The subject of Chewa ancestral veneration has been dealt with before at different levels.  I will not exhaust the different dimensions of this topic.  However, I will draw your attention to some of the important aspects of Chewa ancestral veneration and make some observations. 

 

First of all, it is important to recognize that “there is no uniform system of beliefs in ancestors in black Africa. Even in the same social or tribal group one often finds divergences of detail.  More than this, not all African tribes practice (or even believe in) ancestral veneration …  The Masai of Eastern Africa are a typical example.  But in spite of all this there are enough beliefs shared by most of these societies to enable one to affirm the presence of common ancestral beliefs in black Africa.”

 

CHEWA BELIEF IN ANCESTORS

Ancestors are an integral component of Chewa belief system.  Chewa believe that ancestors have great impact on the human way of life.  Traditionally Chewa people venerate ancestors through sacrifices, libations, offerings, arts, dances, music, initiations (e.g., Nyau boys’ adulthood initiation ceremony and Chinamwali girls’ adulthood    initiation   ceremony), and funeral rites.  Chewa ancestral veneration is gradually being replaced by Christian veneration of saints.  However, in times of sickness or worry, most Chewa people still visit herbalists, traditional doctors (sing’anga) for herbs or magical potions to cure their sickness or solve their problem.

Among the Chewa, the kinship ties “…include the departed and those not yet born.”  The unborn, the living and the departed have responsibilities towards each other.  It is believed that the departed act as guardians of the living.  The Chewa believe that once a person dies he or she goes into the spirit world.

Depending on their earthly lifestyle, some spirits become good spirits and earn their title as midzimu (ancestors).  Midzimu are intercessors, they intercede between Chauta (God) and anthu (people).  “Chauta is believed to be the master of life and death, of rain and fecundity.”  Chauta speaks to the living through midzimu.  Chewa people believe that Chauta through midzimu protects the family or clan from all dangers.

Soon after death the dead person’s status is not known.  The dead are simply referred to as nthaka somebody, e.g., nthaka James.  Nthaka literary means soil.  An equivalent of nthaka somebody can be the late…,e.g., the late John.  In some instances the dead are not mentioned by name.  They are referred to as uyu watyoka (literal meaning the one who is broken).  For about one year or so, it is believed that the spirit of the dead lingers between the two worlds (the world of the living and the spiritual world), awaiting clearance from the second burial rite.

The second burial rite is the final send off.  The final send off involves the “…shaving…placated with offering [and libation], prayers, Nyau and Chimutali dances and Kulowa Chokolwe (widow or widower inheritance) if the spouse is still young and of good character.  After all these rituals have been done the dead person can now proceed and rest in the world of ancestors.  The midzimu are sent by Chauta.  In times of prayer, Chewa people pray to Chauta via midzimu.  Chewa “people believe that even when they pray directly to Chauta Himself, their prayer will be…surely heard.”

EVIL SPIRITS, NGOZI

The spirits, which do not make it to become midzimu become Ngozi or chiwanda singular, ziwanda plural (evil spirits).  The ngozi spirits are not good, they are malicious and harmful and have no mercy.  Once the ngozi spirit visits, they bring nothing but curses, epidemics, division and strife in the clan.

But when the mdzimu (ancestral spirit) visits, they usually bring with them blessings, a message of peace, hope and reconciliation.  However, in times of restlessness a mdzimu can also be troublesome.  For example, when the person is not given proper burial, their spirit (mdzimu) can frequently visit the homestead, causing sickness, some times death or destruction of property.

In such a case rituals of proper burial have to be done.  In some cases it can be that the dead want to be named after someone in the family.  Thus, to make them rest one of the newly born children is named after the dead person suspected to be the spirit causing trouble.

BECOMING NGOZI (CHIWANDA) OR MDZIMU

Among the Chewa people it is clear that not every dead person automatically qualifies to become an ancestor.  Ancestors are people who have led a good life and have passed on to the world of the living dead.  Before dying the person must have lived for a sufficient long time, had no public scandals such as suicide, laziness, incest, rape, murder or being a witch or wizard.  The death of an ancestor must be decent enough not catastrophic e.g., death caused by thunder and lightening.

