We’ve been learning a lot about Chewa ancestral spirits and Gule Wamkulu, but come on, this is the 21st century. And although Malawi is considered a developing country, in many ways it’s already developed. After all, I’m sitting in our living room putting a blog article up on a website using a 3G internet connection. And almost everybody I know owns a cellphone. So how relevant can all of this ancestral-spirit stuff really be?

One of the most important Chewa spirits is Kasiyamaliro, which means “The one who accompanies the dead body.” Kasiyamaliro has an antelope-like shape, but she is fatter than any antelope I’ve ever seen, and her rump sticks up as high as her head. She is considered to be the mother of all other ancient spirits, so she is always represented as being very pregnant. Gule Wamkulu dancers use the Kasiyamaliro mask at funerals as a symbol of the ancestral spirits who lead the spirit of the deceased into the spirit world. But do they really still do that?

Shortly after we arrived in Malawi, I attended a one-year-after-burial ceremony in a rural area not far from our home in Lilongwe. This particular family does not follow the Gule Wamkulu traditions, so there were no dancers in masks at the funeral. I was allowed to take pictures at the funeral, and afterwards I stayed to take a couple more pictures in the cemetery. They seemed very uncomfortable with me taking pictures as people were leaving, which I attributed to the fact that people NEVER go to a cemetery alone, for fear of being accused of witchcraft.

This recent gravestone has an image of Kasiyamaliro.
This recent gravestone has an image of Kasiyamaliro.

But looking back at some of those pictures, I now realize that there may have been another reason that they didn’t want me taking pictures there. Several of the tombstones had unusual shapes, and this one in particular caught my eye. I see now that it’s Kasiyamaliro. Her paint has weathered away since 2002 when the sculpture was made, but the shape is exactly like what we saw at the cultural centre last week. So apparently Chewa ancestral spirits are honored even in 21st-century Malawi.