FROM CHINAMWALI TO CHILANGIZO:

in the festival, its preparation has a symbolic function at the chiefs house. It is per­
formed as follows.
All the anamkungwi and the chiefs' wives fetch three stones for the fireplace from a
close-by area. They drop the stones about six meters away from the fireplace. The
women then make a fence with mats or cloths to shield all onlookers. Lined up inside
the fence, lying flat on the ground, are first the leading namkungwi, followed by the
chiefs wife, and the second namkungwi or the chiefs second wife (if he has two
wives). While crawling on their bellies like snakes, with their arms folded to the elbow,
each woman pushes a stone with her head to the fireplace. 34 No one is supposed to see
them except those shielding them. The rest of the women give them monetary gifts
while ululating, before the anamkungwi and the chiefs' wives rise up. After lighting the
fire, all the chiefs carry the clay pot on to the fire, but using only their small fingers. The
leading anamkungwi pours water into the pot. She goes ahead and brews the beer day
by day for the next five days. This beer is called mowa wa njobvu (the elephant's beer).
It is a symbolic beer cooked on fire which has protective deterrents and is drunk only by
the chiefs and the nyau leaders (akunjira) as representatives of the ancestors. It is a
symbol ofhonouring the authorities.
At night the initiates sleep in the company of older girls in one house. The nkhandwe
(wild dogs) nyau dance outside the house to frighten the girls by throwing some leaves
and/or ash into the house at the girls and by trying to force open the door while the girls
scream and resist by holding the door from inside. Sometimes the nyau make fire by the
door and burn tobacco leaves or hot chillies, blowing the smoke into the house in order
to choke the girls. All this stresses the importance and mysterious nature of the cere­
mony. The activity aims to sensitise the initiates to the fact that they are in transition as
they leave their old childish ways and move into the adult world. When the aphungu
(tutors) see that it is too much for the girls, they redeem them by giving the nyau
monetary gifts, then they stop harassing the girls but continue to dance. 35 This gives the
girls a sense ofsecurity knowing that there is someone to save them.
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