The Lumpa Church was led by Alice Mulenga Lubusha Lenshina, a woman of Kasomo village in the Chinsali district of Zambia, in the 1950s. The indigenous Lumpa Church gives us an example of a successful attempt made in the indigenization of hymnody in Zambia.
Lenshina shook the foundations of the established churches in a simple but effective way. While the Orthodox Churches were worried about structural growth of the mission church and preoccupied themselves with the purity of missionary principles Lenshina was more deeply worried about the social status and moral decay of her
society. She simply and ably got the gospel of Jesus, related it to the life of the people of her day, putting the gospel in an understandable language of hymns. Through them she exhorted, taught, and united God‟s people, as she believed she had been instructed in the vision. So the people felt at home with her and her methods and they left their homes and their churches and rallied behind her.
Consequently they made her their “Mama”, grandmother in her restructured Kasomo village, which they were happy to declare their “Zion”. Lubwa mission was left to get on with its meticulous worship; the so-called mainline church had failed them. Her church was able to rid society of witchcraft and charms which the Bemba regarded as the dreadful monsters of the Bemba land and which none had been able to remove from the society. Lenshina‟s church to the spiritually needy then surely deserved to be declared messianic and redemptive. Meanwhile orthodoxy had refused to accept the idea that it was guilty because it was blind to the new message come by Lenshina. Therefore, because it was high-handed and tenacious on its stand its guilt remained. It consequently paid the price of mass-exodus of its members to Lenshina‟s Zion.
Lenshina‟s Lumpa Church was a singing church on the pattern of African life. They sang to life situations; as they worked, while they visited, as they marched along as well as during their ordinary worship. The hymns began to increase as the members slowly added to the ones that Lenshina had been given in the vision. Father L Oger of Ilondola mission of the Roman Catholic Church edited a collection of some of those, which probably interested him.
Chuba (1985:229) explains that it is not possible to trace the individual composers, nor can it be ascertained how many of them were composed by Lenshina herself. It is true, of course that there are many others, including those that Lenshina received in her visions which are not included here. It will also be noticed that the hymns come from only a small area in Northern Province out of the six or so provinces which were covered by the Lumpa Church. The hymns themselves were collected during a relatively short period of six years. If the Lumpa Church had been given the chance
to continue most probably they would have made more collections of songs into a large hymnal. Nevertheless, Lenshina contextualized theology through hymnody, perhaps unconsciously, in such a way that thousands of people in the area flocked to her in enthusiastic response to her indigenous songs, in addition to other African elements.
Chuba (1985:229) narrates that these accounts give enough evidence that the Lumpa Church was successful in attracting the indigenous people to its worship. Their contextualized songs with their indigenous metres, appealed more to an African's ear, mouth and feet than the English tunes appeared to. Consequently Chinsali District was soon “on fire”.
Chuba (1985:230) continues to explain that before Lenshina came on the scene the Bemba people generally were, in the eyes of the mission, slow to respond to the Gospel message of the mission church, judging from the membership roll, and the small numbers of Christians from among them were poor singers of the hymns of the mission church. When Lenshina gave the same slow and illiterate Bemba people the gospel hymns of her composition they became Lenshina‟s best singers. They covered the whole Bemba land, combing every village big and small, as locusts cover the fields to devastate the crops. The vigilant Lumpa choirs were soon to be nicknamed “locusts” because of their effectiveness.
Chuba (1985:231) continues to note that it had often been observed that the Bemba people could not sing. Such opinions had been expressed many times by missionaries working among them who contrasted them sharply, for example, with the Tumbuka people of Northern Nyasaland. The hymn book used in Lubwa area by missionaries and Christians at Lubwa Mission station was, in many respects, a fine production but it consisted almost entirely of hymns translated from English. The praise of the church thus did not seem to stir the people‟s hearts, and hence the easy judgment grew up that “the Bemba can‟t sing.” Then Lenshina followers began to sing in a
finer and more authentic way. This was indigenous praise, simple, evangelical and not in any sense heretical in its message since it never contradicted with the Biblical message, especially the teachings on repentance as preached by John the Baptist.
Lenshina‟s masterly work on hymnody is said to have been built up at the rate of one hymn a week.25 She did very little preaching to her congregations, they say; rather the preaching was done largely through hymns which her congregations sung a great deal. Through that hymnody the people got the message.
While the orthodox churches were worried about structural growth of the mission church and preoccupied themselves with the purity of missionary principles Lenshina was more deeply worried about the social status and moral decay of her society. She simply and ably got the gospel of Jesus, related it to the life of the people of her day, putting the gospel in an understandable language of hymns. Through them she exhorted, taught, and united God‟s people, as she believed she had been instructed in the vision. So the people felt at home with her and her methods and they left their homes and their unexciting churches and rallied behind her. Lubwa mission was left to get on with its meticulous worship; the main line church had failed them. But what was perhaps more worrying was that, while some missionaries could see the folly in rejecting Lenshina‟s revelation and her zeal for indigenous hymns, the majority of African elders were more zealous against her and were determined to crush her church. Alas, in the end, they were crushed, not by Lenshina but by the impact of the contextual message which her hymns carried.
The dogma of the church, described as orthodox, at least in form, was embedded in its hymnody. The Bible, translated by the Presbyterian missionaries, was used as the basis for prayer and whatever expositions the leaders gave, and to an extent for hymnody. Rotberg (1970:72) confirms this point:
25 See L. Oger (1960). Lumpa Church: A Study of the Lenshina Movement. Ilondola, Zambia.
Hymns are seemingly indigenous in origin (a least those composed after Lenshina was given the first hymns from on high) although their subject matter is traditionally Christian.
