"Culture" and culture...

This weekend I was as usual buying and reading two newspapers on Saturday and two on Sunday.  Weekend papers are a mix of local news, opinions, promotional pull-outs, feature stories and cuts and pastes from international media. During the week I try to understand the politics of this country, societal challenges and developmental efforts.  Weekends give me more of the "soul" of the country.

One article caught my eyes in the Sunday paper.  A chief was decrying "Western culture", describing it as a threat to Malawian culture.  What was this "Western culture" that caused his constipation?  With interest did I realise that he was referring to proposals for production of marijuana to replace tobacco, and legalization of commercial sex.  He was then listing other "ills" coming from outside, and ending with ..."...the coming in of democracy has eroded everything".

These lamentations come in the midst of a national struggle to rid the country of child marriages, trafficking of persons for child labour, and attacks on albinos for the magical power of their body parts... These traditions are said to be inherited from Malawian history. What is it about this culture that is drastically better than "Western culture"?

It struck me how we very often reflect on "us" and "them.  We contrast the worst in "their culture" and romanticize about "our culture", and do not relate the best or worst in the respective cultures with each other.  We make connections that probably are not relevant.  In this case the blame was on introduction of democracy... How often did we not hear the reverse story about the "savage natives" of Africa that needed to be saved from themselves?

Living in Malawi gives me a golden opportunity to confront my own stereotypes when encountering stereotypes presented by others.  So far during my stay in Malawi I have experienced a rich culture which has been influenced by local and regional history... and greatly flavoured by other cultures, including "Western culture".  Nuances are found between rural and urban areas, between age groups and men and women.  The Malawian culture is not what it was yesterday, and will be different tomorrow compared to today.  I am fascinated by the different flavours of culture that surround me!

Talking about flavour of culture... and nature.  My newspaper reading was enjoyed amidst colourful vegetation in a beautifully trimmed garden, credit our gardener Gani.  Just see for yourself!

 

                                                                  

   

Christianity encounters local culture

This small piece will take us back to Mua Mission.  Yesterday there was a major cultural festival with dances, plays and poems from the local communities.  Hundreds of local people and a few number of visitors from afar were crammed into the outdoor auditorium/theatre.

The day started with a Catholic Mass led by the founder and leader of the Kungoni Centre of Culture and Art, Fr. Claude Bouchet.

A significant part of the mass was the participation of a large group of traditional Ngoni dancers and singers.  Their traditional rhythms and songs were given texts that flowed with the progress of the mass.

The theme of the mass was “Nature and Culture”, inspired by the recently published encyclical by Pope Francis on Environment and Climate.  We heard the recital of the lamentation of the tree, and we witnessed the planting of a tree. 

All this in full harmony between the Christian mass and the traditional culture. The African philosopher John S Mbiti is describing in his book “African religions and philosophy” how African rites and traditions penetrate African individuals and communities in existential situations, involving life and death, and overrule Christian rituals.  His claim is that the missionaries left African Christianity too shallow because they were not willing to de-socialize their outlook from the European heritage and re-socialize Christianity to the local history and traditions.  Local traditions were dismissed and discarded outright, and were not explored in order to find confluent values and perspectives from where Christianity could bridge with local history and tradition. What we experienced yesterday was a result of Kungoni’s many years of promoting enculturation, an important attempt to blend global faith tradition with local culture.

                                       A Ngoni performance of a traditional wedding ceremony

The mass was followed by a number of performances of local groups, including dances, poetry, drama, comedy and speeches.  Mua Mission with its Kungoni Centre is indeed a unique institution!

A wedding - proof of contrasts

Last night I was invited to a wedding of a former NCA colleague. This became an eye opener for the huge social and economic disparities in this country.  While my previous blog was from a remote village in Nkhata Bay, I will now take you to the big ball room at Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe.  This is one of the upmarket hotels in town.

Tables with seating for 10 were beautifully decorated, and I briefly calculated between 30 and 40 tables.  All tables were filled up with people all dressed up, surrounded by people seated around the wall since tables were not enough.  As many as 400 people attended this gala event.  The bride and bridegroom seated high up on the podium together with best man and woman and other participants of the close circle around the couple, received cascades of praises and well-wishes.
 

        The bride in the "high seat".  (My apologies for poor quality of photos taken with my phone)

A well-known personality from the main private radio station in Malawi had been hired to be Master of Ceremony, and huge loudspeakers thundered out heavy music with stomach-shaking base power.

In between presentations and speeches, the main activity of the evening was throwing of money to the couple.  Groups were called by name and danced their way to the front and threw money at the couple who greeted everyone of the guests in this way.  Later there were sessions with "ad lib" money-throwing.  On the sideline a bank had established itself in order to offer exchange of big notes into smaller denominations.  The number of notes being thrown was obviously giving quality to the party.
 

                 
     






Bride and bridegroom receiving showers of bank notes.

                                                             

                                          Dinner was of course served to all 300 - 400 guests, simple but tasty!

What was the final bottom line for this party?  I would not know, but I asked some guests what their guess would be.  I was informed that the rent of the hall would amount to about USD 2,000, while the total party easily would amount to around USD 10,000 - 15,000.  What is an average annual salary for high professional level of government employees?  I am not sure, but my guess would be around USD 8,000 - 10,000. The fact remains, however that around 80% of Malawians live on USD 1.5 per day or less: around USD 600 per year.

My observations are two:  There are huge social and economic disparities in Malawian society, and... weddings must be the ultimate symbolic proof of how your fare in the eyes of people in the community around you.

In conclusion, I enjoyed a lavish evening together with colleagues from NCA!