DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49272#0288
272 HARVARD AFRICAN STUDIES
The following morning at dawn, each guardian washes her ward, anoints her from head
to foot with oil and puts on her body new calico, ropes of beads being worn round the neck,
and on the head a little bark-cloth cap fringed with beads called chiwala. At a given signal,
each guardian picks up her ward on her shoulders and pretends to run away with her to
her own village. This is the signal for the fathers of the girls to run up and redeem their
children by making presents to the guardians. Each mwali is given her new name by her
guardian, often the guardian’s own or that of the girl’s grandmother. The girls are then set
down again, a procession is formed and all return to the village, with great rejoicing, as in
the case of the boys. The girls then disperse and go back to live with their mothers or
grandmothers. The wali may be made to give an exhibition of their dancing; they dance
chamba.
On the occasion of the first visit to Chiputu, as a kind of accessory, there is a ceremony
for young married men which forms, as mentioned elsewhere, the second part of their ini-
tiation ceremonies or Unyago.
It is known as Kulukwi and is a kind of test of manhood. It was formerly considered as
important as Lupanda, but now, I think, the last Kulukwi has been performed; for the
young men of the present day, largely emancipated from chief-rule and freed from the ties
of tribal custom, care less and less for their old method of up-bringing.
When Chiputu is about to take place, any young newly married men whose wives have
not become pregnant are pressed to go to their second ceremony. The wife may ask some
woman friend to act as his guardian or some woman may volunteer for the service. Often
the young fellow will make pretence of not wanting to go; he may be chased and caught,
and with his hands tied behind his back, wearing bark-cloth, he is conducted to the cere-
mony by other men.
Each young man is attended by a woman guardian and during the first visit to Chiputu,
they sleep in two rows of grass sheds facing each other, the women in one line, the young
men in the other line, each facing his woman guardian, with fires in the free-way between
the two rows of huts. Or they may sleep in one big grass shed, each woman guardian next
to the young man she attends, and so in pairs all down both sides of the grass shed, the
fires being made in the middle. The young men have to pay for a share in the food and beer
made for Chiputu, but each guardian cooks for her man.
On the afternoon of lyuwa lya kusyunga, the young men are taken off to a place
in the bush perhaps a quarter to one mile away from Chiputu, ku-lukwi “ to lukwi ” as
is said.
Here they are formed into a semi-circle of from half a dozen to ten or twenty of them,
each with his guardian and a crowd of the grown-up population from the village in attend-
ance. Good advice is given them as to their behavior, especially in regard to their wives
and mothers-in-law. Anyone who has any particularly bad trait is sure to hear of it now,
the mother or father of the young man having arranged that it shall be brought up. The
The following morning at dawn, each guardian washes her ward, anoints her from head
to foot with oil and puts on her body new calico, ropes of beads being worn round the neck,
and on the head a little bark-cloth cap fringed with beads called chiwala. At a given signal,
each guardian picks up her ward on her shoulders and pretends to run away with her to
her own village. This is the signal for the fathers of the girls to run up and redeem their
children by making presents to the guardians. Each mwali is given her new name by her
guardian, often the guardian’s own or that of the girl’s grandmother. The girls are then set
down again, a procession is formed and all return to the village, with great rejoicing, as in
the case of the boys. The girls then disperse and go back to live with their mothers or
grandmothers. The wali may be made to give an exhibition of their dancing; they dance
chamba.
On the occasion of the first visit to Chiputu, as a kind of accessory, there is a ceremony
for young married men which forms, as mentioned elsewhere, the second part of their ini-
tiation ceremonies or Unyago.
It is known as Kulukwi and is a kind of test of manhood. It was formerly considered as
important as Lupanda, but now, I think, the last Kulukwi has been performed; for the
young men of the present day, largely emancipated from chief-rule and freed from the ties
of tribal custom, care less and less for their old method of up-bringing.
When Chiputu is about to take place, any young newly married men whose wives have
not become pregnant are pressed to go to their second ceremony. The wife may ask some
woman friend to act as his guardian or some woman may volunteer for the service. Often
the young fellow will make pretence of not wanting to go; he may be chased and caught,
and with his hands tied behind his back, wearing bark-cloth, he is conducted to the cere-
mony by other men.
Each young man is attended by a woman guardian and during the first visit to Chiputu,
they sleep in two rows of grass sheds facing each other, the women in one line, the young
men in the other line, each facing his woman guardian, with fires in the free-way between
the two rows of huts. Or they may sleep in one big grass shed, each woman guardian next
to the young man she attends, and so in pairs all down both sides of the grass shed, the
fires being made in the middle. The young men have to pay for a share in the food and beer
made for Chiputu, but each guardian cooks for her man.
On the afternoon of lyuwa lya kusyunga, the young men are taken off to a place
in the bush perhaps a quarter to one mile away from Chiputu, ku-lukwi “ to lukwi ” as
is said.
Here they are formed into a semi-circle of from half a dozen to ten or twenty of them,
each with his guardian and a crowd of the grown-up population from the village in attend-
ance. Good advice is given them as to their behavior, especially in regard to their wives
and mothers-in-law. Anyone who has any particularly bad trait is sure to hear of it now,
the mother or father of the young man having arranged that it shall be brought up. The