British Forum for Ethnomusicology

The Ethnographic Enterprise: Venda Girls' Initiation Schools Revisited

Author(s): Suzel Ana Reily
Source: British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 7 (1998), pp. 45-68
Published by: British Forum for Ethnomusicology
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SUZEL ANA REILY
The
ethnographic enterprise:
Venda
girls'
initiation schools revisited
Currently
ethnomusicology
is
confronting
a "crisis
of representation ", and this has
led to a decline in the value
of ethnographic 'facts
"
in
favour of
anecdotal accounts
offield experiences. This, however,
limits the
sphere through
which an
approach
can
be
challenged
in relation to the wider
body
of
data that
generated it, and it hinders the
scope for comparative perspectives
in the
discipline. By returning
to John
Blackings
early ethnographic publications
on Venda
girls'
initiation schools, I have
attempted
to
show how an extensive
body of ethnographic
data can enhance our
understanding of
the mechanisms involved in the orchestration
of
musical
experience.
Within the social sciences
today,
the
emphasis
has shifted from a
preoccupation
with
ethnographic
data to the
poetics
of its
representation
in academic
writing,
an
approach
which is also
becoming
evident in
ethnomusicology.
To avoid
essentialising
the "Other", many ethnographers
in the
post-modem
era have
turned to self-conscious discussions of the
very
representationality
of their
writing, practically eclipsing
from view even documentable
"facts", such as the
musical
repertoire, performance practices
and social circumstances of the
research
subjects. Though
fieldwork remains a sine
qua
non in the
professionalisation
of the
ethnomusicologist, ethnographic description
has been
progressively devalued,
and less and less of it seems to be
required
to construct an
argument. Increasingly,
the
ethnographic
material we
present
for
scrutiny
is
limited to that which substantiates our
propositions.
This
approach, however,
limits the
scope
for
challenging
an
argument through
the
very body
of data that
supposedly generated it; challenges
are reduced either to assessments of the
coherence of the
argument
as a self-contained
text, whatever data it
may
have
been founded
upon,
or to its
potential applicability
to other
ethnographic contexts,
which
may
be
grounded upon entirely
distinct cultural
patterns
and
assumptions.
My
voice is not alone in its concern over the current state of
ethnography,
and
the clearest indication of this in
ethnomusicology
is the recent
publication
of the
collected volume edited
by
Barz and
Cooley (1997),
Shadows in the
field.
Their
solution to the "crisis of
representation"
is a move toward the documentation of
field
experience.
In
anthropology
a similar voice is embodied in Paul Stoller's
(1989:153)
call for "radical
empiricism", through
which
"anthropologists
enter
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL. 7 1998
pp.45-68
46 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.7 1998
the sensual world of evocation" of
everyday
life. As the
growing
number of
phenomenologically-oriented ethnographies indicate, this
approach
can be fruitful,
allowing
for a
sympathetic re-experiencing
of the
fluidity
and texture of social
experience amongst readers; but it can also
quickly
translate into "sentimental
radicalism"
(Spencer 1997:13),
in which the
ethnographer presents
a
string
of
moving personal
anecdotes which risk
telling
us more about her adventures in the
field than about the
particularity
of the local
reality
that is meant to be evoked.
Though
these stories
certainly
have their
(literary) appeal, they
can
only
be made
anthropologically
relevant if the author is able to demonstrate how the anecdotes
intersect with the common-sense notions of the
group,
formed
through
routine
interactions with redundant cultural
representations
-
such as music and dance
-
and
everyday
social
practices. This, then, returns us full circle to classic holistic
ethnographic description
and documentation, or Malinowski's
(radical)
"obsessional
empiricism" (Spencer 1997:3).
However
partial
our "radical holism"
is bound to be
(Clifford
1986),
it must remain our aim to document,
as best we
can,
that which
presents
itself to us
through participant-observation,
interviews and the
various media for aural and visual documentation.
By adopting
an holistic
approach
to fieldwork, we will also be
contributing
more
fully
to the future
historiography
of our
respective ethnographic regions.
But let us be
practical:
it could be difficult
today
to find an academic
publisher
willing
to take on what will
undoubtedly
be seen as an
ethnographically
redundant
piece
of
writing. Thus, along
with the re-assessment of our attitudes
toward
ethnography
as an historical document, it is also
necessary
that we think
of
ways
of
making
a wider
corpus
of the material we collect available to the
academic
community.
Greater
accessibility
to diverse
ethnographic
data will
allow researchers to test their own
context-specific propositions against
a
broader and more
comprehensive comparative
framework.
Though
the
publication
of
descriptive ethnography through
traditional channels
may
be
restricted
by
current editorial
trends,
the Worldwide Web
(WWW) opens
new
possibilities
for the dissemination of material that is unattractive to
publishers.
Indeed,
this medium has the
potential
of
revolutionising
our
approach
to
publications generally:
while our
arguments
can be
put
forward
following
current
practice,
the fuller
picture
can now be made available over the Web. For
ethnomusicologists
these
technological developments
are
particularly exciting,
for
they
allow researchers to make their musical
examples
and video
clips
available to their
readership.
It is also worth
noting
that the
accessibility
of
extensive
ethnographic
materials could
impact upon anthropological
and
ethnomusicological teaching methods, providing
students with "virtual field
sites", where
they
can test the theoretical frameworks
presented
to them in
lectures and seminars
against
a
body
of field data.
Experiments
with the
potential
of the WWW in
anthropology
and
ethnomusicology
have
already begun, notable,
for
example,
in such
projects
as
"Ethnomusicology
On-Line"
(http://umbc.edu/eol)
and "Music and
Anthropology" (http://gotan.cirfid.unibo.it/M&A),
which are
peer-reviewed,
multimedia web
journals.
In the UK the ERA
(Experience-Rich Anthropology)
REILY The ethnographic enterprise:
Venda
girls'
initiation schools revisited
Project,
based at the
University
of Kent at
Canterbury,
involves the
preparation
of a
series of
anthropological
web sites which will soon to be made available to the
academic
community. Amongst
them is one that
reproduces
John
Blacking's major
publications
on the Venda
girls'
initiation
cycle, designed
and edited
by
Lev
Weinstock and
myself.
An unfinished
prototype
of this site is
already
accessible
(Blacking n.d.).
This article is based
upon
the field data
reproduced
on the site in an
attempt
to demonstrate the
potential
of such endeavours.
The work of John
Blacking
was chosen for this
project
because he is one of the few
researchers to have
provided
the
discipline
with both an extensive
body
of
published
collections of field data as well as a wide
range
of
readings
of the
material. While in some studies there is a close
dialogue
between the theoretical
propositions
and the
ethnographic
material used to illustrate them
(see 1980b,
1985a,
for
example),
in much of his
writing
the
gap
between
theory
and
ethnography
is
quite
wide.
Alongside heavily ethnographic publications
with little
in the
way
of
sociological analysis, particularly
in his
early work,
other studies stand
at the
opposite pole
of the
spectrum. Indeed,
in relation to
Blacking's
best known
piece,
How musical is man?
(1973b), Reginald Byron (1995:17-18)
observed that it
was
"very
much in the character of his
exhilarating
and
provocative lecturing style,
[in
that
it]
made bold and
sweeping
assertions on sometimes rather slender
evidence,
and
occasionally
none at all".
