Kamanya irks Lilongwe chiefs for ‘abusing’ Gule Wamkulu
Deputy Minister of Climate Change and Environment Geofrey Kamanya has irked some chiefs from his Lilongwe Msozi South constituency.
One of the chiefs who spoke to Nyasa Times said the deputy minister has been abusing the Gule Wamkulu by turning them into his bodyguards.
The chiefs, who asked for his name to be shielded for fear of political victimization, said the MP engaged in the “abomination” few days ago when he conducted a political rally in the area for the People’s Party (PP)– the ruling party.
“This is uncalled for, Gule Wamkulu is a sacred dance and no one can just wake up and use it to gain the political mileage, he is bringing shame to our tradition,” he said.
Another chief said Kamanya is bringing tradition into disrepute.
“We are afraid that every Jim and Jack will be abusing Gule Wamkulu and if he is a real Chewa he should stop doing that,” he said.
But Kamanya downplayed the fears , saying he was a Chewa and respected their culture.
He insisted he was not abusing the Gule Wamkulu cult in anyway.
Gule Wamukulu is a big masked Chewa dance widely believed to be associated with magic.
Minister of Lands, Housing Henry Phoya was forced to apologise last year for offending Chewas when he justified why he left Malawi Congress Party( MCP) to join PP.
Phoya said he left MCP because he was told to go to Gule Wamkulu camp for initiation because only those who are initiated to Gule Wamkulu join the party.
The Chewa people are widely believed to be the stronghold of Malawi’s oldest political party — MCP.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
