The Stick Zither of Seychelles– Zez Seselwa– is a one-string instrument with a gourd resonator. It could have been introduced to the Seychelles from Madagascar through Réunion Island in the early days of slavery or directly by the slaves originating from East Africa. It is a solo instrument that was used mostly on outer islands where other forms of music were not easily available and where musical entertainment had not previously existed. The songs and lyrics that accompanied the zez were slow and soft in nature and usually described island life in the early 1900s.
The Zez was popularized in Seychelles by Jacob Marie, better known as ‘Ton Pa’ who passed away some years ago. He would narrate stories from the past and used the zez to provide a steady rhythm to his narrations. He is often referred to in French as ‘Le dernier musicien conteur’ (the last storytelling musician). Regrettably, there are not many Stick Zither players left in Seychelles any more.
A Current Performer
A current player of Zez is a gentleman named ‘Ton Pat‘(not to be confused with Ton Pa). A small snippet of his performance from ‘Memwar lamizik seselwa (Seychelles)-can be observed by clicking here:
Listen to some more of Ton Pat’s music here ( skip add). He performs most of his songs on the Bonm, moutya drum and Zez.
In this post we will discuss the parts of the zez, how it is played and explore its possible origin.
The main parts of the zez
The zez is a chordophone consisting of a string stretched over a fingerboard or neck mounted on top of a round sound box. A chordophone is any of a class of musical instruments in which a stretched, vibrating string produces the initial sound. The main parts of the zez include the finger board or string bearer, the resonator, a spacing collar called the sondar, and the string.
The finger board or string bearer
The fingerboard or string bearer is cut out of a straight and flat piece of hard wood, broadened or raised at both ends for the purpose of attaching the string. It is approximately 70 cm long and 1.5-2cm thick and is laid edge-on over a hemispherical gourd, attached to one end of the bar by a loop of wire or thin rope. At the other end of the string-bearer, furthest from the sound box, three raised studs are carved and project both above and below it. There is no special device for tuning the string, – in which case the projecting studs act as frets.
The resonator or sound box
The resonator is made from a medium to large gourd called calabash-kalbas.
The mature gourd is allowed to dry out and the end that is attached to the vine cut off . All seeds are removed, and the inside cleaned. It is then polished and two small holes are drilled at the bottom to allow a piece of string or wire , the loop, to be threaded through.
The calabash is placed at the end furthest away from the studs or frets and is stabilised by the spacing collar. Since it is a zither, the resonator of the zez can be dismantled without the string being removed.
The spacing collar or sounbar
A spacing collar, known locally as sounbar, is placed between the finger board and the resonator. It is a funnel-shaped piece made from the neck of a pear-shaped calabash. The wide base is placed in contact with the resonator. A slot is cut in the tapered end into which the the fingerboard is inserted. The slot is deep enough to allow the string bearer to fit in vertically and wide enough for a tight fit.
The purpose of the soundar is to act as a transition to the string bearer as well as to assist in stabilising it on the calabash.
In the absence of calabash, a half cut coconut shell was also used. This shell, that looks like a cup, is obtained by sawing a whole husked coconut in half at its equator and scraping out all the meat.
The string
The Stick Zither of Seychelles– Zez Seselwa– has one string, although stick zither in other countries can have as many as two to four whereby one of these strings is the melodic string, while the others are used as sympathetic or drone strings and vibrate to enrich the timbre of the instrument.
The string was traditionally made from twisted vegetable fibres and later on replaced by steel and nylon. The vegetable fibres used were mainly Raffia (Raphia ruffia) and sisal or lalwa (Agave sisalana) because when twisted they become very strong.
The string is simply tied tightly to both ends of the string-bearer. The Seychellois zez is not tunable.
The loop
The loop binds the string bearer to the resonator. It is a piece of small rope or thick string/wire that is threaded through the two small holes that have been drilled in the calabash, then through inside the spacing collar over the top and around the string bearer and back down to the resonator, through the spacing collar, where it is securely and tightly knotted.