Precisely
because of these extreme
stances,
his work is ideal for
my objectives
here: I shall
attempt
to use his material on Venda
girls'
initiation schools to re-assess his views on the
relationship
between
documentable
ethnographic
"facts" and
performance experience.
From field to
print
Blacking's approach
to fieldwork was informed
by
his solid
training
in British
structural-functionalism under the
supervision
of
Meyer
Fortes at
Cambridge
University.1
With this
background,
he set off for South Africa in 1953 to assist
Hugh Tracey
in the documentation of African musics. Soon after he arrived in
Johannesburg,
he
accompanied Tracey
on short
recording expeditions
to
Kwazulu and
Mozambique. Though
this
type
of documentation was still
common in
ethnomusicology
at the time, these
quick
visits made
Blacking
acutely
aware of the limitations of such field
methods, as
they
did not
permit
the researcher to establish
relationships
between the music
being
recorded and
the wider social context of its
performance (see Blacking 1973a:207).
He
convinced
Tracey
to allow him to
apply participant-observation
field
techniques
to musical research, and he embarked on his now famous
expedition
to the
Venda,
which lasted from
May
1956 to December 1958.
He
began by learning
to
speak Tshivenda, and
throughout
his
stay
he
participated
in music and dance activities with his
hosts,
all the while
keeping
1 Since
Blacking's
death in 1990, numerous discussions of the man and his work have
emerged, including Baily (1990, 1994, 1995), Byron (1995),
de Carvalho et al.
(1991),
Fairley (1991), Howard (1991), Kippen (1990) and several others.
47
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.7 1998
careful records of wider
aspects
of the Venda social and cultural universe: the
political system,
the local
economy, kinship
and
marriage patterns,
and ritual
life;
he also documented Venda
history
and the vast Venda
repertoire
of
expressive
forms. He returned from the field with extensive notes, recordings,
photographs
and film
footage; arguably
he held the most
complete
record of a
single
non-Western musical culture ever amassed
up
to that time.
Blacking was, however, acutely
aware of the
way
in which his theoretical
background impacted upon
his
approach
to the
ethnographic enterprise
(1973a:209). Indeed, as his theoretical interests
developed,
and he became more
interested in how musical
experiences integrate action, thought
and affect to
shape
musical consciousness, he found his field material
wanting.
On this
matter he once claimed: "I
spent
too much time
collecting
the
wrong
kind of
data!"
(1985b:89;
see also
Blacking
1982:98-9).
To
investigate
musical
experience,
he
posited,
one must look
beyond
the dominant discourses of the
specialists,
and assess the
impact
these
experiences
have
upon
the
participants.
It is worth
noting, however, that he did not
suggest
that he should have
dispensed
with the documentation of the
repertoire through
which the
experiences
were orchestrated. To
compensate
for the
gaps
in his
ethnography
he
undoubtedly
turned to his diaries
(which
have not
yet
been made
available)
as well as to his "headnotes"
(memories) (Cohen 1992).
This
complementary
data is now
dispersed throughout
his
writings.
Whatever its
limitations, throughout
his life
Blacking
was able to draw
upon
his
original
Venda research to formulate his ideas about the central role of music
and dance in human
society.
The sheer
scope
of his material allowed him to
participate
in
practically every
debate that
emerged
in the field of
ethnomusicological theory
and method
during
his
lifetime,
from "cultural
analyses"
of musical
systems (1967, 1970)
to such issues as the
biological
foundations of music
(1973b, 1984,
1992
amongst others),
the
anthropology
of
the
body (especially 1977),
the
study
of affect and emotion in music and dance
(1984, 1985b),
the
political implications
of musical
performance (1980b, 1987),
children's socialisation
through
music
(1967, 1987)
and
many
other themes.2
Yet because he was so
open
with his
original data,
and he
presented
it with
considerable
precision
and
detail,
his material remains a source for further
inquiry.3
In
particular,
it
provides
a means of
investigating
how his field
experience impacted upon
the directions of his
thinking,
but it also allows for
re-evaluations of his
wide-ranging
propositions
in relation to the
very
material
that
generated
them.
2 The researchers
directly
influenced
by Blacking's
diverse
perspectives
are far too
numerous to mention here. A notion of his
impact, however,
can be
glimpsed
in the
collection of contributions to volume 37/2 of The world
of music,
entitled
"Working
with
Blacking:
the Belfast
years", published
in 1995 under the
editorship
of John
Baily.
3 It is worth
noting
that
Blacking
was meticulous about
saving correspondence, unpublished
papers,
lecture notes and drafts of
publications.
The bulk of the material is now housed at
CIRCME at the
University
of Western Australia in Perth. There is also a
significant body
of
material at the School of
Anthropological
Studies at The
Queen's University
of Belfast. I
note, however,
that
Blacking's
diaries have been retained
by
the
family.
48
REILY The ethnographic enterprise:
Venda
girls'
Initiation schools revisited
One area of Venda musical life on which there is extensive
published
ethnographic
material
pertains
to the Venda
girls'
initiation
schools, yet
Blacking
never
presented
it in the form of an
independent monograph.
The bulk
of this material can be found in a
four-part study
called
"Songs, dance,
mimes
and
symbolism
of Venda
girls'
initiation schools
(parts 1-4)" (1969b),
and two
other
publications
of the same
period (1969a, 1970),
while further data are
scattered about in a number of
general publications
of his later
years (especially
1985b).4
The
early pieces provide
detailed
ethnographic descriptions
of the
various
phases
of initiation, followed
by
extensive annotated collections of the vast
expressive repertoire
used
during
initiation. While
many
of his
early
observations
hint at some of the directions his later research would take, these
pieces
are more
akin to
highly systematised
inventories of
primary
field data.
Despite
the
analytical
limitations of the material,
Blacking
was
explicit
in
stating
that his
objective
was to
make his material accessible to the academic
community:
In the
present
series of
papers
I shall not
attempt
more than
ethnographic
documentation.
Analyses
of the music and the
symbolism,
and of the
sociology
of Venda
girls' initiation,
will
appear
as soon as I have time to
complete
them. In the
meantime,
if
anyone
wishes to use this material for a
demonstration or refutation of theories about
symbolism
or
musical
structure,
he
[sic]
is most welcome to do so.
(1969b:3)
With his
blessing, then,
the issue I raise here
pertains
to '"theories about
symbolism",
and more
specifically
to the role of
"symbols"
in a
performative
context. I was drawn to this issue
by
a claim that
Blacking (1961:6-7, 1969a:21-2,
1969b:5 and
71, 1982:100, 1985b:86-7)
made on numerous occasions in his
discussions of Venda
girls'
initiation schools:
although
Venda
girls
were
eager
to
leam the "laws" of initiation embodied in the vast
repertoire
of verbal formulae
known as the
milayo, they
showed little interest
in, or
understanding of,
their
symbolic content;
their
memory
of
initiation,
he
insisted,
focused
upon
their
experiences
of collective dance and musical
activity.
In
Blacking's
own words:
Women who had
forgotten
most of what
they might
have
learnt about the associated
symbolism [of
the dances of
initiation]
had not
forgotten
the
experience
of
dancing: they
talked of
problems
of
co-ordinating
movements and
music,
the
closeness of others'
bodies,
the excitement when the dance
went
well,
the transcendence of altered time schedules and the
sense of transformation from the
physical
to the social
body
that was
experienced through contrasting
movement
styles.
