FROM CHINAMWALI TO CHILANGIZO:

argued, must have come from a people who have a history that has shaped them as Afri­
can Christian women. Analysis ofthe content shows that the role ofthe instructresses is
firstly to make converts ofthe girls, and then give appropriate instruction upon puberty,
marriage, pregnancy, and birth ofthe baby.
In order to understand the practice and meaning of chilangizo in the Baptist churches,
chapter six gives a phenomenological description and analysis of three chilangizo cere­
monies performed at grassroots level. An assessment to see whether chilangizo is an
adequate Christian response to chinamwali at the end of the chapter shows that the
attempt to 'christianise' the traditional rite is far from achieving the real purpose which
stems from the church's failure to understand the socio-religious meaning of the rite in
order to adequately engage it with the Gospel. In view of such a failure, chapter seven
uses Chewa Scriptures to re-interpret chinamwali and suggests a way forward for a
Christian chinamwali in the Baptist churches, by providing the girls with continuous
instruction from pre-puberty until marriage and performing a Christian puberty cere­
mony which retains as much as possible ofthe traditional framework.
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