Chisungu - A Girl’s Initiation Ceremony Among the Bemba of Zambia.

Name: Chisungu - A Girl’s Initiation Ceremony Among the Bemba of Zambia.
Author: Audrey Richards
ISBN: 0367547619

by Audrey Richards

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This one is about one aspect of the religious system in Zambia. It is about the ritual of transferring a girl to womanhood and the preparation for marriage. In this case this does not involve a physical operation on the girls but a long, complicated and often exhausting series of rituals meant to teach the girls about womanhood. But, as Richards points out, the actual teaching is minimal. The girls watch and listen to the rituals and they change their outlook, partly because they are now allowed to be present at things they would have been excluded from as children. The series of ceremonies goes on for five to six weeks and there is a lot of paraphernalia involved as well as food and drink for feasting. It’s just before marriage so they would be 13 or 14. What is particularly interesting is that they do change their behaviour during the process. These scatterbrained children become demure maidens, aware of their new responsibilities as wives and mothers. Often their husband would already have been chosen and might participate in some of the ceremonies such that it is a celebration of nubility rather than puberty. The Bemba people of Zambia have this connection through women as an organising principle. Richards, who was my teacher, pioneered the study of symbolism in the rituals themselves. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter Before, anthropologists thought that what went on in these ceremonies was inscrutable but Richards used the psychology of her day and looked at all the objects used, the names they were given, what was said about them, what they symbolised. There were lots of drawings and models all made by older women and they all had names and appeared in a particular order. Well, one little model, painted white with millet paste, symbolised fidelity in marriage, and ritual cleanliness. The idea being that infidelity pollutes the marriage and may affect the children and must be properly purged if it occurs. The model and the hands of the man and wife have water poured over them. Other objects symbolise cooking and the gathering of firewood. There are lots of little animals and other things and it can be hard to see what they are meant to be. Not everyone is a gifted sculptor! They are made of clay and painted various colours. But they are not meant to be literal. A lot of the time the girls have cloths over their heads and are not allowed to see these powerfully magical things but, once they have been through their own initiation, they will be able to see and participate in those of others so, as Richards points out, their own initiation is only the beginning of their learning. The older Bemba say that the reason girls get pregnant outside of marriage and generally misbehave is because they have not been properly initiated. Partly it’s the influence of Christianity and also things really are going wrong in much of Africa. Poverty, famine, irregular rains, over population leading to war. Of course in some ways the past was worse because people died like flies of things that can now be cured, but in other ways it was better because there were fewer people. One can accurately point to deterioration in living conditions in many places. It is the relative difference too. In most societies in Africa the difference in living conditions between leader and followers was not distinct by material wealth. There was always a heavy responsibility on the rich to provide for the poor. Now there is a generation of Wa’Benzi, people with a Mercedes Benz. It is a very characteristic African epithet, Wa’Benzi.

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Jean Fontaine

"This one is about one aspect of the religious system in Zambia. It is about the ritual of transferring a girl to womanhood and the preparation for marriage. In this case this does not involve a physical operation on the girls but a long, complicated and often exhausting series of rituals meant to teach the girls about womanhood. But, as Richards points out, the actual teaching is minimal. The girls watch and listen to the rituals and they change their outlook, partly because they are now allowed to be present at things they would have been excluded from as children. The series of ceremonies goes on for five to six weeks and there is a lot of paraphernalia involved as well as food and drink for feasting. It’s just before marriage so they would be 13 or 14. What is particularly interesting is that they do change their behaviour during the process. These scatterbrained children become demure maidens, aware of their new responsibilities as wives and mothers. Often their husband would already have been chosen and might participate in some of the ceremonies such that it is a celebration of nubility rather than puberty. The Bemba people of Zambia have this connection through women as an organising principle. Richards, who was my teacher, pioneered the study of symbolism in the rituals themselves. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter Before, anthropologists thought that what went on in these ceremonies was inscrutable but Richards used the psychology of her day and looked at all the objects used, the names they were given, what was said about them, what they symbolised. There were lots of drawings and models all made by older women and they all had names and appeared in a particular order. Well, one little model, painted white with millet paste, symbolised fidelity in marriage, and ritual cleanliness. The idea being that infidelity pollutes the marriage and may affect the children and must be properly purged if it occurs. The model and the hands of the man and wife have water poured over them. Other objects symbolise cooking and the gathering of firewood. There are lots of little animals and other things and it can be hard to see what they are meant to be. Not everyone is a gifted sculptor! They are made of clay and painted various colours. But they are not meant to be literal. A lot of the time the girls have cloths over their heads and are not allowed to see these powerfully magical things but, once they have been through their own initiation, they will be able to see and participate in those of others so, as Richards points out, their own initiation is only the beginning of their learning. The older Bemba say that the reason girls get pregnant outside of marriage and generally misbehave is because they have not been properly initiated. Partly it’s the influence of Christianity and also things really are going wrong in much of Africa. Poverty, famine, irregular rains, over population leading to war. Of course in some ways the past was worse because people died like flies of things that can now be cured, but in other ways it was better because there were fewer people. One can accurately point to deterioration in living conditions in many places. It is the relative difference too. In most societies in Africa the difference in living conditions between leader and followers was not distinct by material wealth. There was always a heavy responsibility on the rich to provide for the poor. Now there is a generation of Wa’Benzi, people with a Mercedes Benz. It is a very characteristic African epithet, Wa’Benzi."

African Religion and Witchcraft · fivebooks.com