(1 985b:86-87)
4
Complementing
this material, Blacking (1980a)
edited his film
footage
into a film, "Domba:
a
personal
record of Venda initiation rites, songs
and
dances"; the film has been
digitised
and is
to be issued soon
through
SEM Audio-Visual Publications. Furthermore, there is an extensive
collection of field
recordings
with numerous
examples
obtained at initiation schools, which is
housed in the School of
Anthropological Studies, The
Queen's University
of Belfast.
49
50 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.7 1998
Although
the term
milayo generally
referred to the
repertoire
of
symbolic
phrases
used
during initiation,
it was also
applied
to the "laws" embodied in
other
expressive media,
and the
only
sources
Blacking
used to collect the
assigned meanings
of the
milayo
were the masters of initiation, rather than the
initiates themselves.
Blacking
(1969b:71)
noted, however,
that the masters of
initiation were aware of the
girls'
disinterest in the
prescribed meanings
of their
performances, yet
this did not alter their conviction that these activities contributed
to the
girls'
instruction about the
responsibilities
of adulthood in Venda
society,
which initiation was
designed
to
promote.
What is at issue, then, is the
very
efficacy
of the initiation schools: to what extent could their aims be achieved
through
the
expressive
media
they employed,
or were the
experiences promoted by
these media
entirely
at odds with the institutional
objectives
of the schools?
Bruce
Kapferer (1986:192)
has contended that
anthropologists
interested in
performance
studies are divided on their
perspectives
toward the
relationship
between the "texts" of
performance
and the
"experience"
of
performance:
some
strive to find
organic
links between them while others
posit
a clear
disjunction
between them. In
my
own research
amongst
low-income
popular
catholic
communities in south-eastern Brazil
(Reily 1995),
I had noted that the structural
properties
of the music
employed during
ritual enactments articulated with the
actions and interactions of the
participants
in the orchestration of their ritual
experiences. Thus,
I
posited
that a musical
genre
would be more
likely
to
crystallise
as a
recognised
"tradition" if there was a
tight
fit between its
discourses and its
performance requirements,
and that this link was crucial to
promoting performance experiences
that referred the
participants
to their sense
of
morality
and valued modes of social interaction. In this
way
musical
performance
allowed
participants
to
simultaneously proclaim
and
experience
the "truths" of their social
vision,
even
though
it contrasted
dramatically
with
their
everyday experiences
in a
highly
class- and race-conscious
society.
It seems, however,
that
Blacking
did not have a consistent stance on this issue.
In "The context of Venda
possession
music: reflections on the effectiveness of
symbols",
for
example,
he made the
following
claim: "Venda music was
effective when social content and formal structure could be interrelated"
(1 985a:66).
This would
suggest
that he was inclined to find close links between
the
symbolic
content and the
experiences
the music was
designed
to
promote
in
the Venda
repertoire. Yet,
in another
piece, "Movement, dance, music, and the
Venda
girls'
initiation
cycle", published
in the same
year,
he took an
entirely
different stance;
here he
proposed
to
explore
the notion that ideas and
feelings
can be
expressed
collectively through
dance and music before
they
are articulated
in
speech, although
the associated
ideology
and verbal
explanations
of ritual action
may express
a false consciousness.
That
is,
ritual
may
be enacted in the service of conservative and
even
oppressive
institutions ... but the
experience
of
performing
the nonverbal movements and sounds
may ultimately
liberate
the actors.
(1 985b:65)
REILY The ethnographic enterprise:
Venda
girls'
initiation schools revisited
One could,
of
course, put
these contradictions down to
Blacking's provocative
academic
personality; just
as he
enjoyed debasing
the ideas of others
(Baily
1995:4),
he also
engaged
in
continuously challenging
his own views. But what
remains unanswered is
precisely
what constitutes
"efficiency",
and how it
relates to the articulation between discourse and
performance experience. By
returning
to
Blacking's original
field material on Venda
girls'
initiation schools
I
hope
to re-assess the "educational"
efficacy
of the
performative
media
employed
in the initiation
process.
The initiation
cycle
and its
expressive
media
During
the late 1950s Venda
girls
attended three successive schools:
vhusha,
tshikanda and domba.5
Together, they
were
designed
to
prepare girls
for their
roles as wives and mothers in Venda
society.
Vhusha was the first
phase
of
initiation,
and
girls
were
expected
to attend it as soon as
possible
after their first
menses. For this reason, there were
rarely
more than four or five
girls attending
vhusha at
any given
time. It lasted from three to four
weeks,
and was held
several times a
year
at the
headquarters
of
any
district
headman,
and there were
separate
vhusha schools for noble and commoner
girls.
While vhusha for
girls
of noble birth was conducted without
music,
one of the
primary
activities of the
commoners' vhusha was the
performance
of strenuous exercises known as
ndayo
to the
accompaniment
of short
cyclical songs
in a
call-and-response
style,
often
accompanied by
drums.
Furthermore, during
vhusha the
girls
were
introduced to a restricted set of
milayo.
Tshikanda,
which lasted for about a
month,
was the second
phase
in Venda
girls'
initiation. It took
place every
three to five
years
at the
headquarters
of
chiefs and certain senior
headmen,
just
before
domba,
and all the
girls
in the
district who had attended vhusha at their district
headquarters
in the interval
following
the last tshikanda
joined
the school. Unlike
vhusha,
it was attended
by
both noble and commoner
girls,
and the
girls'
activities
during
tshikanda
were the same as those of the commoners'
vhusha, allowing
noble
girls
to learn
the
ndayo
and
milayo
of the commoners' initiation school. But it was also at
tshikanda that the drama of Thovela and
Tshishonge
was
performed, which,
according
to
Blacking,
was
designed
to reinforce the Venda divisions between
nobles and commoners
(1969a:31).
Domba was the third and final
phase
in Venda
girls' initiation, and it lasted for
about a
year.
Domba was held at
major political centres, uniting
all the
girls
that
had
just
been
attending
tshikanda across the land.
Along
with
nightly
sessions
dedicated to the recitation of the
milayo,
there were a number of
special
rites
(dzigoma)
and shows
(matano)
associated with
domba, that were
performed
from time to time
throughout
the
year.
Its most notable feature, however, was
the
great
domba
dance, performed regularly during
the schools' activities. For
5 Where
only page
numbers are
provided
in the references from here onwards, the
original
source is
Blacking (1969b).
WWW refers to illustrations that can be found on the ERA web-
site
by following
the indications
provided through
the menu frame.
51
52 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.7 1998
the domba dance,
the
girls
formed a
long
chain
(deu)
and moved in a clockwise
direction about the
courtyard
in a
symbolic
enactment of the
reproductive
process (see WWW/Key
Words/Domba Dance and WWW/Video
Clips/Domba).
Blacking (1985b:82)
characterised the initiation
process
as "a
single
dance-
music-drama, an extended multi-media event", packed
with a
multiplicity
of
symbolic
codes. The focus of the verbalised
symbolism
of the initiation schools
was contained within the
milayo. According
to
Blacking, "milayo
means
literally
'laws' or 'instruction', but in the context of initiation it
might
be better
translated as 'esoteric
knowledge'
or 'wisdom'
"
(:69).
These laws were
expressed through metaphorical
formulae constructed around common
everyday objects,
actions or situations in the Venda environment, which alluded
to the social values initiation was
designed
to
promote.
