FROM CHINAMWALI TO CHILANGIZO:

The booklet does not give instructions on how the instructresses should be trained. Yet
many alangizi argued that a person can be qualified and chosen as an instructress, but it
would be difficult to do a good job without the necessary training. One current leader of
the instructresses testified:
I was ftrst elected in 1985 as mlangizi in the Association. I did not go for any training
but I see it as my gift. It was mainly at association meetings that I knew how chilangizo
was getting on in the churches, when the local church alangizi report about their work.
We were also advising them to use the books, for many were still instructing zachikunja
(of 'outside'). At least one of the instructresses should be able to read and the other one
can explain. I never travelled to the churches, and I never observed what they were
doing. I also asked the alangizi to call me whenever they need help.
(1nl. Amayi Kalua 26/06/2001)
The relevance of training in this case is not just to do with training a person to use the
book, rather the real problem lies in the fact that the women are not empowered to
understand chinamwali and therefore the training has to do with how they deal with
puberty and not just with a book.
Similarly, girls expressed their concern on the lack ofchilangizo kulikulu kwathu (at our
headquarters) such that some are defecting to other churches (Zelesi Nsabwe et aI,
20/3/2001). At one ofthe meetings, which was held for both the instructresses and their
girls, fifteen out of twenty girls expressed the same feelings that 'we were just wonder­
ing why as Baptists we do not have zilangizo like the Presbyterians and Roman Catho­
lics.' The meeting attracted twenty-one girls from four churches (lnt. Mercy Zakaria et
aI, 15/9/2001). The general desire expressed by the girls was for continual consistent
teaching as well as some girls' camps.
The above evidence portrays the true picture of chilangizo in the Baptist churches of
Lilongwe. It can, therefore, be argued that the alangizi in Lilongwe Baptist churches
have not been empowered to develop an effective ministry because they have been
forced to rely upon a book that does not address the puberty rite as a full ritual of tran­
sition and incorporation into the community. The result is that many girls are denied the
opportunity of going through a ritual that not only instructs them how to live but gives
them dignity as women and identity as Chewa Christian women. All this suggests that
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