Yesterday’s funeral was quite an affair! Even our local Member of Parliament came to pay respects to the chief. There were hundreds of people in attendance. There is so much that I could say about it that I’m not sure where to start. Continue reading “At the Chief’s Funeral”
For the past few weeks, we have been seeing many zirombo (wild animals) running and dancing. But they’re not real wild animals. They are men dressed in rags and crazy clothing, often with their bodies smeared with mud and paint. This is part of Gule Wamkulu, the traditional religion of the Chewa people.
We started learning about Gule Wamkulu more than a year ago, but now that we are living in the village, this is the first time that we’ve seen it actually being practiced. Continue reading ““Wild Animals””
I received a text message on one of my bus journeys from Lilongwe to Salima—the brother of a friend of ours had just died in Lilongwe. I immediately knew that I should return to Lilongwe to pay respects to the family, but I had a lot of work to do in Salima. Going back to Lilongwe would mean more time spent away from my family, more money spent on transport, and most of a day wasted in a couple of crowded buses. Continue reading “Twisted”
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? Continue reading “African Traditional Religion in the 21st Century”
The Stockers' Stories 