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FROM CHINAMWALI TO CHILANGIZO:

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nences too great a strain as well as meaningless. Perhaps that is why many Christian<br />

men insisted that the alangizi be taught to instruct only Christian things and not zachi­<br />

kunja.<br />

With regard to the first menstruation of a girl, twelve out of twenty rural girls who<br />

attended a chilangizo at Chimenya church, explained that their mother gave them some<br />

herbal medicine to eat at the end of their first menstruation. The mothers were church<br />

members. This confirmed the belief in sexual abstinence until the girl is given some<br />

herbal mixture to purify the menstrual blood. This substantiates Edet's statement that:<br />

Blood is treated with awe and circumspection in all cultures, for it has a mysterious<br />

potency that can be dangerous unless properly handled.... In connection with puberty<br />

and birth, women during menstruation and birth carry a contagion and require ceremonial<br />

cleansing.<br />

(Edet 1992:27)<br />

Some of the girls mentioned that they were forbidden to salt any food while cooking<br />

when menstruating, while others were not forbidden. The women who were interviewed<br />

expressed fear that to break these taboos would bring death or mdulo upon the girl.<br />

Most alangizi also admitted that many rural Christians, especially mothers, go through<br />

these practices for fear ofbreaking the ancestral customs, and hence suffering from mis­<br />

fortunes. Although chilangizo has been in existence for over thirty years in BACOMA,<br />

it has not brought liberation to Chewa women as they still live in fear of breaking<br />

taboos and thus bringing misfortune and disharmony upon themselves, their families<br />

and the whole community.<br />

Chewa Christians, both men and women, are in a dilemma because they want to remain<br />

true to their Christian values, yet the fear of breaking traditional taboos and being pun­<br />

ished is great.<br />

6.9 CONCLUSION<br />

Chilangizo was an attempt to 'christianize' the traditional rite, but in many respects, it is<br />

far from achieving the real purpose. The booklet does not adequately respond to the<br />

socio-religious purpose that chinamwali achieves in traditional Chewa society. In chi-<br />

109

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