FROM CHINAMWALI TO CHILANGIZO:

one informant stated, 'this must be kept as a secret and that it was just a one time ritual,
not to be repeated or continued'. Some informants said that this practice was the cause
of polygamous families, for some men decided to marry the girl after the ritual act. In
some cases it was the cause for premarital pregnancies among girls for some men con­
tinued to meet with the girl secretly. However, few informants insisted that the ritual is
still practised in spite of the HN/AIDS pandemic. Their argument is that the family
looks for someone whom they see as HN/AIDS-free, for they claim that the elderly
women, just by looking at someone in the eyes, are able to identify those who are sick.
The belief behind the sex ritual is to 'end' the menses whereby the girl is given the
strength ofa man, who ritually 'opens her womb'. Alternatively, the medicine acts like
a husband and protects her from any danger until she is married. Sometimes the small
herbal roots are run through a string (mkuzi) and tied to the waist of the girl to symbol­
ize a husband. The first menstruation ritual therefore is done as a protective ritual
whereby the parents can continue with their sexual activity without harming the girl.
The girl is also free to marry and have sex until the time of her actual chinamwali. It
remains the responsibility of the chief, after chikule, to arrange for the girls in his vil­
lage to be initiated. The girls can be initiated at any of the following ceremonies - at a
funeral or its commemoration, at chikudzu-kudzu or at mkangali.
A girl can be initiated at a funeral ofan elderly person who belongs to the nyau society.
It is believed that an elderly person cannot go to the graveyard alone, but that he must
be escorted by a maiden(s) who is related to the dead person. Dressed only up to the
waist (nowadays they put on a petticoat covering the chest) the girls lead the procession
to the graveyard, and if one is too young to walk, she is carried on the shoulders by the
phungu (tutor). In some places the girls reach the graveyard, peep in the grave and then
return home while the rest continue with the burial. In other places, the girls do not
reach the graveyard but return on the way.
The girls are then put in seclusion in another house where instruction is carried out
every night until the immediate funeral rites are over two to three days later. Instruction
can begin even a night before the burial ceremony and continue after. Nevertheless, the
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