Social Science Research Council

"Escorting the Object: Performance and its Encore in Zambian Art"

Despite economic decline, Zambians are enjoying an upsurge of organized performances. More and more rituals and dances are being turned into annual ceremonies as if in competition with each other on a socio-political stage. In this project I seek to understand the rapid growth of government-sanctioned performances and their related cultural associations. I hypothesize that while they appear to be linked to governmental fiscal and political goals, they also reflect local understandings of the performance of governance and social identity that have historical roots in both migration and trade.

I will use two major annual ceremonies-the Mutomboko Ceremony and the Ukusefya pa Ng'wena-as a springboard to examine different genres of performance in Zambia such as ritual, dance, music and role-playing as performed in ceremonies, funerals, masquerades, and initiations. I compare three regions: Luapula Province, where the Lunda-Kazembe Mutomboko Ceremony takes place; Northern Province, the home of the Bemba Ukusefya pa Ng'wena; and Lusaka, where contemporary artists are involved in performance art. No comprehensive art historical study has been conducted in any of these regions, and both the Lunda-Kazembe and the Bemba have erroneously been stereotyped as peoples lacking an artistic tradition. In this comparison of both regions and modes of performance I will explore the relationship between performance and both durable and ephemeral art objects. I suggest that, in Zambia, performance escorts the object rather than declaring its death, and that this interconnection between art forms challenges Western disciplinary boundaries and art historical theories of performance. I will raise questions regarding local meanings and effects of performances as they interact with artistic and ritual objects that mediate between the cultural and the aesthetic, and between traditional and contemporary art.