Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T07:28:14.026Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mhande Dance in the Kurova Guva Ceremony: An Enactment of Karanga Spirituality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2019

Jerry Rutsate
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

During my youth, the fact that I am of Karanga descent gave me exposure to mhande dance performances for clan rituals (mapira) that venerate the family or clan ancestral spirits. These ritual ceremonies were held regularly in my rural home community in Bikita district in Masvingo province, Zimbabwe. Mhande dance performance involves singing, drumming, and dancing. The hallmark of my lived experience of mhande was double-edged: fascination and bewilderment. On the one hand, the interlocking drum patterns produced by two drummers in each performance fascinated me most; on the other hand, the dance features left me wondering what they were meant to achieve because I did not enjoy watching them, yet they appeared to be the hub of each ceremony.

Type
Articles
Information
Yearbook for Traditional Music , Volume 42 , 2010 , pp. 81 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 By The International Council for Traditional Music

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Asante, Kariamu-Welsh 1996 African Dance: An Artistic, Historical, and Philosophical Inquiry. Asmara: Africa World Press.Google Scholar
Aschwanden, Herbert 1989 Karanga Mythology: An Analysis of the Consciousness of the Karanga in Zimbabwe. Gweru: Mambo Press.Google Scholar
Aspinall, Kelle J. 2000 “Great Zimbabwe: Well of Ancient Wisdom; An Examination of Traditional Karanga Mythology, Symbolism and Ritual towards an Interpretation of Spatial Distribution and Contextual Meaning of Symbolic Structures and Settlement Dynamics of the Royal Settlement of Central Great Zimbabwe.” Master's thesis, University of Natal.Google Scholar
Bhebe, Ngwabi 2004 Simon Vengayi Muzenda and the Struggle for and Liberation of Zimbabwe. Gweru: Mambo Press.Google Scholar
Bourdillon, Michael 1976 The Shona Peoples. Gwelo: Mambo Press.Google Scholar
Carrette, Jeremy, and King, Richard 2005 Selling Spirituality: The Silent Takeover of Religion. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Chivenge, Matigimu Pepukaimose 2009 Interview. Dzikamidzi village, Shurugwi district. 11 April.Google Scholar
Dale, Karen 2001 Anatomizing Embodiment and Organization Theory. New York: Palgrave.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedson, Stephen M. 1996 Dancing Prophets: Musical Experience in Tumbuka Healing. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Gelfand, Michael 1973 The Genuine Shona: Survival Values of an African Culture. Gweru: Mambo Press.Google Scholar
Hanna, Judith L. 1987 To Dance Is Human: A Theory of Nonverbal Communication. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Janzen, John M. 1992 Ngoma: Discourses of Healing in Central and Southern Africa. Comparative Studies of Health Systems and Medical Care, 34. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koritz, Amy 1990 “Re/Moving Boundaries: From Dance History to Cultural Studies.” In Sharing the Dance: Contact, Improvisation and American Culture, ed. Cynthia Novack, 88–103. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Levinson, André 1983 “The Idea of the Dance: From Aristotle to Mallarmé.” In What Is Dance? Readings in Theory and Criticism, ed. Roger Copeland and Marshall Cohen, 47–55. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Machando, Elliot 2009 Interview. Marishongwe village, Shurugwi district. 12 August.Google Scholar
Mhiripiri, Nhamo Anthony 2009 “Legitimising the Status Quo through the Writing of Biography: Ngwabi Bhebe's Simon Vengayi Muzenda and the Struggle for and Liberation of Zimbabwe.“ Journal of Literary Studies 25/2:83–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munamba, Cuthbert 2009 Interviews. Marishongwe village, Shurugwi district. 11–12 August.Google Scholar
Nzewi, Meki 2007 A Contemporary Study of Musical Arts Informed by African Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Volume Four. Pretoria: CIIMD.Google Scholar
Reed, Susan A. 1998 “The Politics and Poetics of Dance.” Annual Review of Anthropology 27:503–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rouget, Gilbert 1985 Music and Trance: A Theory of the Relations between Music and Possession. London: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Royce, Anya P. 1977 The Anthropology of Dance. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Rutsate, Jerry 2007 “Performance of Mhande Song-dance: A Contextualized and Comparative Analysis.” Master's thesis, Rhodes University.Google Scholar
Sachs, Curt 1963 World History of the Dance. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Somé, Malidoma Patrice 1995 Ritual. Power, Healing and Community. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
1998 The Healing Wisdom of Africa. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Thram, Diane 2002 “Therapeutic Efficacy of Music-Making: Neglected Aspect of Human Experience Integral to Performance Process.” Yearbook for Traditional Music 34:129–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tracey, Hugh 1967 “Music Appreciation in Central and Southern Africa.” African Music 4/1:47–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiss, Gail, and Haber, Honi F. 1999 Ed. Perspectives on Embodiment: The Intersections of Nature and Culture. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar