South African Music Archive Project

Mourning song, with harp, mbira, bells and rattle. Zegive and Mvu people. Watsa district, North East Congo.

As a rule there is nothing in the song itself which would suggest to a foreigner a sense of solemnity or sadness in most African mourning songs.

Party song with mbira and rattle. Mvu men. Mamvutu-Andobo, sous chef Gamubu, chef Choga, N.E. Congo.

A simple Mvu tune and a good example of one of the simplest of all African modes.

This song is usually sung after a funeral, with harp, likembe and basket rattle. Leader - Zegbe and Ndongo men and women. Chief Maki, Faradje territory, North East Congo.

The singers lament the death of a friend and in so doing demonstrate the fact that Africans celebrate their funerals with dances and apparently gay singing.

Topical song with mbira dza WaNdau and deze resonator. "See I am crying, mother-in-law.
Poverty, elder brother, alack.
See, Sophiatown is bad, Patisoni
In my distress I think of home
Happiness to you all at Marange."
The singer sings about the conditions in which he finds himself at Sophiatown, near Johannesburg, where he works as a carpenter's assistant. His home, Marange is in the Chipinga District of Southern Rhodesia, about 400 miles north east of Johannesburg.
Details from ILAM record number TP4272-2

Topical song with guitar.
"Now we are well off, my wife, you don't want to know my relatives any more. You want this and that, but not to meet my friends. I have a child who was ill and whom I sent to the herbalist, but although that woman took my money, she did not give my child the right medicine. The herbalist in question was his own grandmother.
Details from ILAM record number TP4274-H1P5