In all,
Blacking (1969b)
published
a total of 322
milayo.
The bulk of the collection is
organised
according
to the
topics they address,
and he isolated 14 different
categories
of
milayo:
some relate to
specific
moments in the initiation
process ("the
beginning
of
domba",
"the end of domba"
etc.);
others revolve around
objects
employed during
initiation
("by
the
drums",
"at the thahu"6
etc.);
others are
constructed around
specific physical spaces
and locations
("in
the
public
meeting place", "by
the river"
etc.);
others refer to
particular clans,
and so on.
Blacking
claimed
that,
at domba,
the masters of initiation
attempted
to
present
the
milayo
in the form of a
journey,
which could be
compared
to the initiation
process
itself. The
phrases
were
generally
structured in two
parts:
the first
presented something common,
and the second recontextualised the
introductory
phrase
within a
metaphorical
frame.
Comparisons
could be based on domestic
objects, animals,
features of the natural
world,
the
parts
of the human
body
and
so
on,
and
they
were then
resignified
in terms of a
particular
"lesson" related to
rules of conduct and
etiquette, aspects
of
gender
relations and social hierarchies
and other Venda social values and
ideologies.
Recitations of the
milayo
occurred
daily,
either in formal sessions or as an
accompaniment
to other
performative
activities. For formal
presentations
of the
milayo,
the instructors
commonly
made a short
statement,
which was
punctuated by
a refrain
-
such as
"Fhira' ri
ye,
Khomba!"
-
spoken by
another official or
by
a senior novice
(consult
sound-file:
WWW/Key Words/Milayo);7
in
Blacking's
collection these
interjections
are indicated
by
a colon.
Alternatively
the
milayo
could be
performed
in a
call-and-response style
between the instructor and the
girls
or
between two
girls
or
groups
of
girls. Having
learned
them, they
could then be
recited
by
the
girls
in
appropriate
social circumstances.
Among
the first
milayo
that initiates learned at vhusha were those
referring
to the
council
hut,
where most of the
dancing
and instruction took
place; right
of
entry
into the council hut
depended
on
knowing
the
milayo
of the
doorway.
Each
girl
6 The thahu is an adornment
resembling
a small
apron
which was tied from the waist over
the buttocks; it was worn
by girls
who have
passed
the nobles' vhusha. For a
photograph
of
the thahu, see
Blacking (:30
and
113)
or
WWW/Key
Words/Thahu.
7 "Fhira' ri
ye"
means
"pass
on that we
may go",
and "Khomba" is a term of address
directed toward the master of initiation.
REILY The ethnographic enterprise:
Venda
girls'
initiation schools revisited
recited these
milayo
as she stood outside the entrance of the council
hut,
and both
before and after the recitation she was made to kneel
humbly by lying
in a foetal
position
on the
ground
with her hands under her shoulders. The two
examples
of
such
milayo provided
below were often
performed
in succession
(:83):8
First
part:
Tshiukhuvha
(doorstep):
Second
part:
Tshankhukhu tsho khukhula khomba, thungamamu
a i
khukhulwi
(the tripper
has
tripped up
the
maiden;
the
girl [with
budding breasts]
does not
trip).
First
part: Ngeno (here,
on this
side):
Second
part:
Munzeru munzerula khomba, thungamamu
a i nzerulwi
(the stripper strips
off the maiden; the
girl
is not
stripped).
According
to the masters of
initiation,
the first of these
milayo
was meant to teach
that a mature woman should kneel whenever she enters the council
hut;
the other
referred to the novice's new sexual roles. Note, however,
that these lessons are not
exactly straightforward,
and it is
not, therefore, surprising
that
many
of the
girls
were unable to understand them. Yet, during vhusha, both before and after the
recitation of this set of
milayo
the
girls
had to kneel
humbly, raising
the
question
as to how the
assigned meanings
of these
milayo
were
actually
constructed: were
they
linked to the words of the milayo or to the
gestures
that
accompanied
them?
Many
of the
song
texts of initiation are
equally enigmatic,
and in
many
cases the
instructors themselves
gave quite
different and
contradictory explanations
for them.
For
example,
Hele
Gaza, given
as Vhusha
Song
No. 19
(:20),
has the
following
text:9
1 Na vho-mme vho ri
lala?
Have our mothers
rejected
us?
2
Vhatjwe
vha tshi la vha lala,
Others eat and then
they go
to
sleep.
3 Rine ri tshi la ra tshina.
But we eat and have to dance.
4 Domba li do ima lini?
When will domba
begin?
5 Rine ra tshina tshikanda.
We have
already
danced tshikanda.
6
Gazagazane manyunyu.
(No
translation
provided.)
Chorus: Hele
gaza.
(No
translation
provided.)
8
Blacking's
collection contains ten more
milayo
under this
category,
and numerous other
examples
were
published by
van Warmelo
(1932:49-51).
9 The full collection of initiation
songs
in
Blacking's publications comprises
106 items.
There are 63 vhusha
songs,
which are
given
as the Great Vhusha
Song,
Muulu and Vhusha
Songs
Nos. 1-61. While the texts and
explanations
of the
assigned meanings
of the
songs
are
given
in Part I of
1969b, musical
transcriptions
for most of them can be found in 1970. There
are a further ten
songs associated with tshikanda in
Blacking's (1969a) collection, and
53
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.7 1998
Figure 1 Vhusha
Song
No. 19: Hele Gaza
J
=
184
Chorus:
Ee
-
yo-wee
I h I
-
Ir=vr- rrr t
Solo: A-he, hi
-
1 - za tA v' h--me vLh6 r i
-ti?
A-bhe, ht-
Tenor Drunm
F P
I
Ee
-
yo-wee -le
1 -
zi. Ni vh6-A-me vrh nr ti? A
-
hte, bh
-
~ r~r T ~ ~ mr p r r Ir r pr r
Ee
-
yo-wee -e
g' eg-z.
2-- ee
I e^ re
-
--P P-P --h-P-P-f^-^
--^-~ ~ ~ IN
P
-
r-
-I
I I I I V I I '
I I I I
etc.
Figure
1
(above
and
opposite)
is based
upon Blacking's (1970:35-6) transcription
of the
piece (sound-file:
WWW/Songs
and
Transcriptions/Vhusha:
No.
19).10 Although
my analysis
does not
engage directly
with the musical
accompaniment
of the
ndayo,
I have included
Blacking's transcriptions
as a means of
illustrating
his
"obsessional
ethnographic"
approach,
and
they exemplify
the
techniques
employed
in the orchestration of the initiation
experience.
The
diversity
of
interpretations given
to
songs
by
the initiation
specialists
is evident
in the
commentary Blacking provided immediately
after
presenting
this
song:
transcriptions
for most of these are also contained in 1970. The collection of domba
songs
and
transcriptions
is contained in Part 3 of
1969b; they
are
given
as the Great Domba
Song,
Tshilalelo and Domba
Songs
Nos. 1-30.
10 I have
preserved
the variations in the texts of the
song
as
Blacking presented
them in the
original
sources.
54
REILY The ethnographic enterprise: Venda girls' initiation schools revisited
Figure 1
(continued)
Ee
-
yo-we
-
e
R
-
:.
RL-
e
,n
tsi 1 m tshi
-
A -,
-
As vh-kh-Tsl vho n LT
-
.
