Village Life

Throughout our orientation we have heard alot from our teachers about the differences between living in the city and living in the village (urban vs rural lifestyles).  Most of the people we’ve been studying with all have their parents and some family living in the countryside who they return to visit. Even though they live away they are still consider part of the village and required to attend for important functions. While life in the cities has been impacted more by outside influences and interaction between men and women is similar to in the West in the village there are still very structured rules governing men and women.

Last Saturday we were invited to go to watch a tomb unveiling in a village called Zoli. The ceremony was for the completion of the tombstone for the former village chief who died about 3 years ago and was attended by all the local chiefs, state dignitaries and villagers (about 2000 people in all). As we arrived everyone was processing to the graveyard (a part of the village that is normally avoided because people fear ‘the spirits’ (more on them later). The men were going in first so we joined them with the women all following behind, led by the family of the deceased chief. This is an occasion where people are free to mourn – many of the women were crying and wailing, men however are forbidden from this. As we went past the tomb everyone offers money which will go to the new chief, Dom, Liam, Godwin and myself started following the other men to go sit near the surrounding trees but were taken aside and given chairs next to the canopy where the chiefs and leaders were, then Francis (our guide) and I were asked to sit with them, Taking photos at a time like this would be very offensive, but Francis had arranged with the chief that 2 of us act as official photographers for him so we were able to get some pictures and have sent them the copies.

After a short service where the chief, the local district commissioner, a minister and few other people spoke about the deceased chief, including a welcome to us as the chief’s quests the women led away (on the way men lead to protect them from what might be in the graveyard, on the way out from anything that may follow) we met many local people (our language lessons paying off somewhat, but many wanted to use their English – a sign of being educated) then were invited to formally meet the chief

The custom is to clap hands when you are entering the chief’s house, this we did then were told that our guides would be reprimanded since on an occasion associated with death the clapping should be a ‘silent clap’, rubbing palms together. We were asked to pay 1 chicken for meeting the chief and a second for offending the spirits. (We had been set up be our guide Francis who knows this village well as he grew up not far away and paid cash instead!!)

Later in the week we went to Kalola village, this visit was to give us a genuine look at everyday life in the rural communities; no one apart from the chief had been told we were coming and we were expected to take part in whatever activities were taking place when we arrived.

The chief was holding the traditional court when we arrived so we were welcomed by his wife. The chief’s wife is known as ‘Masanu’, meaning ‘graveyard’, since either with her husband or in his stead she will receive everybody. After our welcome the women of our group went with the chief’s wife and some of the other women to go and prepare lunch for us all. We were told to go and take part in whatever it was the men were doing. We saw a church being build and helped with thatching a roof. But this is the ‘dry season’ the work of planting and tending the fields isn’t taking place so the majority of the men were either watching the local court or drinking in the bars. The court case was about a village headman who had ordered a graveyard cleared and forbidden 2 people from attending a funeral, neither of which he is allowed to do without permission from the chiefs’ court. He was ordered to pay 1 goat and 6 chickens for that and also 5000 kwatcha (local currency) for lying to the court.

At the bars we saw men (and women when their work is done) drinking together. Village life doesn’t measure time the same way it is in the city or in the West, meals are eaten when a) people are hungry and b) when they are ready. Some people when there is no work to do will start drinking at sunrise. We saw the local beer being brewed and also ‘Kachasu’, a spirit distilled from water, suger and maize husks. I’ve bought a small bottle and hope some of it will make it back to the UK.

Talking with our guide Francis about how development is effecting the way of living in the village, we saw several people with mobile phones which is what made me ask. He believes that people in the village have these only to speak to other local people, not to anyone in the city or anywhere else. He told us how for many people there Lilongwe (the capital only 1 hour away) is somewhere they will never go to and have no interest in. But we also hear how people are moving to the city and staying in touch with their village. I asked about the spread of the internet – Francis believes that people in the village will have no interest since it isn’t part of their world – but I wonder if someone was saying the same about mobile phones 10 years ago.