FROM CHINAMWALI TO CHILANGIZO:

etween humans and Chiuta. It is also through Jesus that the Chewa people can pray to
Chiuta and receive his blessings. Because Jesus is Saviour and Victor over all the spiri­
tual powers, even over those who pose like ancestors, he is able to protect all who trust
him against mdulo, misfortunes and evil forces. Jesus is also able to heal all our dis­
eases. The Scriptures teach sexual purity until marriage and sexual faithfulness in mar­
riage. Sexual purity also protects the girls from contracting the deadly disease of
RN/AIDS. We have also seen that Scriptures affirm the traditional communitas and
encourages the Christian community to conduct Christian chinamwali in a similar man­
ner. The way forward and the proposed liturgy for Christian chinamwali in the last sec­
tion reflect this biblical re-interpretation ofthe traditional rites.
7.3 THE WAY FORWARD FOR CHINAMWALI AND A PROPOSED
LITURGY
The assessment of chilangizo for Chewa girls on puberty in the Baptist churches as a
response to the pre-Christian rite has shown that the response falls short of meeting the
real needs ofthe Chewa people. The root ofthe problem is similar to the experiences of
the Akan ofGhana summarised as follows:
Up to now, our churches have tended to avoid the question [How does Jesus of Nazareth
belong to the Akan clan, family, tribe and nation?] and have presented the Gospel
as though it was concerned with an entirely different compartment of life, unrelated to
traditional religious piety. As a result, many people are uncertain about how the Jesus
of the Church's preaching saves them from the terrors and fears that they experience in
their traditional worldview. This shows how important it is to relate Christian understanding
and experience to the realm of the ancestors. If this is not done, many African
Christians will continue to be men and women "living at two levels", half African and
halfEuropean, but never belonging properly to either. We need to meet God in the Lord
Jesus Christ speaking immediately to us in our particular circumstances, in a way that
assures us that we can be authentic Africans and true Christians.
(Bediako 2000:23)
The reason why the booklet chilangizo is not an adequate response, or that reality does
not match theory; or that church leaders, the instructresses, and the girls complain about
the rite, stems from this lack of understanding of the Chewa worldview. The Baptist
practitioners agree that chinamwali is important and should continue as a ritual. This is
in agreement with the general observations concerning the 'holistic' nature of rituals
that'African rituals have an import that is at once psychological, spiritual, political, and
121