Furthermore, some Lumpa Church hymns, particularly those which evolved after Lenshina‟s vision songs, which were rejected at their very early stage of development, are very subjective. They portray a notion of self-righteousness, such as hymn “Monenimwe baba mu bushiku, Calo nacima cileyangala mutende,
Fwebamona Shikulu Katula,” translated as “See you who are in darkness, the
country has gone up, We who see the Master, the Saviour.”Also, one hymn refers to the members of the Lumpa Church as, the lucky ones, on whom the light is shining, in contrast with, the unlucky ones, meaning those of other churches. And in another hymn they refer to themselves as, “we who see the Master, the Saviour,” in contrast with others who are in darkness. Similarly, some hymns lack depth of theological teaching.
One observation is that the earlier songs in the Lumpa Church show initial character of life through which the church had passed. Hence, at the parting of the ways with the main-line churches its members had developed the defensive attitude which is manifest in some of their songs of that period. They had composed songs on enemies, some of them very provocative, which refer to those missions with whom they were in confrontation.
Their themes evolve within the theological, political, social and cultural development of the land. This is to be expected among people who want to live their religion. This is probably what makes them appealing to their singers. Their themes are subject matters in which God, Christ, the Holy Spirit for instance, are mentioned as objects of their worship, within the songs themselves. Hence, members of the Lumpa Church sang of, God the Father, as Tata wamaka yonse, which would translate, Father or All powerful Father. They regarded God as the final Court of appeal in their great need.
For example, they sang before Him; when they encouraged each other against the enemy. When their enemies tormented them or when they were in need of blessings.
They make no pretence in the hymn that they are true children, banaba cine. Therefore they have a Father, Tata. Lumpa Church hymns sometimes make no clear distinction between God, whom they call Tata, as well as Mfumu and Jesus who is also called Mfumu. Hence the Bemba expression, Mfumu Lesa Tata, is often used in order to make that distinction, and to stress the Fatherhood of God. They went even higher in the African family ladder and sang of Him as, Lesa Shikulu, God Grandfather. Their titles were more affectionate to the omniscient, to the point of personifying Him. In a Bemba community, Tata or Shikulu, carries corporate personality, the tribesmen will call their leader, shikulu; a wife will very often call her husband, shikulu. The title is therefore conferred on the head of a family or community, who is expected to shoulder an amount of or the whole responsibility. He is the one to be relied upon for wise counselling, for the safe keeping, for finding means for the provision of food for the family of community. The extended family also depends on him in times of crises, calamities, family squabbles. This conception recurs in the indigenous hymns of the Lumpa Church.
They often avoid mentioning the name God casually, outside priestly situations. More often the name will be implied in any one of the corporate names used for God. This is an appropriate African traditional way to address a personality of great family status. For instance, to be a family man gains one a social status, and to call by his family name a person who has a child is to belittle him. Hence, in the Lumpa Church hymns, as in choir-action songs, God is Shikulu. He takes the place of an ancestor; the corporate personality for final appeal in life. The Lumpa Church has also an example of hymns on angels. They show angels as messengers of the redeemer or, better still, as intermediaries for the people.
The concept in both the action songs and Lumpa Church hymns is therefore present, albeit with limited explanation. The Lumpa Church hymns deal with the theme of evil or sin too. Unlike translated hymns where evil or sin is a word used often in general theological terms, the Lumpa Church members saw evil, the devil, Satan through the immediate tangible vices in their community. Hence Satan in their hymns is the father of all evil. He is clearly identified as an enemy whose work is associated with the vices of habits like drunkenness, sorcery, jealousy of those against Lenshina, backbiting, polygamy and disunity.
In some hymns the drunkards are identified as Satan‟s dwelling homes. There is also a theme connected with Baptism. In the Lumpa Church hymnody, baptism is closely associated with a wedding. This is an interpretation of Christian baptism too.
The effect of baptism is strength. Baptism therefore makes their members strong enough to stand against the enemy. Christian Baptism is depicted here as crossing over. To cross over you must, have a pure heart. With that imperative in the proper order; you will see the Son of God. That then will mean you being pure, and automatically, you will know you are in His presence, for no impure eyes can see God. It must have been that simple but down to earth message that moved the staunch sorcerers to repentance and attracted the Bemba singers into the Lumpa Church choirs, the locusts, in their great numbers. Their members flocked for baptism with this view in mind in order to obtain strength.
Generally, themes of Lumpa Church hymns constantly talk about something happening or about to happen soon. In this respect therefore, the themes covered in the Lumpa hymnody are different from those of translated hymns where they are predetermined as block concepts; God, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, church, and the liturgical seasons. Worshippers understand the themes easily and respond to both the content and the melody more readily than they would with complicated translated hymns.
Lumpa Church hymns are all short and spontaneous. According to Chuba (1985:131), they reveal the following marked features:
The tempo is typically African, and runs in line with the message. The language is easy to understand, the melodies are so contextually African that a drum, a rattle, a xylophone and several other African instruments can be comfortably accommodated and the scope, that is the theology and mode of expression, are evangelical, giving a lot of dedication to piety and purity.
Yet some hymns tend to have an eschatological emphasis which, coupled with the conviction of the group‟s righteousness and assurance of salvation.
Today the Lumpa hymns are sung during their regular meetings in homes, visitations to families with newly-born babies, the sick, the bereaved, the homebound and in their families. The church‟s songs spill into homes, hospitals, morgues and wherever else there is a need for a Christian gathering. Even those who are illiterate have learnt many hymns by heart and are able to participate. No special privilege is required for anyone to lead in song. There is, to be added that hymns in the Lumpa church have continue to serve very adequately as inspiring homilies and themselves uttered sermons. Today wherever there is a public Christian gathering, both in village churches and town churches, music has invariable inspiration. Members sing, clap and dance accompanied by percussions of traditional instruments.