How is Stick Zither of Seychelles-Zez Seselwa– played?
The Stick Zither of Seychelles– Zez Seselwa– has traditionally been played by men. The musician holds the zez so that the open side of the resonator rests high on his chest. He holds the zez in front of him horizontally or slightly to the diagonal. With thumb and forefinger of both hands, he grips the fingerboard from below.
He plucks the string with the middle finger of his right hand, and with the fingers of his left hand he presses the string onto the studs. Pressing the string against one of the three studs while playing shortens the length of the string and makes a difference in pitch. The open string and the three keys therefore give a total of four different pitches.
Wah-wah effect
Apart from plucking the string, player can strategically control the resonance and timber by opening or closing the resonator. This is done by moving the opening of the calabash towards or away from the chest, He can obtain a ‘wah-wah’ effect by speeding up this movement.
Kaskavel
At times, the player may, in his right hand, also hold a Kaskavel (Fr. cascavelle) that is shaken simultaneously to produce a rhythm. Kaskavel is small percussion instrument or a rattle which contains seeds that is shaken to produce a rhythmic sound. Initially, it was in the shape of a small box made out of pandanus leaves- feiy vacao. Some of Ton Pa’s kaskavel were made with a small match box, a small bottle or even the neck of the calabash. It was filled with different types of seeds. In fact, kaskavel gets its name from the ‘graines réglisse’ (the seeds of abrus precatorius) that is known as ‘cascavelle’ seeds in Réunion.
The seeds of ‘cascavelle’ were also used for witchcraft practices. They are reputed to bring bad luck, but nowadays they are used for making jewelry. Other seeds that were used were ‘graines lagati ‘adenanthera pavonine-, and ‘graines kaspiant-cassia occidentalis.
Origin of the Stick Zither of Seychelles– Zez Seselwa
The origin of the Zez is very complex and debateable. This is because a close study of the zez suggests that there was a transference of characteristics of the zez, as well as other related instruments, among different countries. These include India where the zez was ‘born’ and then transferred to MSEA ( Maritime South East Asia) as part of formation of Indianised states. It was then carried to ISEA (Island South-East Asia) at the same time or later. It was adopted in Java and probably elsewhere and spread eastward to Sulawesi. From their, it was transferred to East Africa during the ‘raiding and trading’ period in the 6-9th centuries and then to Madagascar as part of Swahili coastal trading, 8th century onwards. It was ultimately transferred to Indian Ocean islands following European slave trade and to interior Africa via the slave caravan routes from 18th century onwards.
Let us now explore this possible origin of the Zez in more details.
The Indian Connection
The zez is first represented in India in the 7th century on the temple at Mamallapuram . It also appeared in Ellora Caves, cave 21, 7th-8th century showing C.E. Shiva with an alapini vina with a type of stick-zither with a half gourd used for the resonator. See photo below.
Some old images of stick zithers can also be found on the wall paintings of the Buddhist caves of Ajanta .
It also featured in Sri Lanka in the Embekka Devalaya temple, where a rock carving shows a Kinnari holding an ālāpīni vīnī, a type of stick-zither with a half gourd used for the resonator.
India, 10th century C.E. Image of Saraswati holding an eka-tantri vina. (top broken off)
In South Asia, it rapidly developed into instruments more closely resembling the modern vina with two gourd resonators and more strings.
The South East Asian Connection
However, simpler types survive as folk instruments, for example among the Sora People . In this form, it was carried to South East Asia via Indian voyages which may have begun as early as the 2nd century BCE.
The first clear evidence of its presence in the islands of South East Asia is at the monument of Borobudur in Java (800- 850 AD) where it is shown several times on the external friezes.
It was then introduced into the mainland South East Asia, where early representations of these stick zithers can be found on a bas-relief at Angkor Wat from the beginning of the 12th century and on reliefs at the Bayon , which was built in the beginning of the 13th century.