Ee
-
yo-wee-le h
-
ee SA Do-mbSiI X i-mni Ii - uP
1ie g z
-
I' Ri j ri mtshi-ri tshkL-ki-uw
.a~~
^ 1 ~I
S
r- -
Ri
^e
MA tshl-u . tshi -n -h- , hj
-
Ga- za-ga-z2-ne ma-iA-mn1yuLn.
l i
I I
1 g -
z2. Ga - z- -z -u e. M-e MI.-n.et-.
One old
lady began
to
explain
the lesson of this
song,
and then
she broke off with a
laugh
and said that it
taught nothing.
Another said that
manyunyu [means]
matshimba [which
means] excrement, and that hele
gaza
means that a
girl
should
show herself to
boys.
This
might
refer to the fact that
[according
to van Warmelo
1932:42]
novices were
stripped
naked and made to
go up
to
youths
and ask for snuff. I never
saw
this,
or heard of it
being done, but it does throw some
light
on the
song.
Another
explanation
is that the
song
refers to
the
necessity
of initiation, although
it is hard for a
girl
and she
is
completely
in the hands of the chief and his wives.
(:20-1)
55
56 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.7 1998
These
explanations
seem to indicate that instructors constructed their ideas
about the
meaning
of the
song by selecting
one of the lines in the text.
Although
there does not seem to be much connection between the various lines in the text,
the whole of the
piece
was
performed
to the same
ndayo
movement. It followed
the basic
pattern
of
crouching, rising
and
foot-shuffling
common to the bulk of
these exercises
(see WWW/Key Words/Ndayo
and WWW/Video
Clips/Vhusha:
No.
19), leaving
one in little doubt that the mistress of initiation was
right
in her
claim that:
"Ndayo
are there to make the
girls
suffer and honour the old ones.
They
reinforce the
pattern
of
seniority.
That is the lesson
they
teach"
(:19).
Other
ndayo
were even more strenuous. This is
certainly
the case for the
movement associated with Vhusha
Song
No. 23, in which
each
girl support[ed]
her
body
on her
right
elbow and her feet,
and
[held]
her left hand to her head. Then,
with the left elbow
as centre of a circle, she
move[d]
round clock-wise
by
stepping quickly
with her feet, left-right-left-right-left
etc.
(:21)
(See:
WWW/Video
Clips/Vhusha:
No.
23.)
While
performing
this
movement,
the
girls sang
the
following song (see
also
Figure 2;
sound-file:
WWW/Songs
and
Transcriptions/
Vhusha: No.
23):
1 Musidzana, tshinanyana!
Dance a little, my
little
girl!
2 Musidzana, tshi a tambula.
It is
painful, my girl.
Chorus: Davhula, musidzana!
Take a
lover, my girl!
Although Blacking
does not
provide
an
explanation
for the lesson embodied in
the movement,
he claimed that its text was meant to teach the novices that after
marriage they
must
stop having non-penetrative
inter-crural intercourse with
their lovers
(mu1avhu).11 Thus,
here too there does not seem to be a direct link
between the
ndayo
movement and the
assigned meaning
of the
accompanying
song. Yet,
there is no obvious
relationship
between the texts of the calls and the
responses
of the
song; rather,
the calls seem to articulate with the
experience
of
performing
the strenuous
movements,
while the
response
makes reference to
the
girls' pre-marital explorations
of their
sexuality.
It could be
said, therefore,
that the
performance
of this
expressive complex
contrasts the carefree
pleasurable experiences
of childhood with the
hardships
of adulthood.
During
domba the
girls
no
longer performed ndayo exercises,
but here too the
lessons were
conveyed through expressive
forms in which
meanings
were
11 At the time of
Blacking's fieldwork, an unmarried
girl
had a
muIavhu,
that is, a
youth
with whom she had a
socially recognised relationship involving non-penetrative
inter-crural
intercourse. The
youth
and his
family
had
special
ritual roles
during
the
girls'
initiation.
REILY The
ethnographic enterprise:
Venda
girls'
Initiation schools revisited
Figure 2 Vhusha
Song
No. 23:
Ravhula,
musidzana! (1970:37)
J=
184
Solo: Mi-sl
-
dzi
-
,
tshi
-
a
-
M,
- i? Mu-6 - dza - 7 tshi -
Chorus:
pS
i-v- mu - si
-
dzi
-
n!
12Y e r
r
r r r r r
constructed
through metaphorical
associations. The two main
genres
used at
domba were the "essential rites", of which there are 20
examples
in
Blacking's
collection,
and the
"shows",
of which there are 33
examples.
In the essential
rites the
girls
received their lessons
through symbolic enactments, in which
they
were instructed to climb a
tree, hang
from a
pole,
ride
piggy-back
on another
novice, amongst
other
acts;
in the shows
they
were shown small
sculptures
of
familiar
objects,
such as a
house,
a
particular
animal or a human
figure,
which
embodied the lesson. For
many
of these rites and
shows,
there were
specific
milayo
as well as
accompanying songs
and movements, transforming
the
teaching
situation into a
complex
multimedia associative
experience.
Dadashanga (dung-beetle)
is an
example
of an essential rite
(:154).
In this rite
the
girls approached
the ruler's
courtyard
as
they sang
a
song
called
"Thavha",
which was also
performed
on the first and last
mornings
of vhusha. Since it is
part
of the vhusha
repertoire,
it is
given
as Vhusha
Song
No. 11 in
Blacking's
collection. The words are
provided below, followed
by
a
transcription (Figure
3
overleaf) (sound-file: WWW/Songs
and
Transcriptions/Vhusha:
No.
11):
1 Ahee,
!havha
i
ya ya.
Ah! The redness is
going.
2
Nyamarivhula
i
ya ya.
Nyamarivhula
is
going.
3
[havha yo
,uwa,
Nyamarivhula.
The redness has
gone away, Nyamarivhula.
Chorus: Ahee, Ahee,
thavha
i
ya ya.
Ah! The redness is
going.
Blacking explained
that
[a]fter
a few
minutes, [the girls would]
sit on the
ground,
one
behind the
other, each with her
legs
stretched out on either
side of the
girl
in front ...
They
then
move[d]
forward on their
57
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.7 1998
Figure 3 Vhusha
Song No. 11: Thavha
(1970:33)
J
= 160
ITflr=gr-r4&.
- 7rr
IL
Solo:
A-hee,
Li-v hi yi yi Nyi-mi-
rih-]i
12
M 11$ e f
I
LI
r
r
Chorus: A , thi-vhilvi w
vi
Chorus:
thii
- bi yyi
Vi
a
-
ee
-
wv- i
12*.2F vP r r F P rF P
Clap
or Dr'm
buttocks without
touching
the
ground
with their hands ... As
they
move
along
the
ground,
the
girls [would] sing [Domba]
Song
No. 1.
(:154)
(See
also
Figure 4;
sound-file:
WWW/Songs
and
Transcriptions/Domba:
No.
1.)
Dadashanga
The
dung-beetle
Chorus: Tshimmbila
nga
mutana.
Walks with its back.
This rite was
designed
to
impart
the
following
lesson: "Just as the work of the
dung-beetle requires
effort and it is sore to move
along
on the
buttocks,
so
girls
must know that child-birth can be arduous and
very painful" (:154).
