Dundo - Lunda-Norte government is preparing to submit an application for the traditional musical instrument “Tchinguvu” to become a National Intangible Cultural Heritage.
In April this year, the dance and music genre tchianda and the traditional musical instrument Cisanje were declared National Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Ministry of Culture.
The information was disclosed Wednesday by the local director of the Culture Department, Tourism and Sports, José Pinto, at the end of a visit by the governor of Lunda-Norte, Filomena Miza Aires, to the Dundo Regional Museum.
José Pinto said work is underway to collect a set of information about the instrument, required by the National Heritage Institute, for its approval and/or elevation to that category.
He added that the office is touring the municipalities in the south of the province (Cuilo, Caungula, Cuango, Xá-muteba and Capenda-Camulemba), in order to find artisans who have mastered making this musical instrument, with the aim of preserving and multiplying it.
Tchinguvu is a traditional instrument that in practical terms is no longer used in the folklore orchestra in the eastern region of the country, due to a lack of motivation on the part of craftsmen to make this instrument.
In addition to its usefulness in art, the Tchinguvu, which produces a sound that reaches about thirty kilometers, also served as a means of communication between the Cokwe, with which messages were sent to call them to a certain subject or alert them to any phenomena in the community.
In terms of orchestra, the Tchinguvu accompanies the various masks and collective dances, including kapaka, kateko, tchisela and tchianda.
The Tchinguvu players play the sounds with two heavy drumsticks, the head of which is made of virgin rubber. The master's assistant strikes the top of the drum with wooden sticks, while the expert pauses and changes the time signature.
To be played, the instrument is sometimes hung slightly obliquely from the two cues that are permanently located in the village square.
In its genesis, as it was conceived by the Lunda and Cokwe ancestors, the Tchinguvu was made up of twelve drums, each of which had its own sound function.
With the Tchinguvu alone, it is possible to have the ngoma ya xina (bass drum), Mukundu (medium-base drum), kasasuiluiyo (rhythm), including the kasumbi (smaller drum), which makes it possible to obtain various functionalities in terms of musicality, tone and rhythm. HD/TED/AMP
