Simonga, the ngoma buntibe music group, performs its music. Ngoma buntibe is an integral part of local culture. It is used for ceremonies and is part and parcel of everyday life. Most of the time, the performances take place at local events but, sometimes, they form within ongoing inter-cultural exchanges-- abroad.
SIMONGA

The musicians of Simonga are based in Siachilaba. The group takes its name from the composer (mwimbi), called Simonga, who fled with his relatives from fighting chiefs in Zambia to Siachilaba sometime towards the beginning of the last century. He was the grandfather of Jossam Sialwindi Munkuli, the present leader of Simonga and the keeper of the horns in Siachilaba today.

Simonga cannot be defined as a self-contained performing arts group with founding members who began operations in a specific year; rather it represents a fluid tradition that has been inherited from manz previous generations and which is being passed on in a similar manner to those who are to inherit it. Nevertheless, although the musicians all perform other day-to-day functions within the community, the playing of the horns and drums does require the acquisition of specialised skills.

The Valley Tonga have a tradition of composers, those who invent music speficially for the buntibe. Siachilaba´s most distinguished composer in recent years was Siankwede Bokotela Mudenda.

Siankwede once explained that both the words and the music for his compositions came to him in dreams and werepassed on to him bz the masabe (ancestral spirits). Siankwedeäs music is typical of the ngoma buntibe repertoire; most of his songs are warnings about the exposure of socially unacceptable behaviour.

Listen to an example of Siankwede´s composition, Siamubbula:




Siamubbula
composed by Siankwede Bokotela Mudenda

Performed by Simonga

Recorded at Siachilaba in March 1997 by Bert Estl

Lyrics
Muyanda ningangula nimutitulalima?
What do you want here in this area?

Story
Lumwi iwimbo iwamba kuti siamubbula/oyu muntu wakajaya siejenga kuhwange/ino, siejenga akafwa/siankwede, mwimbi wakamvwa lubo/kutegwa siamubbula ngwakaja ya siejenga/kuzwa awa siankwede wimba iwimbo oyu/siankwede wimba iwimbo/oyu siankwede tayandi muntu ujaya bamwi/kutegwa bazibe zibi ndolwimbo olu iwamana

And for those of us who don´t speak Tonga, the song talks of siamubbula / This man killed Siejenga at Hwange / Now Siejenga died / Siankwede, the composer, heard again / that Siamubbula was the very person who killed Siejenga / After that, Siankwede sang a song / this Siankwede doesn`t want someone to kill other people / He composed a song to assure other people / that they are to know what happened / This is the end of the song.