The Sunday News
HELD in February every year, the Ngoni Nchwala Ceremony is the first of several chieftainship-based ceremonies in Zambia. Each chief and his people hold a ceremony for their community. There are about seventy such ceremonies in Zambia held throughout the year. For example, there is the Kuomboka Ceremony of Chief Lewanika of the Lozi when he and his people travel by boat to higher ground when the Zambezi River waters begin to flood low lying areas.
In Lilongwe we put up at the Mdidi Lodge. It offered good accommodation and in our view a good name which fired our imagination. In SiNdebele the name has unpleasant connotations, but not so in Chewa. Same words have different meanings in different communities. Little did we know that we were destined to meet up with more and more of the word.
We checked out in the morning and linked up with Mulekeni Ngulube who had put up with relatives. The first thing was to get the wheel with a puncture fixed. Once the wheel was fixed we began the haul towards the border between Malawi and Zambia. Once again, we observed that the road fringes were overgrown with maize and tobacco crops. Now and then we spotted tobacco curing hut structures.
On the religious front we could not help seeing several church buildings belonging to the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP). We were intrigued by the proliferation of these churches within the Nkhoma Synod. Mulekeni who was always on standby to give us explanations where these were needed told us that this was the denomination to which Malawian Life President Hastings Kamuzu Banda belonged. In addition to the Presbyterian Church introduced to Malawi by the Scottish missionaries there were mosques that belonged to people of Islamic persuasion. Islam had a deeper root in Malawi than in Zimbabwe.
Soon our eyes were glued on the imposing high billboards with screaming messages. “Kuenda ndi mdidi”. That word once again! We were curious to get the meaning in relation to the Protector condoms being advertised. HIV/Aids is a scourge in Malawi too. Our interpreter came to our rescue; “you walk safely with the Protector condoms”. Next to the word Protector was an image of a shield, of the type used by the Ngoni and its name was chishango. We could figure out without Mulekeni’s assistance that chishango is the equivalent of our SiNdebele word isihlangu for the shield.
Along the way we observed cars with leather shields fixed in front of them. We figured out that these were also heading towards Mtenguleni, our own destination. There were women sporting green chitenge cloths emblazoned with Ngoni shields. But what fascinated us the most were people travelling there on bicycles. Each man was carrying a lady and sometimes a gentleman on the bicycle carrier. It was the way the passengers sat on the carriers which looked strange to us. The passengers sat on the carrier with both their legs together and they were facing sideways. The carriers were provided with some padding to make them comfortable. Back home bicycle carriers are never equipped with cushions.
The Nchwala Ceremony was reinstated under the reign of Paramount Chief Mpezeni III. The incumbent now is Paramount Chief Mpezeni IV. During the year Paramount Chief Mpezeni lives at Luangeni within the royal palace known as the Ipendukeni. The ceremony starts with the chief moving in an ox cart from Ipendukeni to Mtenguleni where the festivities are held. The royal palace at Mtenguleni is known as Laweni. Once again, we do figure out that the word is a corruption of Elawini, the locative for Ilawu.
The ceremony is attended by the Ngoni from Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia. Each chief and his delegation undertake the trip to Mtenguleni. There are some Ngoni people who now reside in towns and they too attend the ceremony. In fact, the organising committee is chaired by an Ngoni man from Lusaka.
The Ngoni and non-Ngoni chiefs begin arriving at Mtenguleni on Thursday. Paramount Chief Mpezeni meets the various delegations on Friday the eve of the pinnacle of the celebrations. At this stage the chief is confined to the Laweni Palace which is a short distance from the circular arena where the celebrations take place.
Meanwhile, we got to the Mchinji border post where our movement was facilitated by the fact that the leader of delegation Mulekeni held a blue passport. We got preferential treatment. We arrived at Mtenguleni two days after Chief Mpezeni had got there. We were driven to Mtenguleni to get a feel of the festivities taking place on Friday. The place was teeming with people. There was singing and dancing. We observed though that on this day the dancers were not clad in traditional attire.
That was reserved for the grand finale the following day. There was beer galore. We were honoured with a visit from Paramount Chief Mpezeni IV who had been alerted to our presence. After that we continued sampling the singing and dancing that went on into the night. We were then taken by a Mr Mhlanga, a cultural officer for the Chipata district who was tasked to host us during our visit. He led us to where we were going to spend the night. We were curious to witness the grand finale the following day on Saturday.
