-we mu-,ta-ni wa-we
Guitar r . - - " "

basic A
i" r f f re
pattern - 9
Figure 6 Masindi o farwa
his home he performed a song describing the arrest in 19

Masindi for the illicit brewing of beer (Figure 6):
Masindi ofarwa. Masindi was arrested.

A sia mabundu She left light beer
na nama and meat
na halwa! and strong beer!
0 lila a liphina mulani wawe. She cried bitterly at ho
At one point in the performance I remained the only
Mathase. We sang up to the end of the fourth line ("an
one of the repetitions. I went on to the last line ("she crie
Mathase deliberately went back to the first line of the
falter. I looked at him, realizing that he had toyed with
one of his aesthetic traps. I could not help but laugh in su
led in response as I experienced a surge of joy and cong
Conclusion
This discussion shows that the effectiveness of musical ritual depends as much
on social context and human agency as on the nature of its symbols (Black
1985b:64). The narrative of Solomon Mathase's life relates the experience
a rural cattleherd who was born in an era of social transition. Forced to become
a manual labourer, he has struggled to assert himself effectively and cultivate a
positive self-concept in an increasingly stratified, industrializing world. He
often expressed frustration at his lack of access to tangible structures of wealth
and power, remarking that he would always be poor. Yet he consciously
managed to achieve a different kind of social control by channelling aesthetic
potency through the manipulation of empowering musical signs and techniques
(Masquelier 1993:4).

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Mathase's creative, intensified treatment of the cyclical responsor

magnified its inherent captivating socializing power. The absence of
musical development in forms of African music is not indicative of
creative skill and structural complexity. The actions of African mus
informed by musical as well as ethical imperatives. They extend from p
ance to social setting through a process that involves people in share
ences within the framework of their cultural experience (Blacking
Consequently we can evaluate musical forms accurately only if we un
how they achieve their intended social effects (Chernoff 1979:30). Music
that require interaction for their articulation are expressions of ba
political relationships that allow people to be accorded and experience
power through shared, culturally prescribed action (Blacking 1985b:6
can be exercised creatively and productively and so is not inherently ne
Mathase did not transgress the traditional egalitarian norms controlling
ual action. "Power is always and only known in its effects: it is the full
tial of what a person can do or be, and from an African perspective,
who 'has' power is someone who is capable of directing his energie
sense of purpose" (Chernoff 1979:170). Ritual orchestration created a
of benign power for Mathase within a context of acute interpersonal co
ness. The verbal and musical expressions of his performances were, t
not only conventional semantic signifiers; they were also indexically rel
the ritual reversal of his subordinate social status (Tambiah 1985:156), a
that provided him with a source of pride, self-confidence and a greater
his capabilities (Collins 1988:192, 211).
Once, during a particularly hectic part of an afternoon's music-makin
revelry with Ngulumbi Band, he remarked, "My house is not beautiful,
father [i.e. his spirit] comes to visit"; on another occasion he said, "I
but many people love me". Thus, musical performance for Mathase
form of a "resistant subculture of dignity" (Scott 1993:200). What h
in terms of desired material wealth and professional status he made
through the self-enhancement and emotional energy generated by the s
ing function of music-making. Ritual control and status therefore may
contradict Mathase's perceptions of powerlessness. However, his po
not only restricted mainly to a symbolic backstage, but social contr
not inimical to doubt. Mathase's negative self-perception was rooted
his awareness of the limitations his incomplete schooling had plac
ambitions, and he had as a result developed deep-seated misgivings
ability to extricate himself from his poverty and professional subordina
The description of personal history as encoded in symbolic forms
question whether ritual transformation "exists solely within the momen
performance and its apprehension by the audience, or whether it transc
limits of this moment and thus has an impact on the broader social exis
both performer and audience" (James 1999:98, Scott 1993). The socia
of Mathase's music-making not only was rooted in his technical man
of music and speech but also in his ability to identify communal psycho
undercurrents and their manifestation in daily life. His religiously s

