Cultural Awareness March 14

I wrote this on March 14 but have been out of internet connections since then so here goes. Zambia and Victoria Falls coming soon!

March 13, 2010 Cultural Training experience
First I want to say that all weekend I have been watching CNN, BBC, and Sky News off and on. My heart and my thoughts are with the Japanese people in the midst of this horrible disaster. I have had contact with several Japanese friends in the US who report their families are safe. I am still concerned about friends in Iwate Prefecture who we have not heard from. I can’t imagine being in the midst of this and trying to cope.
Yesterday, at last, I attended the cultural training that I had signed up for in February. It was a lot of fun and truly worth the $50.00 fee. I was picked up with another woman Tabachi, who is Malawian but has been living in Namibia, and transported to a “cultural village” near a resort some kilometers outside of Lilongwe. There I met Adam a young graduate student from Pittsburg working at the Permaculture center, a Norwegian couple Anna and Udin and another Norwegian whose name I can’t pronounce so can’t spell. Anna is working at the Malawi statistical center and the men are working on projects sponsored by the Norwegian government in Malawi (Norway has committed significant resources in Malawi). There were also three staff members – Joel, Rebecca, and Francis, the leader.
We had a really interesting and open discussion about culture ours and theirs. Many things I had observed were confirmed such as the cultural avoidance of conflict and the likelihood that if you don’t deal with it, it will blow up. Yes often means no and sometimes it is very hard to determine when yes is no. (I think that’s what happened with our maid/gardener –Regina had been pushing him and I think he just had enough). Francis talked about the difference in culture between government and private workers. The government workers see the organization as theirs and since the organization is very top heavy no one does anything without instruction and it doesn’t worry them that they may not do anything at all on a given day because it’s “their” organization. This occasioned a big discussion of ways to motivate workers in the private and NGO sector. The Malawians accept that there is really nothing one can do about government which includes the University where I have noticed nearly everyone has another job or business and the majority of those who don’t still don’t work very hard. [There are a few people who work very hard indeed].
Most interesting was the discussion of the importance of children and marriage which is not a legal thing but rather an agreement between partners and family. First it is important to understand that the Chewa which is the largest group and is located mostly in the south and central area is matrilineal and matriarchal. The other groups who live in the north are patriarchal and patrilineal. Among the Chewa the mother’s brothers decide if the match is a good one, if so a bride price of some sort is paid, and the couple moves in together. The sole purpose of marriage is bear children who are the wealth of the family and the village. If there is no pregnancy in 2-3 months family members will begin asking what is wrong. After 6 months the man may go to another women to demonstrate he does not have the problem – polygamy is acceptable especially if the first wife is barren. The first wife must prepare a house built by the husband for the new wife. If it is determined that the husband has a problem – ie he hasn’t sired children with other women – then a fisi (hyena) is appointed from his family to go into the woman’s bed and sire a child. She will know who he is but she will not have a say about who is chosen. The more children one has the wealthier one is. When I say I have two children people feel sorry for me.
When girls have menarche they are initiated (chenamwali) by the old ladies, the Anankungwis, who are women beyond childbearing age. The instruction is not verbal it is in the form of a dance. The dance shows girls how to hoe and how to have sex – it was an amazingly graphic dance for a very conservative society– there was no question about the message. I of course joined in much to the delight of the women but I hurt today. I will post some pictures and later video if I can.
When the woman becomes pregnant the Anankungwis come to instruct her how to behave as a pregnant person. Until she receives this instruction she cannot tie her chitenge above her waist which is the message to the community that she is pregnant – however no one mentions her pregnancy since this is considered bad luck. Pregnant women may not eat salt – a good idea among people who use a lot of salt, and in some places she cannot eat eggs since it is believed the yolk will block the birth canal. (Or that the baby will grow too large). She is also instructed in local medicine to take and signs and symptoms of labor. Once labor starts or is close, the husband moves out of the house and the older ladies and midwives move in until the baby is born or the woman goes to the health center to deliver. If the baby is born alive the women ululate, if still born they are silent and it is believed that a witch has acted against the family causing the death. Following the birth the anankungwis instruct the woman in the care of her baby including the preparation of the medicine to be placed on the fontanels for protection and may help her for a while. One is considered a girl no matter what her age until she has a child – consequently we read about women giving birth to stones after a pseudo pregnancy and claiming they were bewitched and worse still women stealing babies from the hospital after an apparent pregnancy. A child belongs to the whole community but if the parents split up in a Chewa family the children belong to the mother – this also means the men may have little role in child rearing. Uncles and aunts on the mother’s side may have a more prominent role than the father.
For the boys the ceremony is called Gule Wamakulu. Boys are usually 12 or 13 when they undergo this initiation to adulthood, however older men who have not undergone it and women who have borne children may also go through this ceremony. There is a strong belief in spirits so the ceremony is held in the graveyard where the spirits of the ancestors reside and which is consequently a pretty scary place only entered to bury someone, dedicate a tombstone, or undergo the initiation. During the entire 1-2 week initiation period the initiates are not allowed to eat salt and must go through a series of tests most of which cannot be revealed as they are secret. However to prove their stealth, boys might be sent to fetch water from the river which is usually far away and return without being seen or detected by any women (since it is verboten for men to carry water). They must also demonstrate that they have the skills to be an adult male which includes skill in building huts, weaving mats, making hoe handles, and hunting. If he does not pass these tests the boy may be ejected from the village. Once the initiation is complete the boy is a man and may marry and must not sleep in his parent’s house. I am not sure how this works for boys who go off to secondary school and college after the initiation.
Usually in matriarchal/matrilineal societies women have more privilege and are also more likely to be educated but this is not the case in Malawi. The most educated women and those with the best health and lowest birthrate are from the north where the predominant culture, Tumbuka, is patriarchal and the children belong to man. I have wondered about this since I came and finally have an answer. The missionaries came to Malawi about the same time as another tribe the Ngoni. Because both were newcomers they teamed up to protect themselves from the Chewa. The Chewa were strongest in the south so both groups moved north. The missionaries set up schools wherever they went and they went where the Ngoni another matriarchal tribe went. The best schools ended up in the North around Mzuzu and the Chewa and Ngoni there are more educated and as we know the more educated a woman the fewer children she has and the healthier her family. However the north is also where men have the longest life expectancy even when they live in rural areas. Overall men the south and center have very short lives 49-51 years and it is worse for rural men who also receive few health services.
I will write more about sickness and death rituals later and will do an entire blog on witchcraft a belief that permeates all the cultures regardless of tribe or religion.