FROM CHINAMWALI TO CHILANGIZO:

ground. While crawling, each one pushes the stone with her head to the fireplace.
They stand up after they are given some gift ofmoney. After making the fire, all the
anamkungwi carry the clay pot on to the fire, using not their whole hand, but one
finger from both hands. The leading namkungwi then pours water into it using a cup.
She follows the same brewing process with the rest of the beer. This beer is called
mowa wa njobvu (the elephant's beer). Only the chiefs and the nyau leaders drink this
beer.
In the afternoon the atmosphere was quiet. Only women were seen busy around the
fires. Some were pushing the firewood into the fire; some were putting flour into the
drums while others were stirring; still others were seated and chatting. At our house
my informant and her mother were also busy with their cooking. When the water was
hot enough, the mother took maize flour and poured it into the drum while my
informant was stirring with a long wooden spoon. We sat and chatted while the
porridge was boiling.
As we sat we heard some noise and saw some children running towards us from the
chiefs house shouting 'zirombo! zirombo!' ('animals! animals! '). When we looked,
we saw four masked young men each carrying a stick and a small axe, moving up and
down to where people were. When people ran away into their houses, the zirombo
would also go away, and so on. This went on for a while since the children would run
away and return inviting the zirombo, saying, 'come! come!' I saw some giving the
zirombo money, which I learnt later was in small denominations of 10 or 20 Tambala
coins. A few people would give them a note offive Kwacha.
The pots ofporridge were then taken offthe fires and poured into other drums/pots to
cool down. After having our supper, my informant and I went to sleep in a smaller
house (her brother's).) My informant explained the day's activities, especially what
we had missed and what we were not going to see during the night. She did not know
yet how many initiates there were, but indicated that the girls would sleep in one of
the houses near the chiefs house with other girls. The zirombo, nkhandwe (wild
dogs) would be performing that night. They made all sorts of noise - knocking on
doors from house to house around the village to be given money. The young men
accompanying the zirombo were singing and clapping hands for the zirombo. After
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