In South East Asia the stick zithers became widespread and took on different shapes and local names. Examples of these are the phin nam tao with calabash in Thailand , dunde, santung and falundo in Sulawesi , the jungga on the East Indonesian island of Sumba and the sulepe on Halmahera .
The East African Connection
According to a generally accepted theory, seafarers from the Malay Islands , especially from Borneo, travelled across the Indian Ocean to East Africa following the long established Austronesian trade routes and introduced, apart from other things, the stick zither- zez– to the East African Coast during the ‘raiding and trading’ period, 6-9th centuries
Austronesian maritime trade network in the Indian Ocean
The first true maritime trade network in the Indian Ocean was by the Austronesian peoples of Island Southeast Asia, who built the first ocean-going ships. They established trade routes with Southern India and Sri Lanka as early as 1500 BC, ushering an exchange of material culture (like catamarans, outrigger boats, lashed-lug and sewn-plank boats, and paan) and cultigens (like coconuts, sandalwood, bananas, and sugarcane); as well as connecting the material cultures of India and China. Indonesians, in particular were trading in spices (mainly cinnamon and cassia) with East Africa using catamaran and outrigger boats and sailing with the help of the Westerlies in the Indian Ocean. This trade network expanded to reach as far as Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, resulting in the Austronesian colonization of Madagascar by the first half of the first millennium AD. It continued up to historic times, later becoming the Maritime Silk Road.
Transfer to Madagascar as part of Swahili coastal trading, 8th century onwards
On this Austronesian trade routes , seafarers from the 5th to 7th centuries could have reached Madagascar south along the East African coast, after having previously developed a kind of African-Indonesian culture on the East African coast. Unlike the tube-zither, the stick-zither is widespread along the East African coast. The stick-zither presumably spread among coastal populations during that period when a mixed Bantu/Austronesian trading community was settled on the coast.
This is supported by some Bantu-language names of staple foods (millet, beans) in Madagascar. Another indication of the double origin of the Malagasy stick zithers is the name jejy voatavo (or dzedzivoatavo ), made up of the Swahili word jejy (from zeze ) and the Malagasy word voatavo (“calabash”), for a stick zither in the west of the island.
Transfer to the Indian Ocean islands
The stick zither would have been transferred to Bourbon , now Réunion Island, through the slave trade before being introduced to the Seychelles. Trade relations with Madagascar were established since the colonisation of Bourbon of by French settlers from Fort Dauphin. The slave trade started from about 1685 from pirates who settled in the north of Madagascar and who occasionally brought slaves to Bourbon. But the French slave trade did not really begin until around 1718. Between 1725 and 1735, it is estimates that 4,123 Malagasy slaves were imported and in between 1773 to 1810 about 50,000 more slaves arrived in Réunion . The trade lasted for a hundred years until 1810. It then continued illegally for a few decades .
Transfer to Seychelles
After the creation of the settlement L’Etablissement Du Roi” ( now Victoria) on Mahé in 1778, the French settlers brought slaves from Bourbon to establish the foundations of the islands’ plantation economy which at that time was cotton and coconut. More kept on coming up until around 1874. Most of the slaves were initially from Madagascar and the East Coast of Africa especially Mozambique. A fair share also later on came from Central as well as Western Africa. I think it is fair to assume that the Malagasy slaves would have brought the Stick Zither of Seychelles– Zez Seselwa– with them to Seychelles during that time.
Or, could it be that the it was introduced directly from the East Coast of Africa?
Sources
*Using diverse sources of evidence for reconstructing the prehistory of musical exchanges in the Indian Ocean and their broader significance for cultural prehistory-Roger Blench- Kay Williamson Educational Foundation
Seychelles News Agency-Seychelles at 250: Liberated slaves in Seychelles and the birth of the Creole identity
Wikipedia
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