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moral code was a "consciousness of history" (Comaroff and Comaroff 1987:192),

while its musical enactment constituted a "cognitive source of the African
struggle for self-determination in South Africa" (Coplan 1987a:431) that aimed
at dramatizing community concerns, affecting popular consciousness, and
promoting a clear communal ideology and identity: "Music has no effect on the
body or consequences for social action, unless its sounds and circumstance can
be related to a coherent set of ideas about self and other and bodily feelings"
(Blacking 1985b:65). Lukoto (1992:25) accordingly remarks in her study of
the class of expert musician to which Mathase belongs that they "have an
important task in society. Through [their] songs we are able to see ourselves,
understand our values and beliefs, and how we should behave" (see Kruger
1999/2000).
Furthermore, performance does not only predicate the structure of an ideal
society; it also articulates its intensely experienced emotional vicissitudes
(Waterman 1990:220). Feelings of fatalism which alternate with vitality and
apparent optimism were not restricted to Mathase; they permeated the conscious-
ness of Ngulumbi Band. Thus Mathase's song-line "Ri a takala, ri a tambula"
(We are happy, we are suffering) was reflected in the remark by young fellow
musician Mbuiseni Netshiavha, who was unemployed and had no laces for his
shoes, that "People are suffering, but no problem". In other words, there were
phases of happiness among those sitting in the shade, singing and drinking
beer. At times like these, performances by Ngulumbi Band articulated the
dynamic, hopeful nature of humans oppressed by their environment. Their lust
for life was expressed in the exuberant exclamations of singers, the laughing of
bright-eyed dancers, and the almost symphonic expression in song of shared
experiences. For Mathase, as for many members of Ngulumbi Band, one of
the few sites of relative certainty, therefore, was musical performance, while
the ultimate secure destination was identified as "six feet down" or in heaven.
"We are going home to Jerusalem" (Ri a hayani Jerusalem) is one of the most
popular Venda church hymns. Its regular performance by Ngulumbi Band was
indicative of the appeal of its eschatological message in a culture of poverty.
Yet its musical expression also took the form of "a celebration of collective
courage" (Coplan 1987a:417), which denied despair and revealed the exercis-
ing of power by its performers for whom control was embedded in their ability
to support contradictions (Becker 1972:177). The performances of Ngulumbi
Band, therefore, functioned as an emotional response to subordination and
poverty. However, the release of emotional energy is but one of several ritual
functions, and it is not the only form of resistance to domination. Moreover,
catharsis cannot be said to substantially ameliorate emotional turbulence.
Nevertheless, it is an important conduit of temporary emotional relief induced
by company, music-making, food and drink (Scott 1993:186-7).
African musical culture thus continues to play its historical role as a crucial
medium of symbolic transaction and an aesthetic means of construing and
defending subaltern communities in the face of pervasive political and economic
change (Waterman 1990:8). Mathase's rituals had powerful personal objectives,
but their fulfilment was dependent on the capacity of musical performance to

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"provide images for the reshaping and reordering of cultural categories

lying the organisation of networks and communities" (Coplan 1985:
moral constitution of Ngulumbi Band was articulated by means of G
an autonomous cognitive system that reinvented the precolonial moral u
creatively and objectified it syncretically with Christian ethics in the f
a discourse about power based on norms of solidarity and mutual ob
The efficacy of God's land derived partly from its form as a "multiple
which integrated an extensive continuum of beliefs and experiences int
ritual category (Coplan 1987a). Its powerful moral imperatives
"a means of orchestrating ritual enactment in such a way as to allow pa
to proclaim their religious truths at the same time as their coordinated
actions during music making re-create[d] the social ideals embodied
religious tenets" (Reily in press: 3).
The ritual enactment of God's land was, thus, analogous, if not struct
and functionally similar, to African rituals of healing that promote the
duction of social health by organizing a supportive social network on a r
moral foundation (Janzen 1992, Kruger 1996).39 Many secular musical pe
ances in Africa may be viewed as implicit rituals of healing in the sense t
are interactive, therapeutic and cathartic and involve the metaphoric re
of social affliction on a religious basis (Janzen 2000:55-7). These ritu
have to be overtly sacred to assume a religious character. Musicians may
"'possessed' by the music and dance and be profoundly conscious of
tual nature of the universe" (Blacking 1985b:69). Similarly, John Jan
that African rituals of healing are predicated less on the explicit manifes
spiritual forces in states of possession than on a spiritual presence in a
community of fellow sufferers who identify circumstances of shared a
express solace by means of spoken and sung call and response patterns (
2001:54-5).
God's land was a clearly delineated ideological stance, yet its trans
to arenas outside the ritual setting was manifested opaquely. Matha
formances were not intentionally constructed as disguised forms of
resistance (Scott 1993). In fact, as I explain elsewhere (1999/2000), s
formances have been historically a part of Venda institutional pol
increasingly they have taken on the form of veiled protest against the
and economic changes that accompanied colonization. Social iden
meaning for Ngulumbi Band prior to the first South African democrati
tions in 1994 were not construed in terms of the myths of national uni
the form of one of a "million mutinies" (Naipaul 1990) against am
political and plutocratic rule. Unable to effectively explore social alterna
formal national political and economic spheres, African subaltern comm
at times have only symbolic action available for the peaceful transform
their lives (Blacking 1981, Driver 1991). Thus the daily business of t
39 The verbal articulation of God's land is similar to the identification of a spirit

a patient while its enactment may be regarded as correlating with the "pacificatio
spirit by means of song and dance (Janzen 2000:59).