To
reinforce this
message
the
girls
were reminded of a
mulayo:12
Vha tshi'
"Dadashanga
tshimbila
nga
mu4ana".
vha amba
musadzi a tshi
songwa:
vha tshi
songwa
vha 'o ita hani? Vha
ri ndi musi lukole lu khou bvuma. u
nyaga
u beba
tjwana.
Zwi
a vhavha. zwi a naka vha tshi ita.
(When they say,
"The
dung-
beetle walks with its back":
they
mean a woman when she has
movements and
rumblings
in the stomach: when this
happens,
what will
they
do?
They say
it is the time when the small
feathery
cloud
brings
on the thunder: she wants to
give
birth to
her
baby.
It burns with
pain:
but it is nice when it is all over
[and
she has a
child].)
(:154)
While
Blacking simply
described the
procedures
involved in the essential rites
and shows of
domba,
he went much further in relation to the domba dance
(see
WWW/Video
Clip/Domba Dance),
and showed how its movements and the
12
Mulayo
is the
singular
form of
milayo.
58
REILY The ethnographic enterprise: Venda girls' Initiation schools revisited
Figure 4 Domba
Song
No. 1:
Dadashanga (1969b: 192)
..
= 112
e 1 1p p p p vh
Th
11
D-
-
sh
-
n Tshi-ml i-L ng miu
-
a - ns.
features of the musical
style
that
accompanied
it
conjoined
to form a
symbolic
whole. Indeed, Blacking
was
quite explicit
in his
portrayal
of the
symbolism
of
the dance:
Both the
python
and the chain of dancers are
phallic symbols,
and the
progress
of each
performance
of the dance
symbolises
stimulation ...
copulation
and
ejaculation.
The voice of the
male soloist
"pierces
like an arrow", like a
penis
... and the
chorus of
girls
is
gradually
aroused from a
long, drawn-out,
murmuring response
... to the ecstatic tivha khulo13 ... in
which the individual, quasi-orgiastic
cries of each dancer are
combined in a
paean
of
joy
... The
entry
of the
penis
is
expressed simultaneously by
the
beginning
of the dance
movement and of tivha khulo ...
Finally,
when
orgasm
has
been
symbolically
achieved ... the chain of dancers, whose
bodies
represent
the
penis
...
though
their voices are the
response
to
it, stops moving:
the
girls
lean over towards the
centre of the circle, thus
symbolizing
detumescence ...
Each
performance
of the domba
song, then, symbolizes
an act
of sexual communion.
Similarly,
successive
performances
during
the months that the school is in
progress, symbolize
the
building up
of the foetus.
(:216)
To substantiate this
reading
of the dance,
Blacking
demonstrated how each of
its
symbolic
elements related to
particular
lines in the words of the
song
or to
specific milayo.
For
example,
in
claiming
that the dance
began
with
"symbolic
stimulation", Blacking
referred the reader to
mulayo
No. 1:
Domba (i tshi ima
(when
domba
begins [literally,
stands
up]):
Munna a na
gumbudithu (or gumbudzhende) (a
man with
swollen
testicles,
i.e. an
erection).
(:75)
13 The tivha khulo was a
unique multi-part
vocal
style
used
during
the domba dance, which
contrasted with the subdued call and
response style
that
preceded
it. It
employed hocketting
and
interlocking techniques
reminiscent of tshikona, the Venda national dance, in that each
girl performed only
a limited number of notes to a
phrase,
which combined with the
phrases
of other
girls
to create a dense harmonic
sequence. Singing
in
quasi-orgiastic
cries of
joy,
the
result was an ecstatic musical
style, symbolising
sexual climax. For a sound
recording
of the
tivha khulo, consult
WWW/Key
Words/Tivha Khulo.
59
60 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.7 1998
Similarly,
the
relationship
between the voice of the
singer
and
penetration
was said
to be
explicated
in lines 104, 106 and 177 of the Great Domba
Song (:225
and
229):
104:
Ipfi (lipfi)
langa
li
nga
musevhe
My
voice is like a barbed arrow
[it
is clear and can be heard
by all].
106: Mukosi
wanga
nda musevhe
My long yell
is a barbed arrow.
177:
Vhapfuli
vha do
pfula
hani?
How will the marksmen shoot it?
[How
are
boys going
to make love
to
her?]
He
provided
no indication, however, that the
girls perceived
the dance in terms
of the
reproductive process, though, presumably, through
their
daily
performances,
sooner or later this would have dawned
upon them, if
only
inchoately. Furthermore, however
coherently
the dance movement and the
features of the music that
accompanied
it
may
have articulated with one another
in
constructing
this
representation, only
a
very tiny portion
of the 460 lines of
the
song
text in
Blacking's
collection refer
directly
to the
symbolism
of the
dance.
14
Thus, as in other
genres
of the initiation
repertoire, throughout
much of
the domba dance
performance
a
multiplicity
of distinct and
seemingly
incoherent
messages
interacted with one another
simultaneously.
The
metaphors
of initiation
As these
examples indicate,
the whole of the initiation
process
was conducted
through
lessons based
upon metaphorical allusions, many
of which
appear
to be
quite arbitrary.
While the
milayo
and the
song
texts involved verbal
metaphors,
the
ndayo
exercises and dances derived their referential
meanings
from the
associations the movements were meant to elicit.
Commonly
the dance
movements and the content of the
song
texts articulated a
diversity
of distinct
and
contradictory messages
within a
single performance
frame.
The role of
tropes
in social interaction has been central to the work of James
Fernandez
(1974, 1986, 1991),
and his
approach
looks at the
ways
in which
metaphors
construct links across
disparate
domains of
experience.
In his studies
of ritual in African revival
movements,
for
example,
he noted
that,
in the ritual
context, participants
are immersed in a sea of
disparate
motifs that
play upon
their senses.'5 He claimed that when
people
are
enveloped by
such a
multiplicity
of sensations,
their
primary perceptions
are
evoked,
and the
14
Blacking
claimed that his collection
compiled
over one thousand
song
lines for the Great
Domba
Song,
but he
only published
460 of them, and like the
milayo,
he
arranged
them
according
to the
topics they
addressed.
15 I note that Femandez
speaks
of
"images", but,
as an
ethnomusicologist,
I
prefer
to use a
metaphor
with more
ambiguous sensory
associations.
REILY The
ethnographic enterprise:
Venda
girls'
initiation schools revisited
disparate fragments begin
to resonate
inchoately
with one
another, forming
ever
larger
webs of association that
ultimately
lead to an
experience
of
"wholeness",
in which the world
appears
to have a natural order.
According
to
Fernandez,
"[i]t
is the
dynamic interplay
of these
metaphors
that is most
interesting
and
consequential
and that
gives
the
impression
of coherence"
(1986:172). Thus,
even
though,
as Gerhold
(1988)
has
shown,
the
complex
of ritual motifs
may
be
contradictory
and
incoherent,
an
experience
of coherence nonetheless can be
forged through
the
emergent
associations made
by
the
participants during
the ritual
event. From this
perspective,
ritual
exegeses
and
symbolic representations
become
indistinguishable
as far as the
participants'
consciousness is concerned, as each
individual constructs her ritual
experience through
the motifs she finds
meaningful.
This
perspective clearly
shifts the focus of the debate on the
relationship
between the discourses of
performance
and
performance experience moving
the
emphasis away
from an
objective
external world to a
subjective
internal
realm,
where contradictions can be
disregarded.
