FROM CHINAMWALI TO CHILANGIZO:

6.2 CHILANGIZO CEREMONY AT CHIMENYA BAPTIST CHURCH 68
Chimenya Baptist is a rural church. It is situated ten kilometres away from the city,
along the main road in the western part of Lilongwe district in the area of Traditional
Authority Njewa (see Map B).
I arrived at the pastor's home about eleven in the morning. After exchanging greetings
amayi busa excused herself to go and inform the instructresses about my arrival. For
about twenty minutes women came in, greeted me, and went out. Then amayi busa and
two women asked me to follow them. At the back of the pastor's homestead were sev­
eral houses, and we entered one of them. A group of women were busy outside, some
making fire, while others were cutting vegetables, and a container ofwater was heating
on another fire. I was ushered into the house, to a living room with good chairs. One by
one the women came, greeted me, and walked out. Two instructresses came inside and
stayed with me, but then they kept going out and coming in. Eventually I learnt that
they were waiting for one initiate whose parents had sent her to a maize mill. We waited
for more than thirty minutes when eventually they decided to begin without her.
One instructress asked her colleague if the bathing water was ready. She was told that
even the girls were ready. They were waiting for us. I was then told to follow them. We
were led to a small grass bathroom behind the kitchen where the two girls were waiting
for us.
One instructress helped to undress the girls. While one was waiting, the instructress
started to bath the other girl. She washed her at the back and the chest, and left her to
finish bathing herself. She told the girl to wash thoroughly the armpits and under the
breasts to remove any sweat which could bring bad odour. As the girl finished bathing,
the other instructress asked her to show if she was pulling her labia minora. The girl
opened her legs a little bit and the instructress nodded for approval (I did not see any­
thing). After dressing, she was escorted out to another room where she waited for the
other girl. As the girl went out, the instructress assisted the second girl with the same
process and checked her labia minora. She then commented that 'this is very important
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