DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49272#0385
THE WAYAO OF NYASALAND
369
to the row of girls, singing, “ Anambereka mbereka! ” refrain, “Mapereka!” {ku-pereka, to
give). Leaving the pole at the girls’ feet, they retreat, after which the girls take it up
and advance to the boys in the same way.
Chibiro is danced rather like mkomaula. A group of men dancers go round in a circle,
and within this circle may be a line of women dancing to the same time but with rather
different steps than the men. This I have seen danced by a trained band of dancers, but
onlookers join in. A man may lead a woman into the middle and embrace her. There is
a tendency among these trained dancers to forsake the old time stately embrace for some-
thing which is not so unobjectionable.
Lichipi is a new dance, but one that is well-liked. The drums are as in mkomaula. Men,
women, and young people dance in a circle followed by entry into the middle, and ku-punila.
Mbasula is danced by men on one side and women on the other side of a circle, to drums
mchoso, ndimbe and mangaka. Any of them may dance out into the middle after going
round in a circle.
Liyaya is an old dance for the older men and women. Like mbasula, the steps are slower
and are characterized by side-to-side movements.
• Mtukunya: drums, likuti, chinganga, and a mchoso drum called mbitiku, because it is
so played as to give the sound “mbitiku!” It is danced by men in a crowd. While the feet
do little, shuffling steps, the buttocks are jerked out backwards and forwards.
Chandamali: a dance of recent introduction resembles utuli.1
There are three dances which are danced by special dancers.
Mlenjesa: the same as the mtseche of the Anyanja,2 generally danced by four men who
wear a kind of kilt made of strips of palm-leaf, and rattles, mas ewe, on their legs. They
may also wear the liungu, a headdress made of the tail-feathers, unga, of the chiunga bird:
it is like a broad hat-brim without a crown, the feathers projecting radially. The mbande,
a piece of a shell which comes from the Zanzibar coast is also often worn (Pl. Ill, fig. 2).
The drums which give the time are chimining o, played very rapidly indeed. The steps are
incredibly fast, with greater excursions than in the other dances, and usually end up with
a jump into the air and a pose with grimacing. A circle is formed round them by the young
people who, in the intervals, walk round singing and clapping. The dancers may call out
any girl for the embrace.
Msanja: danced by two or three pairs of men who wear the palm-leaf kilt, matambwa,
and a broad, bark-cloth belt called chamba. When the drums start, these dancers walk
round the circle of onlookers, and get the song going, and the clapping to time; then with
a signal to the drummers, they start dancing alternately an extremely rapid dance with
rattles in the hands, msanja, and a kind of dance-du-ventre, chamba. The drums employed
are mchoso, ntiyatiya, and chiminingo. The rapid dancing is too exhausting to last more
than a few seconds. This is always danced at Lupanda.
1 Cf. Stannus, “Notes on some tribes of British Central Africa,” op. cit., p. 334.
2 Ibid.
369
to the row of girls, singing, “ Anambereka mbereka! ” refrain, “Mapereka!” {ku-pereka, to
give). Leaving the pole at the girls’ feet, they retreat, after which the girls take it up
and advance to the boys in the same way.
Chibiro is danced rather like mkomaula. A group of men dancers go round in a circle,
and within this circle may be a line of women dancing to the same time but with rather
different steps than the men. This I have seen danced by a trained band of dancers, but
onlookers join in. A man may lead a woman into the middle and embrace her. There is
a tendency among these trained dancers to forsake the old time stately embrace for some-
thing which is not so unobjectionable.
Lichipi is a new dance, but one that is well-liked. The drums are as in mkomaula. Men,
women, and young people dance in a circle followed by entry into the middle, and ku-punila.
Mbasula is danced by men on one side and women on the other side of a circle, to drums
mchoso, ndimbe and mangaka. Any of them may dance out into the middle after going
round in a circle.
Liyaya is an old dance for the older men and women. Like mbasula, the steps are slower
and are characterized by side-to-side movements.
• Mtukunya: drums, likuti, chinganga, and a mchoso drum called mbitiku, because it is
so played as to give the sound “mbitiku!” It is danced by men in a crowd. While the feet
do little, shuffling steps, the buttocks are jerked out backwards and forwards.
Chandamali: a dance of recent introduction resembles utuli.1
There are three dances which are danced by special dancers.
Mlenjesa: the same as the mtseche of the Anyanja,2 generally danced by four men who
wear a kind of kilt made of strips of palm-leaf, and rattles, mas ewe, on their legs. They
may also wear the liungu, a headdress made of the tail-feathers, unga, of the chiunga bird:
it is like a broad hat-brim without a crown, the feathers projecting radially. The mbande,
a piece of a shell which comes from the Zanzibar coast is also often worn (Pl. Ill, fig. 2).
The drums which give the time are chimining o, played very rapidly indeed. The steps are
incredibly fast, with greater excursions than in the other dances, and usually end up with
a jump into the air and a pose with grimacing. A circle is formed round them by the young
people who, in the intervals, walk round singing and clapping. The dancers may call out
any girl for the embrace.
Msanja: danced by two or three pairs of men who wear the palm-leaf kilt, matambwa,
and a broad, bark-cloth belt called chamba. When the drums start, these dancers walk
round the circle of onlookers, and get the song going, and the clapping to time; then with
a signal to the drummers, they start dancing alternately an extremely rapid dance with
rattles in the hands, msanja, and a kind of dance-du-ventre, chamba. The drums employed
are mchoso, ntiyatiya, and chiminingo. The rapid dancing is too exhausting to last more
than a few seconds. This is always danced at Lupanda.
1 Cf. Stannus, “Notes on some tribes of British Central Africa,” op. cit., p. 334.
2 Ibid.