Sonic Kumema Poetic Uhambo

An experimental sonic and poetry readings in short chants as an autoethnographic embodied wanderings translating part of the authors reflections while living in the diaspora

Traver Mudzonga

Framing

The sonic wanderings are a form of ambulatory research process employing autoethnography methodology. The creative processes began in Johannesburg, South Africa, as part of Traver Mudzonga’s critical analysis of his decade-long reflective practice, which spanned across four countries in the diaspora. In his private life, Traver experiments with sonic recordings on his mobile phone and is now pushing this into a coherent publication piece to translate embodied wanderings from his African diasporic reflections.

The sonic recordings were created between 2023 and 2024. Part of the recording was carried out during a brief visit back on the land of his birth; a different kind of home up until his mid-late 20s.

The sonic body of work combines two concepts, uhambo and kumema. Please listen to the sonic recording first. The invitation is to witness, through sonic encounter, how Traver’s diasporic wanderings sound:

Listen on Bandcamp | Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Subscribe manually via RSS | Download as mp3

Now that you have listened to the sonic recording:

Introduction

This paper is part of the process of creating sonic and poetic chants as embodied wanderings, translating part of the author’s reflections while living in the diaspora. The sonic recordings and short poetry readings in the form of chants were done during specific walks of Kumema. Kumema, in the Tavara Kore Kore dialect of ChiShona, is a specific sightseeing one does in a leisurely manner, yet being analytical. Usually, kumema munda (to take readings from a field) is commonly associated with a farmer taking a walk in a field so that the crops and the field (soil) inform them of their next steps in being a good steward. This process of kumema munda will result in a good harvest; provided the kumema is done well. Data-based decision-making process for optimisation. Thus, Kumema requires a set of skills and framing out of the realm of mere sightseeing or an afternoon stroll.

What are the Kumema series about? I have been living, working, and studying in Johannesburg since 2014, with periodic residence across three other southern African countries. The last decade has been about uhambo, a journey which is revealing itself, negotiating entry into spaces where my professional practice brings a certain level of clarity which seems only to be accepted graciously when coming from an insider. Thus, reading the room and cultural context profiling have become part of my skill set over the past decade. As with every performance, there come moments for the performer to “de-role”. The prose, sonic, and poetry readings in short chant form part of a body of work that is part of my “de-roling”.

Conceptual Framework

The sonic body of work was created within two primary concepts: uhambo (isiZulu) and kumema (Tavara). Loosely translated, the two concepts are used in the context of uhambo being a journey and kumema being a form of both reflective practice and a critical analysis ambulatory assessment method.

Chitsva chiri murotsoka, a Tavara proverb loosely translated to each new uhambo beacons new experiences and discoveries; step beyond your front porch to evolve. This paper uses uhambo, an isiZulu word for journey, as a concept of internal wandering one experiences while in the diaspora. Researching and writing as part of the African Diaspora, the internal wandering is often expressed as home-sick or a deep longing for one’s support systems, ways of being, deeply established platonic relationships, a sense of being, the familiar, and a cultural context intuition that lowers rates of being misunderstood. Here, the uhambo occurs simultaneously within and the new environment as expressed in the accompanying sonic wandering body of work.

The simultaneous uhambo is done using the concept of kumema upon which the sonic wandering body of work was created. Kumema, in the Tavara Kore Kore dialect of ChiShona, is a specific sightseeing one does in a leisurely manner, yet being analytical. Usually, kumema munda (to take readings from a field) is commonly associated with a farmer taking a walk in a field so that the crops and the field (soil) inform them of their next steps in being a good steward. This concept is like ambulatory assessment methods.

Jochen Fahrenberg (1996), although writing specifically in the field of health science, posits that ambulatory assessments relate to everyday life ‘naturalistic’ observation. This body of work being part of social sciences, I employed autoethnography research methodology as discussed in the next section.

Methodology

While the publication is presented in the form of a recorded sonic body of work, the research methodology was autoethnography. In line with Heewon Chang’s (2016) definition of autoethnography, I employed the qualitative methodology for its ethnographic methods “to bring cultural interpretation to the autobiographical data” of my diasporic contexts with the intent of understanding self and its connection to the other.

Here, autoethnography acted as the prism through which I employed my reflective practice experience to focus on specific moments to inform the sonic recordings and write poetry around. The poetry is presented in the form of overlaying chants; the inward critical analysis chants of Kumema. Below is a contextual transcript of the poetry with some sections being a direct translation due to the limitations of the English language when attempting to convey ways of lives it intentionally sought to violently discredit and disowner during the actual Dark Ages of the violent so-called western Christian civilisation, a barbaric human rights violation colonial project.

How does one create sonic work from his Tavara heritage without being bogged down by the need to refer to the Global North scholarly theoretical frameworks? This is a rhetorical question. I was not centering my western academic education and/or meaning-making during this creative process. I was simply leaning into the knowledge and family values passed down from my father, his father, and my great-grandmother of the now obsolete ChiSwiti Royal House. Although unknown, these are the three authoritative knowledge developers I draw upon and the Tavara generations going back to time immemorial. This body of work has layers of translations, and the write-up may not make sense. The invitation is to listen to the sonic recording as a witness instead of a critic. I have already gone through the self-critical kumema, so you do not have to, as our wanderings can never be truly perceived from a third perspective.

The End Asante sana

Kumema.

Works Cited

Chang, Heewon. 2016. Autoethnography as Method. Routledge.

Fahrenberg, Jochen. 1996. “Ambulatory Assessment: Issues and Perspectives.” In Ambulatory Assessment: Computer-assisted Psychological and Psychophysiological Methods in Monitoring and Field Studies, edited by Jochen Fahrenberg and Michael Myrtek. Hogrefe & Huber.