FROM CHINAMWALI TO CHILANGIZO:

church leaders, both men and women, and alangizi who have lived since the inception
ofchilangizo and have been involved in the training ofother leaders. The rural members
who had been previously initiated into the traditional rite were helpful in clarifying
some details of the traditional rite. None of the girls I interviewed had undergone the
traditional rite. Some of them had been instructed by the church while others had been
instructed by a grandmother or an aunt on their first menses. However, the girls were
able to voice their suggestions for an improved way of chilangizo in particular and the
biblical instruction in general.
Apart from Baptist members, I also interviewed five women outside the Baptist
denomination and ten women from other ethnic groups in order to widen my under­
standing ofhow this cultural phenomenon is handled in other churches and societies.
There were a number ofdifficulties encountered in the research. While I gained the con­
fidence of many rural instructresses because of my position as Amayi busa (pastor's
wife) and teacher at the seminary, they perceived my role to be one who had authority
from 'headquarters' to correct them and tell them the right way to carry out chilangizo.
This tended to obscure the true picture of chilangizo. This became evident after several
discussions. For example, many instructresses did not mention about the elongation of
the labia minora until after several meetings. Similarly during participant observation,
the instructresses thought I was checking whether they used the booklet or not, and this
was evidenced in the way they read the booklet to the girls at the ceremony.
Note taking, tape recording and photographs. From the beginning, I sought permis­
sion from informants to take notes and also to take photos where appropriate. Many
church members were happy that their names would appear in a book and so did not
mind my taking notes. With the traditional ceremony I was forbidden to take notes in
public as it would mean revealing their secrets. However, during interviews many
informants did not mind, though they did not feel comfortable for their names to appear
in the book. Thus, all informants' names for the traditional customs do not appear in the
text, and in the list of primary sources they appear by their titles only. Tape recording
was mainly used for recording songs in the chinamwali and the 'mock' ceremonies.
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