TRADITIONAL NGONI SONGS

Below is a video extract of Ingoma dancers from Mzimba district in Malawi dancing Ingoma at the foot of Hora Mountain in Mzimba.

A ngoni song common to both Ntcheu Ngoni and Mzimba Ngoni of Malawi

As part of my effort to collect traditional Ngoni songs I managed to get the following extracts from Enock Timpunza Mvula's article entitled 'Strategy in Ngoni Women's Poetry':-

'The community knows the bad consequences of jealousy in families. It is common to hear songs which advise women against being jealous. Such songs are usually performed during wedding ceremonies. Margaret Read gives three songs which she collected from the area in the 1930s. All three songs warn the bride against becoming jealous when living with co-wives.Two of the songs were sung by the Ngoni of northern Malawi while the third one,a version of which I also recorded, was performed by the Gomani Maseko Ngoni:

Hoyayiyoyo indoda ilalepi?

Ngiyamfuna

He ngiyamfuna ngezinyawa ho

Ngiyamfuna

Hoyayiyoyeha

Indoda Hale endlini

Aye kwamayimkhuyu.

Haumkhuyu

Indoda Hale endlini

Woe is me! Where has my husband been sleeping?

I am looking for him.

I am looking for him with my feet,ho.

(Iam looking for him)

Woe is me!

(My husband is sleeping in the house)

He went to the big mother

Alas to the big one

My husband has been sleeping in the house

(Read, 1937: 6-7)

The version I collected of this song was performed by Mayi Erica Homo, Melesiyana Chimpepa, Nasilo Lihako, Maileti Zakulanda, Abigail Kalilombe, Hanna Chigwammowa, Loliya Jingapansi, and Verities Chigwammowa at Lizulu Inkosini, January 1986