As we have seen,
Blacking
also
recognised
the
powerful experiential impact
of Venda musical contexts in
which "social content" and "formal structure" intertwine. But because he
maintained the
perspective
that
meanings
are embodied in
symbols,
rather than
discursive constructs
projected upon representations by subjectively positioned
social actors,
like
many
other
researchers,
he
simply
dismissed
any
contradictory
intrusions to the
homologies
he constructed, parallelling
the
very
process through
which Fernandez claimed a sense of coherence is
forged.
Yet
Femandez's
perspective
raises another issue: if the
interpretation
of ritual
experience
is constructed
individually by
each
participant,
how then is a sense
of
inter-subjectivity
created? Bruner
(1986:11)
is
undoubtedly right
in
pointing
out that
simply
because
people
have
participated
in the same
event,
it cannot be
presumed
that
they
have shared
experiences; yet
communal rituals are
typically
staged
in an
attempt
to
promote
a sense of
commonality
of
experience amongst
the
participants (Turner 1974). Indeed,
it would
appear
that some
degree
of
prescriptive "ruling" (Lewis 1980)
and
"directionality" (Parkin 1992)
is
common to all
rituals,
as this
permits
the
funnelling
of collective
gaze
toward a
common set of
motifs, heightening
the
potential
for the
emergence
of common
interpretations
of individual
experiences,
or at least a common
ground
where
the
negotiation
of ritual
meanings
can take
place.
In other
words,
rituals are
constructed around conventional associations in order to enhance their
experiential value,
but their
efficacy hinges upon
the
linkages
the
participants
actually make,
from
amongst
the vast
array
of
potential
associative
trajectories
the
representations
afford.
The essential rite of the
dung-beetle,
for
example, began
with the
performance
of
Thavha,
in which the
girls publicly
announced their
physical
readiness for
marriage,
as their menstrual blood had
begun
to flow. The
song
was
performed
as
they
marched
up
to the council
hut,
the centre of Venda
political power.
This
song
was followed
by another, associating
the movements of the
dung-beetle
to
the
pains
of childbirth. This
complex, then,
could be
suggesting
that the duties
of married women included
childbearing
to
guarantee
the
reproduction
of the
61
62 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.7 1998
Venda
people
as a
political
unit.
Although
childbirth would entail considerable
pain,
this was a sacrifice women made on behalf of the chief and the whole
community.
This
complex
can be further linked to the
message
in the domba
dance:
though
childbirth is
painful,
this
experience
is
compensated by
the
intensely pleasurable
act of sexual communion.
As in the rite of the
dung-beetle,
the
metaphors
of initiation were
generally
constructed to create links between
aspects
of the
everyday
world and the
girls'
future roles as adults, wives and
mothers, highlighting
in
particular
their role in
the
reproduction
of
society,
its
physical,
cultural and moral
reproduction. Thus,
despite
the
diversity
in the
metaphorical constructs, the
messages
themselves
were rather limited in
scope.
It would seem, therefore, that it was not
necessary
for the
girls
to remember the
symbolic vocabulary
embodied in the vast
repertoire
of
milayo
for them to
grasp
its broader
messages;
it was rather more
important
to
develop
a sense of the "natural order" of the world: that a
healthy
and moral
society
is formed
by patterns
that
replicate
themselves in diverse
domains of
experience. Thus, initiation drew on an extensive
repertoire
of
metaphorical constructions,
but the links it constructed across domains were
kept restricted, emphasising
the basis of the world's coherence, and women's
roles in
preserving
this coherence.
It is
important
to note, however, that the
messages
of initiation drew a rather
ambiguous picture
of womanhood, swinging
back and forth between
representations
of its
privileges
and of its
hardships.
While the
girls ritually
enacted the
joys
of sexual intercourse
they
would soon
experience
with
marriage, they
were also
being
told
emphatically that,
as well as their
labour,
one of their duties as wives was to
provide
sexual services to their
husbands,
suggesting
that women
may
not have
always
found sexual communion as
pleasurable
as its
representation
in the domba dance would
imply.
Just as the
pains
of childbirth
(and
the restrictions motherhood
imposed upon women)
were
being frequently emphasised,
so were the
rights
and
privileges
of adults
and mothers, particularly
their
right
to
join
in women's
beer-drinking parties
and the social
recognition
that motherhood would
allegedly bring them;
the
forcefulness with which these
messages
were
being
drummed into the
girls
suggests
that not all women were inclined to view their sacrifice as
entirely
worthwhile.
Although
the distinctions between nobles and commoners was
played
down
amongst
the
initiates, particularly during domba, they
were a
common theme in
many
of the
expressive
forms of initiation.
Indeed,
considerable
energy
was
expended
to instil in the
girls
a sense of
respect
for the
system
of
seniority operating amongst
women and for the
political
leaders at all
levels of the Venda
political system.
Venda hierarchies
amongst
women were
especially
marked in vhusha and
tshikanda,
where the instructors were
women,
while the
public political system
received
greater emphasis during domba,
where the instructors were
men; clearly,
the instructors were far from neutral
actors in the selection of the initiation
repertoire.
As in all social circumstances,
the context of Venda
girls'
initiation was marked
by
a
multiplicity
of
competing
discourses and
agendas.
REILY The ethnographic enterprise: Venda girls' initiation schools revisited
It would be naive to
suggest, therefore,
that the
girls
were oblivious to the
socio-political messages
the instructors strived to instil in
them, including
those which could be construed as "false consciousness".
Indeed, James Scott
(1985, 1990)
has demonstrated
quite convincingly
that
people's public
acts of
acquiescence
to the status
quo
cannot be taken as evidence of unreflected
ideological indoctrination; rather, they
are best viewed as
strategies
to restrict
the
scope
for
reactionary reprisals
that would limit even further their
sphere
of autonomous action. The
sphere
of initiation, then, constituted a
space
of
intense debate and
argument
in which what was
being negotiated
was the
very
role of women in Venda
society,
and this debate was
played
out
through
struggles
over the
interpretation
of a common
repertoire
of
expressive
media.
While the
prescribed meanings
of the
milayo
constituted one set of voices in
this debate,
the
girls' interpretations
of their
experiences
of initiation formed
many
others.
Amongst
the
Venda, however,
the
negotiation
over womanhood was not
restricted to the
sphere
of initiation.
Blacking
(:4-5)
made it clear that
instruction
during
initiation
simply
confirmed what the
girls
had
already
learnt
informally
from other women
during
their
everyday
social life. So what
did initiation add to the
negotiation?
The closest
Blacking
came to
providing
an answer to this
question
was his contention that it
prepared
the
girls
for
social life
by "emphasizing
Venda
techniques
of human
relationships,
and
by
forming
associations of
young people
of the same
age, regardless
of their
rank, family
and clan affiliations"
(:71).
Yet he made no
attempt
to
explain
why
this should be a central aim of initiation. I
suggest
that what initiation
added to the debate were
powerful
memorable
experiences
orchestrated to
promote
a sense of shared
experience amongst
Venda women. While
Blacking systematically
called attention to the
girls'
vivid memories of
initiation,
he took them to be a
sign
of the
inefficiency
of the
schools, rather
than one of its
prime objectives.16
Recent research into the role of
memory
in social
processes, however, may
shed
new
light upon
the matter.