The person must have married and had children and must have exhibited good leadership qualities.  Parenthood is a central character of the Chewa ancestorship.  Descendants are the people who remember and perpetuate the person’s immortality.  Descendants are the legitimate heirs of ancestors’ blessings or curses.  Chewa people believe that the more children one has the more the possibilities the person has for his personhood of immortality as an ancestor.

After death the Chewa people believe that ancestors reincarnate into their descendants’ offsprings.  It is generally believed that Chewa ancestors come back into the community through the infant naming ceremony.  Thus naming a child after a particular ancestor symbolizes the mystical union between the ancestor and the living community.

In some cases heroes, heroines or warriors who have done some outstanding act without even having married qualify to become ancestors.  Very often clan founders when they die, the descendants generally consider them ancestors.

The Chewa people believe that ancestors are vested with mystical powers and authority to sanction decisions passed by elders. Furthermore, ancestors have authority to exalt, to punish and reward the actions of the living.

NATURE OF ANCESTORS

The Chewa ancestors exist in an incorporeal form (they have no bodies) but from time to time they take on a bodily form of some animal.  In their form they can either be very tall, very thin, very big or very tiny.

Both ziwanda and midzimu are non-physical and have no fixed abode.  Although Chewa spirits have no fixed abode Chewa people believe that there are certain places in the universe which are designated as ancestors’ residence, for example, the under world, certain trees, graveyards, cooking stones, winds, rivers.  Particular animals such as Zebras, Kaiingo (leopard),     Mkango  (lion)     and snake are considered as ancestral avenues through which they can appear and visit their former communities.

Ancestors exist in pneumatic form.  Some Chewa people believe that ancestors own property and that they sometimes whistle or laugh.  The Chewa ancestors daily interact with the living.  Ancestors do visit their descendants through dreams and visions and make their wishes known.  When the ancestors visit, they are often recognized by their descendants.

ANCESTRAL WAYS OF COMMUNICATION

During major ceremonies like Kulamba -- Kwa AChewa which takes place at Mukaika, Gawa Undi’s palace in Katete, rituals are performed such as libation, offerings and prayers.  Nyau and Chimutali music, art and dances are some of the major Chewa activities which characterise the Chewa Kulamba ceremony.  Kulamba is a Chewa annual thanksgiving ceremony.  It normally happens around the month of August.  Its purpose is not only to give thanks for the harvest of the past year but also to commemorate some of the major Chewa ancestors.

During traditional dances such as Mashabe (bad spirit exorcism dance), it is believed that through the dance ancestors receive the prayers and messages of the living.  In addition during the Chinamwali (Chewa girl children initiation to adulthood ceremony), ancestors are called upon to guide the initiates in their new status (adult life).  Both at death and burial of an aged wise person, ancestors are called upon to welcome and receive the spirit of the person who is being buried.  In turn the dead person is sent forth with some messages to take to the veteran ancestors.  The ritual is marked by public declarations and incantations at the graveyard.  Thus to die in Chewa tradition is like changing one’s postal address and status.

Sometimes the communication between ancestors and the living is through libations, sacrifices and offerings.  At other times through the diviners, ancestors can verbally communicate to the living.  This is often the case during the time of calamities, for example, epidemics, or in times of success.  In other words both in good times and in times of misfortune ancestors have a key role to play.

DANCES, MUSIC, ART AND INSTRUMENTS

Among the Chewa music, dance and art offer an important social function beyond ordinary entertainment.  Instruments used in Chewa music, dance and art include ngoma (drums) made from gourds and tree trunks, Mambilira -- a musical instrument similar to a xylophone with wooden keys and single stringed violins called zeze, rattles and shakers.

The Chewa traditional dances, music, art and instrument reflect the Chewa religious belief in ancestors.  Most art, dances, gestures and music used by dancers, drummers, healers and diviners are ways to cure the sick, to venerate ancestors, to converse with the ancestors, to pray to Chauta (Chewa God), but also to entertain and educate young people about myambo ya Chewa (Chewa way of life).

