Escorting tradition
Subtitle: the contemporary performance of Afropolitanism in Zambia's traditional ceremonies
By: by Ruth Helen Simbao
Published: 2008
Language: eng
Number of pages: 400
Description: Since Zambia's return to multi-party politics in 1991 there has been a drastic increase in annual cultural festivals. These events, which amount to over sixty, are patronized by chiefs in conjunction with cultural associations and are gazetted by the Department of Cultural Services. While many scholars view these ceremonies as folklorized pseudo-culture, I frame them as socio-aesthetic, cosmopolitan performances that grow out of Zambia's history of cross-regional engagements. Considering theories of performance and the promiscuity of tradition, I develop a performative ontology of tradition that involves communal accountability and the escorting of culture rather than a top-down invention of tradition. In Chapter One I study Mwata Kazembe's beaded crowns that are performed at three Mutomboko ceremonies, demonstrating how objects and their meanings are also escorted, or "carried-along" by communities. I argue that cultural objects and styles are profoundly linked to corporeal movement, making them susceptible to the contingency of performance, creating situational readings. Similarly, in Chapter Two, I examine Soli song and dance, arguing that a visual interpretation of the ceremonial dress of girl initiates cannot exist without a consideration of the full repertoire of dress in relation to bodily movement and sound.

In Chapter Three I examine the concept of Afropolitanism by considering the travels and socio-cultural engagements of a powerful "national" chief, Chieftainess Nkomeshya, who is not only politically active, but also deeply connected to Soli ritual and spirituality. In a study of place, I explore her geo-spatial dialectical movements between rural and urban spaces, arguing against the concept of "authentic ritual" that relies on outmoded, dichotomous notions of tradition. In Chapter Four I expand on Afropolitanism by examining cultural production at Victoria Falls in relation to the historical cosmopolitanism of the area. Presenting Chief Mukuni as an Afropolitan chief, I reformulate "the public" in relation to tourism, and question how local is "local enough" in the performance of heritagization. I conclude by expanding the concept of escorting tradition and submit that, rather than being spectacles, festivals are year-round lived experiences that are punctuated with lacunae that enable them to exceed officialization and the accompanying fixity of ethnicity.
Notes: "June 2008."

Thesis (Ph.D., Dept. of History of Art and Architecture)--Harvard University, 2008.

Includes bibliographical references.