FROM CHINAMWALI TO CHILANGIZO:

oth the booklet and the perfonnance of chilangizo in the Baptist churches in Lilongwe
need radical changes.
Female church members also found it difficult to express their struggle with some ofthe
traditional practices that surround all the life cycle rituals. The women have heard or
been told that such practices were unchristian. At first I did not understand why it was
mainly male members who readily commented to me that most of the rural instruc­
tresses teach things that are not Christian. Yet many instructresses denied such allega­
tions. Here again, it shows the inadequacy of the way Gospel and culture have been
related to interpret the life cycle rituals.
In the course of several meetings and discussions with alangizi it was acknowledged
that many women experience tension in their homes with respect to some traditional
beliefs and practices (Int. Mary Chinyama et al 15/9/2001). Many women admitted that
they found it difficult to break away from some of the practices for fear of the conse-
quences.
Most of the taboos had to do with sexual abstinence (kudika, 'waiting') and we have
learnt from chapter four that to have sex during one's menses is taboo. Traditionally
also the parents must abstain from sexual relations during the first menstruation of a
daughter in the home. The women mentioned other occasions when parents practice
sexual abstinence, such as when a daughter is pregnant; when a child is sick; when a
child is away from home; when a child's clothing item is left outside the house at night;
when a mother is away from home, when a wife has a new born baby until it has under­
gone a ritual of kutenga mwana ('taking' the child) three to six months after its birth.
They also referred to sexual abstinence at a communal level, during initiation ceremo­
nies, during a funeral, and in some cases when a chief is away. In all these situations, it
is the responsibility of the wife to make sure abstinence is carried out in her marriage.
However, if the husband secretly has sex outside marriage the taboo does not apply.
Pressure is therefore put on the woman while the man can have sex somewhere else, and
this is hazardous to their lives, especially, in view of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The
Christian husbands, who want to remain faithful in their marriages, find such absti-
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