FROM CHINAMWALI TO CHILANGIZO:
FROM CHINAMWALI TO CHILANGIZO:
FROM CHINAMWALI TO CHILANGIZO:
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7. CONCLUSION: <strong>TO</strong>WARDS A CHRISTIAN <strong>CHINAMWALI</strong><br />
7.1 INTRODUCTION<br />
We have explored the development and the performance of chilangizo and found that it<br />
is an inadequate response to chinamwali. The purpose of the present study is not to<br />
dwell on the past, but to examine the past and to allow Christ to redeem the past, so that<br />
the Gospel may provide a way forward for chilangizo in the Baptist churches in Malawi.<br />
In view of the evaluation in chapter six, chapter seven concludes this study by re-inter<br />
preting the puberty rite in the light of the Chichewa Scriptures and proposing a way<br />
forward for Christian chinamwali.<br />
7.2 RE-INTERPRETING <strong>CHINAMWALI</strong><br />
It is unfortunate that generally chinamwali and the meanings of its particular activities<br />
have not been well understood by the Christian tradition (including BACOMA) in<br />
Malawi, and Christians have not used the Scriptures, especially in the mother tongue, to<br />
interpret the rite and its multi-faceted meanings. Baptists believe in the authority of the<br />
Scriptures to guide the way they conduct their affairs (see chapter three), it is therefore<br />
not enough just to find out which rites 'liberate people as individuals or groups and<br />
which ones oppress them' as suggested by Chakanza (1988: 167). Nor is it adequate just<br />
to 'christianise' the rites without understanding their socio-religious roles in society.<br />
This is an encounter between the Gospel and culture in which the vernacular Scriptures<br />
should become the hermeneutic ofthe Chewa culture. Using Bediako's words (2001:2),<br />
the centrality of the Scriptures means 'more than the importance of a few selected<br />
verses as proof text,' for the Chewa ought recognize and acknowledge Jesus as their<br />
own Saviour and Lord and as the one who fulfils and transforms their culture, as they<br />
enter deeply into and search the Scriptures (K and G Bediako 2002:3).<br />
From the perspective of the Christian faith therefore, this section will consider the<br />
theological issues in the chinamwali rite and give biblical interpretations. The Scriptures<br />
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