Open Collections

Winikoff, Jason

The present collection documents various aspects of Luvale sonic culture. Most of these videos are from multiple locations in Zambia, though some were also taken in Angola. They come from multiple field research trips spanning several years. This collection has an admittedly Luvale-centered curation. This is a result of my field research, which was primarily conducted in the Luvale language, in villages with a strong Luvale presence, with the Luvale chieftainship’s blessing, a Luvale cultural organization’s oversight, and with predominately Luvale collaborators. However, the documented artifacts belong to multiple groups of closely related peoples who share a culture widespread throughout this region of Africa. Among these related ethnolinguistic groups are the Chokwe, Luchazi, Mbunda, and other smaller tribes. These videos document their cultural heritage just as much as that of the Luvale. Most of the videos in this collection feature makishi – the ancestral spirits of this culture who emerge in our world as masked figures. There are dozens of different makishi who are often recognized by their elaborate physical appearance (including mask and full-body costume). This alone, however, is not enough to manifest ancestors. Instead, makishi performance requires the combination of embodied personality, performed action, vocal timbre, interaction with music, and appearance. The collection contains many field videos that demonstrate the unique voices of these ancestors. These were taken in various settings such as traditional festivals, mukanda male initiation schools, and musical performances. Most of the other videos feature staged makishi dances to various items of musical repertoire. There is also a handful of videos featuring non-makishi music and dance. In addition to documenting various aspects of culture, these are designed to showcase the prowess of several performance troupes. All these videos are featured in the online chapter of my doctoral dissertation. For a more complete cultural contextualization, I direct the curious reader to both that website and the dissertation it belongs to. The audio from many of the dance videos will also be featured (in higher quality) in upcoming audio albums produced in conjunction with the International Library of African Music and the Likumbi Lya Mize Cultural Association. [Video files were added and the descriptive list updated on 2024-04-29.]

Text; Moving Image

2024-04-05

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/87702

UBCV

Graduate

DSpace