FROM CHINAMWALI TO CHILANGIZO:

women repeated most of what had been said by the instructresses. One woman
commenting on the existing good relationship within the family encouraged the girls to
maintain the same. Another woman encouraged them to be hard working in helping
their parents' in house chores.
After instructing the girls, women counselled each other. Following the same pattern, a
woman would give money to the one she was addressing and either rebuke or commend
her. The money was in very small denominations of lOt and 20t coins, but the women
seemed to enjoy this bit. It took another fifteen minutes.
One instructress thanked all the women and apologized to me for having taken so long
to finish. She then prayed. The money was counted and given to the girls. I did not hear
the total amounts. They were told to go and buy soap to keep their clothes clean.
Then food was served and since it was a bigger room, the girls shared their food with
the instructresses; I shared with the pastor's wife, and the rest of the women sat outside
to have their meal. The whole chilangizo ceremony took about two and a half hours
from the bathing ritual to the end ofthe meal.
6.3 CHILANGIZO CEREMONY AT MPHINDO BAPTIST CHURCH 69
Mphindo Baptist Church is a rural church about ten kilometres from the city, off the
main road towards the southern part of the country in the area of Traditional Authority
Chadza (see Map B).
I arrived at the pastor's home about eleven in the morning. One instructress welcomed
me together with the amayi busa. They took me to a smaller house, belonging to one of
the pastor's daughters. We sat on an already laid mat. The room was quite small. Soon
two more instructresses came in. For the next hour, the instructresses went in and out of
the room which provided me with an opportunity to ask them some questions. Finally,
the pastor sent a message to remind them that time was running out.
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