Particularly
relevant here is the work of
Harvey
Whitehouse
(1995).
In his
study
of ritual
experience
in short-lived
splinter
revival
movements in
Papua
New
Guinea,
he shows how the
highly charged sensory
activity
within the rituals of such movements can have a
profound
effect
upon
what is remembered of the ritual event for
years
to
come,
and even a lifetime.
Even
though
such
experiences
are
sporadic,
Whitehouse claims that
"people's
memories of climactic
periods
enrich and
deepen
their
experience
of orthodox
practices and,
in the
long run, help
to sustain commitment to the mainstream ...
movement"
(1995:175). Having undergone powerful revelatory experiences
16
Blacking
held a similar stance in relation to the tshikona, the Venda national dance:
"Although
its
performance
was often an
expression
of the
political power
of its
sponsor,
the
experience
stimulated
individuality
as much as a
strong
sense of
community,
and
people
talked more of the refreshment that it
brought
to their lives rather than the adherence to a
political
order that it was
supposed
to consolidate"
(1985b:87).
63
64 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.7 1998
during
an
episodic
ritual
setting,
the
memory
of these
experiences
could be
continuously
re-invoked
amongst
the faithful
during
their routine
religious
activities, transforming
the
way they experienced religious
life thereafter. In this
way,
the
metaphorical language
of the
religious
doctrine
acquired special
meaning
to the faithful, rekindling
their
religious
fervour each time the
revelatory
experience
was evinced in consciousness. Thus, revival
movements, which are
orchestrated to
promote highly charged
affective
experiences,
need
only
occur
very occasionally,
when the boredom of routine
religious
life sets in.
The
question
now is: could the cherished memories
promoted by
initiation
amongst
the Venda be effective in
instilling
a sense of commitment to the
responsibilities
of womanhood
amongst
Venda
women,
and what
impact
could this have had
upon
the tenor of the debate on the role of women in
Venda
society?
Insofar as the
girls
constructed their own
interpretations
of
initiation
through
a selective
process
of
association, they
must have
emphasised
the
representations
that
highlighted
their
rights
and
privileges
as
adult women, de-emphasising messages geared
at
inculcating
in them an
unreflected sense of
subordination,
even
though
the
public
circumstances of
initiation
required
them to
play
out their
parts
within the context of school
activities. In this
way
the
metaphoric resignification
of the world within the
expressive repertoire
of the initiation
cycle
would have
generated
inchoate
associations between womanhood and the
very continuity
of a
healthy
and
cohesive social world. While
recognising
life's
hardships,
the
prevailing
image
constructed
by
the
girls presented
womanhood in a
positive light.
Indeed,
it is
quite likely
that the communal activities
provided
the
girls
with a
space
for
experiencing
a vision of the
healthy society
towards which
they
were
being prepared
to contribute as adults. Such
moments,
in which
discourse and
experience coalesce, promote
a
feeling
in which the world
seems
perfect
and
everything
is as it should
be;
this is what Fernandez meant
by "wholeness",
and such
experiences
are
deeply
cherished and hold
considerable
persuasive power. Thus,
initiation must indeed have been
very
effective in
promoting
a sense of commitment to the
responsibilities
of
womanhood, but
just
what the
girls
understood of these
responsibilities may
not
always
have concurred with their instructors'views.
The issue, then,
is not whether there is a universal link or
disjunction
between
the
assigned meanings
of
performative
forms and
people's
actual
experiences
during performance,
but the
degree
to which the discursive and the
experiential
realms of
performance
are
perceived
to be
mutually engaged
in the construction
of a
compatible
social
vision,
and the extent to which this vision is
acceptable
to
the
participants, creating
the
possibility
for them to
experience powerful
and
memorable moments of wholeness.
In the
longer
term there is
yet
another factor which enters into the
equation:
the
number of social circumstances available to rekindle the vision. In a context
such as that of the Venda in the late 1950s there were
many
such
opportunities,
since
practically
all the women underwent initiation,
and women were in
daily
contact with other women,
with whom
they engaged
in activities related to their
REILY The ethnographic enterprise:
Venda
girls'
initiation schools revisited
responsibilities
as women.
Furthermore,
vhusha was
being continuously staged,
and from time to time tshikanda and domba took
place,
and these events
undoubtedly
re-invoked the women's memories of their initiation
experiences.
Blacking (:4)
claimed that Venda women held considerable status within Venda
society.
The
degree
to which the orchestration of the
powerful
affective
experiences during
initiation contributed to Venda women's
ability
to
negotiate
this
space
is
impossible
to
assess,
but it
undoubtedly
enhanced their sense of the
integrity
of womanhood, better
enabling
them to contribute
self-assuredly
to the
ongoing
debate over their role in
society.
Conclusion
This, of course, is a
hypothetical reading
of the
relationship
between text and
performance
in Venda
girls' initiation,
but I contend that it can be defended on
three
grounds: firstly,
there were no instances in which it was
necessary
to
question
the
accuracy
of
Blacking's ethnographic
observations on the Venda
girls'
initiation
schools; secondly,
the Venda material sits
comfortably
with
recent research on ritual orchestration and
memory
in
anthropology;
and
thirdly,
this
reading
resonates with
-
and enriches
-
my understanding
of the
role of musical
performance
in ritual
activity
in Brazil. But even if
my
argument
is shown to be
entirely misguided,
I contend that this will have less to
do with its
methodological approach
than with the
shortcomings
of the
theoretical
propositions employed
in the
reading
of the material.
Indeed, the
most meticulous of fieldworkers often
got
it
disastrously wrong
when it came to
the
analysis
of their material.
If we are to move forward in our
understanding
of musical
experience,
we
cannot
forget
that such
experiences
are often the result of careful
orchestration,
and orchestration is conducted
through
the
ordering
of
expressive
media in
particular ways
to achieve
particular
ends.
Blacking's
material is somewhat
limited in anecdotal
expositions
of the
girls' performance experiences,
but it is
extremely
rich in
providing
clues to the
ways
it was used to orchestrate intense
memorable
experiences. Indeed,
as one wades
through song
after
song (all
106
of
them), mulayo
after
mulayo (all
322 of
them),
rite after rite
(all
20 of
them),
show after show
(all
33 of
them),
domba dance
song
line after domba dance
song
line
(all
460 of
them),
one
begins
to
grasp
what it
might
have felt like to be
bombarded
by
endless
metaphorical
constructions while
engaging
in
activity
with a
high
level of
sensory
stimulation. This too is a
technique
of
ethnographic
representation,
which can also
promote
a
sympathetic re-experiencing
of
certain
aspects
of
people's performance experiences.
It
certainly helps
one
understand
why
the Venda
girls
-
or their
instructors, for that matter
-
couldn't
remember what was
supposed
to mean what in the vast
whirlpool
of initiation
motifs. But it also
helps
one understand that the memorisation of
explicit
associations could not have been the
prime objective
of
initiation, and, indeed,
of other such ritual contexts.
Blacking provided
some of the clues as to what its
65
66 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.7 1998
objectives may
have
been, and he also
provided
sufficient data for a
deeper
probing
into the matter.
In
calling
for a return to "obsessional
empiricism"
in
ethnomusicology
I
may
be
calling
for the
impossible.
Ideals
always
are. But ideals are too valuable to
give
up simply
because
they
are unattainable.
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