FROM CHINAMWALI TO CHILANGIZO:

ceremonies were also restricted to only a few people: three instructresses at Mtendere
church, and four at Mphindo church.
In contrast, Rachel Banda (2001 :232-272) reports that Baptist women in the Southern
Malawi perform their church chilangizo communally, involving the whole Christian
community, and perform it with a lot of action - singing, dancing, dramatizing, expla­
nations, illustrations, object lessons. At the beginning of one such ceremony, she
observed that: 'The afternoon was filled with the excitement of the event in the neigh­
bouring villages' (Banda 2001 :232). People expected that it was going to be an exciting
event which they eagerly anticipated.
The idea ofpuberty rites is to impress upon the initiate that she is no more a child but an
adult, hence the repeated reminder by the instructresses: 'Mwateremutu mwakula!'
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('What has happened means you are now a grown up!'). Ifthis occasion then is to have
a significant impact upon the life of a girl, the performance of chilangizo in Lilongwe
needs considerable re-assessment and change.
There is a huge dissonance between theory and practice. We have seen that the booklet
has a twofold purpose, namely to make converts and instruction on chilangizo. Oral
interviews revealed that the convert-making part of the booklet is virtually not done, or
known. None of the alangizi knew about this role (Int. Amayi Mwale et aI, 13/8/2001).
Even those who meet with the girls once in a while, do so only to check their menstrua­
tion record, and not to give instruction on conversion (Int. Amayi Samu, 21/6/2001).
Practically from the beginning of chilangizo in the Baptist Convention, the emphasis
has been on instructing the girls at puberty, and not making converts. While the booklet
instructs parents to inform the alangizi when a daughter has her first menses, many par­
ents do not; and that is why others used my request as coming from the 'headquarters'
so that parents would send their daughters for the ceremony. With the exception of
Chimenya church, the mothers of the girls were left out of the ceremony, while in the
booklet, the mother is supposed to be instructed as well.