Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part III of a four part pancocojams series that showcases brief excerpts about certain forms of Black church music in Southern Africa and showcases a few YouTube video examples of South Africa's amakhorasi music.
Part III provides information about Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA) and information about the uMpampampas hand drum.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/10/black-church-music-in-zambia-excerpt.html for Part I of this series. Part I presents a brief excerpt of a 2015 doctoral thesis for the University of the Western Cape written by Kapenwa Kondolo. The thesis is entitled "The Ministry of Music: A Case Study On The United Church of Zambia And The New Jerusalem Church".
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/10/information-about-south-africas.html for Part II of this series. Part II is divided into two sections. Section A presents a summary of a 2016 social science book by Austin C. Okigbo entitled Music, Culture, and the Politics of Health: Ethnography of a South African AIDS Choir Section A also presents a brief excerpt from that book which provides information about certain forms of Black South African church music.
Section B presents a brief excerpt from a 2005 doctoral thesis that includes information about certain forms of music in South African churches.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/10/videos-examples-of-south-africas-urcsa.html for Part IV of this series. Part IV showcases videos of URCSA services. Special focus in these videos is on some members of that denomination playing uMpampampas (hand drums) and other indigenous musical instruments as an integral part of their church services.
The content of this post is presented for ethnomusicology, cultural, and religious purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
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Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/11/five-videos-of-vusi-mighty-singers.html for a 2023 pancocojams post about South Africa's "Clap & Tap" Gospel music. That post includes a video that shows men playing an i beat (uMpampampas) while they sing in a Clap & Tap choir.
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INFORMATION ABOUT URCSA
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniting_Reformed_Church_in_Southern_Africa
"The Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (Afrikaans: Verenigende Gereformeerde Kerk in Suid-Afrika) was formed by the union of the black and coloured Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk mission churches.
Main markers in the URCSA'S history
In 1652 the Dutch formed a halfway station at the Cape, which was approximately halfway between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies, and introduced slavery by whites.
Various foreign mission organisations started working in South Africa, which led to the formation of a number of denominations amongst those people who otherwise would have been excluded from the main churches, largely over issues of race.
This process motivated the Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk (NGK) in South Africa to start its own independent mission work.
In 1857 the NGK synod decided to have separate services for coloured (mixed race) members.
A separate church, the Dutch Reformed Mission Church (DRMC) was formed in 1881.
For blacks, the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa (DRCA) was formed in 1951.
In 1974 the synod of the DRCA decided in favour of church unity. In 1978 the DRMC decided likewise.
In 1986 the Belhar Confession – with its strong emphasis on unity, reconciliation and justice – was formulated and adopted by the DRMC.
In 1994 the DRMC and the DRCA united to form the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA).
[...]
Statistics
The Uniting Reformed Church consists of approximately 1,230,000 members of them about 500,000 confessing members (excluding all those who are only baptised) and 683 congregations. Its name (which is in the continuous tense) and its logo (which is an incomplete circle) reflects the Church's emphasis on unity, and its hope for an even greater church unification within the family of God.[2]"....
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INFORMATION ABOUT UMpampampas (hand drums)
Excerpt #1:
From https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11427/29287/thesis_law_2018_perkins_grainne.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
"Danger and Death
Organisational and Occupational Responses to the
Murder of Police in South Africa – a Case Study.
Gráinne Perkins
[...]
A thesis submitted in the Department of Public Law, Faculty of Law University of Cape Town in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
[...]
Glossary
[...] “uMpampampa Handmade drum, onomatopoeia word owing to the sound it makes when
struck, i.e. mpa-mpa-mpa”
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[more from google search entry]
“…. handle allowed it to be held in one hand and beaten by the other free hand.. In the isiXhosa language the pillow is called the 'uMpampampa'.
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Excerpt #2
From https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/44f5/464c1570df0258d80affad087a77371f5782.pdf
"Echoes of orality in Christian Xhosa songs
M.M. Somniso
School of Language, Media and Communication
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
PORT ELIZABETH
Umpampampa: An umpampampa is a Bible-sized cushion covered with leather. It is held in one hand and beaten with the other. This is done to produce more sound and to regulate the rhythm.
Drums: There are many kinds of drums. The type of drum depends on the people themselves. Ugandan drums, Tanzanian hand drums, and Atumpan drums can for instance be used. Among the amaXhosa a similar drum is called igubu. The drum is open on both sides and these sides are covered by animal skin. Two sticks are
used to beat the drum on the sides. Among amaXhosa this drum is mostly used by Zionist and diviners. Boys use it as well."
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I've noticed in several discussion threads of South African music videos (where men and/or women are playing this hand drum) that some people (my guess is that they are not from South Africa) think that this hand held drum is either a pillow or the church members' Bible (inside the pillow or without the covering for the Bible although the actual Bible isn't in there". In the discussion threads I've happened upon, when people refer to these instruments that way, South Africans are quick to correct them and share other terms they use for uMpampampas such as iBeat. An example of such a discussion is found after Video Example #1 in Part IV of this pancocojams series.]
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This concludes Part III of this four part pancocojams series.
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