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is conducted in "bars, beer joints, shrines, sanctuaries, and in the gatherings of

prophets, sorcerers, evangelists, and healers" (Simone 1991:4).
Mathase's performances in particular were settings for the horizontal
forging of alliances. These alliances expressed a vibrant oral counterideology
to the suffering of the poor in the maw of greed and selfishness. God's land
helped them to organize and express their thoughts on their poverty and
subaltern status and to think through and speculate on creative solutions to
their problems. Accordingly, Mathase's "Vhana 1doroba thina" (above) must
have had an impact on the consciousness and emotions of many as it followed
its presumably circuitous oral route to its recording by popular local singer
Irene Mawela and subsequent broadcast on local radio.40 Thus, there is good
reason to suggest that God's land similarly contributed to the creation of an
ideological framework for political change. It certainly was one local form of
ideological resistance to corrupt political rule, as many messages of similar
content reverberated in regional consciousness and forms of public protest
leading to the military coup of 1990 (Kruger 1999a, forthcoming). The gather-
ings of Ngulumbi Band thus allowed musicians to sing their world into
existence (Chatwin 1987). The power and effect of their music-making was
rooted in the social implementation of its structural properties. The seemingly
playful use of musical thought and practice activated and organized human
energy in the creation of local forms of cultural and social consciousness that
revealed a capacity to transcend their creative settings to affect broader
processes of social transformation.
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Note on the author
Jaco Kruger holds a Ph.D. (1993) from Rhodes University. He has been
researching Venda music since 1983, taking particular interest in processes of
change. Jaco is currently Lecturer in Ethnomusicology, Music Education and
Popular Music at Potchefstroom University, South Africa. Address: Music
Section, Potchefstroom University, Potchefstroom 2531, South Africa; e-mail:
[email protected].

200.75.19.153 on Fri, 17 Jul 2020 17:30:14 UTC

Kruger, J. 2001. Playing in The Land of God. Musical Performance and Social Resistance in South Africa

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Playing in the Land of God: Musical Performance and Social Resistance in South Africa

Author(s): Jaco Kruger

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/3060660

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Playing in the land of God: musical

This essay treats the performances of Venda musician Solomon Mathase as a

BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL. 10/ii 2001 pp. 1-36

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to a local newspaper, condemning the funding of "luxuries" like music

Mberego, mberego ya Mapani. Work, work of Mopani.

2 Beeld, October 2000.

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that he referred to as "God's land" (shango Ja Mudzimu). Thi

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emotional intelligence is a primary modelling system for the organization of

In participatory genres the formal properties of the musical style used in a

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Nne ndi dothe. I am alone. 5

As a young boy Mathase looked after his grandmother's goats, cattle an

Nie ndi humbula nga fihwe aluvha. I remember the day

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Nne ndo tambula I suffered.

Muzwala, note, i4ani, ri fuwe. Cousin, come, let

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Nda nala hayani. I am forsaking home.

This song describes a ritual performed by M

Mathase established a permanent performance pattern during his stay in

8 Labourers were fetched from Venda by truck to be employed as "six-to-six" labourers

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Figure 1 Mathase family at Ngulumbi (c. 19

happy", to reflect his family's emotio

Tshihwe tsho n1a phana1a. I was threatened in front.

10 Ngulumbi, 7 September 1991.

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Figure 2 Solomon and Takalani (June

was not only ashamed of his that

12 People like Mathase who lived on anc

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Nne ndo shengela, nte ndo tambula. I suffered, I suffered.

Mathase explained his poverty by means of two core metaphors that

13 This accusation derives from Ravele's elevation from councillor to chief

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(Singing continues in English)

I vha ri, muvhuya ndi nnyi They say, who is good

Mboho ndi mbili. Two bulls were clashing.

14 Ngulumbi, 6 June 1992.

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Mathase's criticism extended beyond the political domain to addre

Vhapfumi - Rich people16

(Singing continues in English)

Heli shango - This country18

16 Ngwenani, 30 March 1991.

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NnZe tho ngo ya tshikoloni. I did not go to school.

Vhotswotswi vho nnyimela dzikhoneni. Criminals are waiting around

Ri khetha ifhio ndila? Which way should we take?