Ng’godo: Gomukomu 1942 by Gomukomu weSimbi

Another in our series of Chopi Migodo, from Mozambique, collected by the great ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey. In Gomukomu’s ng’godo for 1942/43, work, taxation, and their effects on women are the dominant themes, against the background of oppressive Portuguese rule.

NG’GODO
Composed in 1942/43 by Gomukomu weSimbi, orchestral leader and composer at the village of Filipe Banguza, Zavala District, Mozambique.

Movements 1, 10 and 11 have no words to them.

1st Movement: Msitso, in five parts:
This ng’godo is unusual due to the five orchestral introductions Gomukomu created to show-off his flair as a composer.

2nd Movement: Ng’geniso, the Entry of the Dancers:

3rd movement: Ndano, the Call of the Dancers:

4th movement: Cidana Cacidoko, The Little Call:

5th movement: Cibudu Coosinye, The Dance:

6th movement: Cibudu Coosinye Kambe, the Second Dance:

7th movement: Mzeno, The Song:

8th movement: Nsumeto Mabandla, Preparation for the Councillors:

9th movement: Mabandla, The Councillors:

from Chopi Musicians,
by Hugh Tracey.
Oxford University Press, 1948

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Footnotes

1. This song is very brief because it is accompanied by the N’goma and Nzomo drums, which would drown out any further words. It is simply an injuction to the dancers to adjust their loin-cloths for dancing.
2. A rueful joke about one of this ng’godo’s main themes, the taxation of women. Women occupying their own homes (“huts”), namely grown-up girls or second and third wives, were liable to the same hut tax as the men, but without the same means of paying it. For women to go to the mines would solve this problem, plus the problem of loneliness for wives whose husbands were absent for six months at a time.
3. For Gomukomo to marry all these women would be a further solution!
4. Makomo was Gomukomu’s grandfather, and orchestra leader in his time. His sudden death was never explained.
5. That is, die taken in adultery.
6. The same Lakeni, the officious court messenger, as in the 1940 ng’godo. Here he is enforcing the ban on cashew fruit, used for brewing kachasu, or cashew gin.
7. Returning to one of this ng’godo’s main themes, the unfair taxation of women by the Portuguese. See note 2.
8. Again highlighting one of this ng’godo’s main themes, the unfair taxation of women by the Portuguese. See note 2.
9. Natanele worked for WENELA, the agency recruiting men for the mines. Gomukomu has no wish to be recruited.
10. With the introduction of indirect rule, the Portuguese increasingly intervened in chiefly successions. Hugh Tracey suggests this is the same dispute as in Katini’s 1940 ng’godo (see footnote 12 to that ng’godo).
11. Kavane is Gomukomu’s sister, one of the wives of Chief Filipe Banguza. None of her children has lived for more than a few weeks, a fate she must now accept.
12. Continuing this ng’godo’s focus on women, Gomukomu presents the lament of a wife whose husband has gone off to work in the mines.
13. The cheapest cloth, available from Indian stores, not necessarily for funerals.
14. Faife is Gomukomu’s nephew, already an expert on the xylophone.
15. Tsewane is a local prostitute over whom the young men have been fighting. The joke that this is what the English and Germans are fighting over introduces a mzeno full of humour.
16. Matijawo is one of the dancers, a hefty six-foot youth, much too big to be ever challenged to a fight.
17. Nguyusa is Gomukomu’s younger brother, who will have to be responsible for the Timbila while he himself goes to work in the banana plantations of the Nkomati valley. Despite footnote 9, Gomukomu has after all been recruited.
18. A feud has broken out between the districts of Zavala (called Zaline in the original text) and Nyabindini. As a result, the roads are closed, meaning people cannot obey the summons of the administrator (Ngungundwane), nor get to the WENELA recruiting office at Chamusi. Dawoti, the clerk at Chamusi, says recruits must register instead at Chikome, but that is twenty miles off. Gomukomu appeals to Manjengwe, a fellow musician and the messenger at Zavala, to get the dispute settled.
19. The complaint here echoes the Second Dance of Katini’s 1940 ng’godo (“Here is a mystery, the Portuguese beat us on the hands, / Both us and our wives”). Julai, a fellow Chopi, is the head sepoy who is authorised to administer corporal punishments, even to chiefs like Filipe Banguza.
20. Meaning, we are no longer adults. This echoes the complaint in the Little Call, “The Chopi no longer have right to their own country”.
21. The book is the census of villagers and tax payers, held at the administrator’s office. Julai imagines he has become an administrator. “Even women” echoes the complaint about the taxation of women.
22. The incident described here occurred during the same state visit by Portuguese President Carmona which featured in the Mdano and Joosinya of Katini’s ng’godo of 1943. Katini describes the Portuguese being overwhelmed by the power of Chopi music. Gomukumo ripostes that, at a second performance at Sewe, near Inhambane, the musicians were treated with contempt.
23. See footnote 6. Despite the restrictions, the women are brewing kachasu (“cider”), and inviting chiefs to their parties.