TURNING POINT

However with the advent of Christianity and western form of education, Chewa ancestral foundation is steadily being weakened.  For the Chewa people “it is instilled in the minds…that a big family earns its head great respect in the eyes of the community.”

Furthermore, for the Chewa “to be productive, in terms of having children, is one of the essential attributes of being a mature human being.  The more productive a person is, the more he contributes to the existence of society at large.”  But today most Chewa people, especially the younger generation and those living in towns, have decided to go for family planning so as to downsize the number of their offspring to either two or less.

As for Christianity, the introduction of Catholic priesthood or sisterhood or brotherhood has made some fine young men and women of the clan to renounce marriage and go for celibate lifestyle in the Catholic Church.  By renouncing marriage these young men and women are in effect reducing the membership of the family or clan.  As the Chewa saying goes, the unborn “…are the buds of hope and expectation…” 

Thus Christianity has made some young Catholic Christians to selfishly hold onto the buds of life.  I am not saying that celibacy is foreign to the Chewa people.  In traditional Chewa society celibacy occupies an important place.  From time immemorial there were people in the Chewa community assigned with particular responsibilities and were expected to be celibate.

Common habitation on the clan land strengthened the sense of brotherhood and sisterhood among members of the clan.  Before colonialism and independence, all the clansmen or women lived within the homestead.  If they moved they were still within reachable distance.  This meant that they could visit each other easily.  Also their common habitation on one homestead meant they could easily participate in every major feast and ceremony of the clan.

Although I have argued that kinship ties were originally good and a blessing to clansmen or women, especially in terms of ancestral veneration, today’s Chewa kinship ties have undergone a lot of changes.  The changes have affected ancestral veneration.

THE CHANGES

Today’s Chewa philosophy of life is influenced by capitalism.  With the coming of capitalism there is private ownership of property.  In present times, most people in Zambia can buy and sell land and settle wherever they wish.  In the traditional Chewa society no person is allowed to buy or sell land, for the land belonged to the whole clan.  An individual is just a custodian of the land entrusted to him or her by elders through ancestors.

With the advent of the concept of private ownership of land, some Chewa people have moved out of the ancestral lands to distant lands and set up a family.  They rarely or never visit their clansmen or women.  They never participate in  clan or  family ancestral festivals and ceremonies.  Their children have nothing to do with the clan.  They feel that they are self-sufficient and they do not need the clan.  All they know are the members of the nuclear family.  In times of marriage they neither discuss the marriage of their children with their clansmen or women nor send messages of invitation to their clansmen or women.

All the marriage negotiations are done by the two nuclear families involved.  The payment of the dowry is done by the nuclear family, clansmen or women are never involved.  Thus capitalism has through private ownership of land weakened the social fabric of the clan.  Instead of building the community clan spirit, capitalism has implanted the spirit of nuclear family individualism among some Chewa families.

Furthermore, with the capitalist economy in place, the state has become the highest authority through which people can obtain things, like rights to private ownership of property such as land.  Through these means and rights, capitalism has made people to pay more loyalty to the state than to the clan.  Thus capitalism has contributed greatly to the act of weakening the kinship ties, a foundation upon which ancestral veneration is built.

The traditional Chewa kinship system is a blessing in the sense that the system provides the Chewa people with close human co-operation, security and identity.  However, over the last five decades, the Chewa concept of  kinship ties has undergone some changes.  Some changes are for the better and others for worse.

CONCLUSION

Though with difficulties, Chewa kinship and ancestral ties are still greatly valued by a good number of Chewa families.  The coming of Christianity, urbanization, cash economy, migrations and private ownership of land and private settlements have made the clan irrelevant to its own people.  Once in the city or private settlement, Chewa people are no longer controlled by clan-ancestral structures.  Thus privatization of land and urbanization has led to cultural mix-ups and in some cases ancestral veneration has been washed away.

Zampi Phiri, S.J.
Hekima Theological College
Nairobi