Item : Music of the girls’ initiation school, sungwi or musevhetho _14

Title: Music of the girls’ initiation school, sungwi or musevhetho
Collector: Blacking, John
Collection: Venda Music: Recorded Examples by John Blacking [enregistrements accompagnant publication, accès en ligne]
Recording date: Jan. 1, 1957 - Dec. 31, 1958
Access type: full

Location: Province du Limpopo
Population / social group: Venda
Ethnographic context: Music of the girls’ initiation school, sungwi or musevhetho. See HM, pp. 40-41.

a) Luimbo lwa u sevhetha (song for dancing round): Ha Maguvhulele, sung by Nyamulatshawe Rananga and novices and graduates of Lurale’s school, Mbaleni, in 1957. (2:05)

b) Luimbo lwa vhahwira (song of the masked dancers): Maovhelwana, sung by Tshavhungwe Makuya and members of Lurale’s school in 1958. See HM, illus. following p. 18. (0:45)

c) Luimbo lwa dzingoma (song for a special rite): Phephenyane i a nnduma tswaroni (“Phephenyane is biting me in the thighs”), sung by the same group as in b. While singing this, novices must walk along holding sharpened sticks between their thighs. (0:45)

d) Luimbo lwa milayo (song of the laws of the school): Sankwanye marunda (“It presses down on my shoulders”), led by the spirit of the school (with kazoo-like instrument called mufuni or sitlanjani), who is called Nonyana, and sung by the same group as in a in 1957. (0:50)

e) Mutsha, one of the masked dancers, speaks to the novices in whistle language. (0:35)

Number	Composition	Vernacular name	Interprets