Spotlight on Ngoni culture and art 

It was not long ago, when some  people of the Northern part of Malawi, especially  Mzimba, could not be separated from their Livestock, like  chickens, goats and cattle. In the remote past, families  who could not afford to raise   kraals ( khola) were deprived of options beside sharing  with   animals their dwelling houses, to guarantee their safety .
Ingoni dances
I could still remember the days when my mother  had taken   some  whips on me over a misdemeanor,  I used to seek refuge at my grandfather’s mud made and  grass thatched house.
The house  depicted  cool rooms smeared with cattle dung. When dusk crept in six goats  and three  kittens used to join us into the house.  They  used to go straight  to a corner of the  vacant ‘ dining‘ room where the big man used to  skillfully tether them so that the young ones were not trodden  upon by  the elders.
At night, it was something else.I could be  woken up by either  goats’ sneezing, or bleating by the goat  (mother)  which could not trace its kitten. I could also hear   a splash of urine that dug a canal that ran up to the place we used to assemble  fire.  I remember one night   urine extinguishing some little fire that remained before we had left for bed.  Although the extinguishing sound was loud my grandfather pretended not to  hear despite both of   us having been awake. I knew he was accustomed to the sound having slept with goats for years.
At times, sleep could be disrupted by goats  stampede over something I could not explain.
“ It’s how goats behave” my grand father    responded when I plucked  courage   to find out the cause of stampede
The morning task for my grand father was to untie the goats from a pole sunk at the    corner of the   room, and tether them outside the house, at a nearby garden. He used a reed basket to clear the droppings that had a  special heaping place at one homeyard point, for them to mature before use in gardens, to boost soil fertility.
Sharing sleeping  dwelling houses   with animals, especially  chickens, goats,  sheep, and calves,  was a common  practice   by most Ngoni families  few decades ago.  There was an art in tethering the elder animals  so  that young ones were not trodden upon.
This culture was being practised ostensibly to secure the animals, especially in remote rural communities infested by hyenas, wild cats  and other prey bessts. Rarely from thieves.
Every tribe or society has its own culture and art that make people’s life complete and worthy. Culture is a set of values, beliefs , practices, habits,  behaviors , views  and all  that identify a group of people or a society. Cultural values can encompass   food preferences, dressing styles, language, recreation   and other elements  that make  a group of people unique and different from others.
Art is an expression of people’s  way of life. Artwork is a reflection of culture of a certain group of people at a certain period of time. Art serves as a powerful medium of communication  a particular group of people use  to express their  beliefs , values ,feelings, views  and perceptions.  It mirrors all elements a  particular tribe or society  stands for  as  their identity.
Art and culture are just two sides of a single coin. Art work can be presented  in form of  paintings, drawings, weaving, sculptures, pottery, dances and  other artistic performances,  symbols, words , signs and sound .
Art promotes coexistence and tolerance among people of different cultural and religious backgrounds by communicating religious and cultural values and beliefs of individual groups.  Therefore, art    enhances peace, unity and tranquility in societies habited by people who tow  different  cultures and religions . Undermining  artistic features  of  a certain group of people leads to  conflicts which, if not amicably  and hastily resolved, will degenerate into civil war that can cost  property and lives.
Religious and cultural  groupings and institutions have always clashed  into  fierce conflicts over accusations of demeaning  each other’s  values and beliefs,  through derogatory  perceptions and actions, including blasphemy. Religious conflicts are rampant world wide bordering on  misunderstanding of values and beliefs.
Eric Brahm for Substark Magazine wrote on 2005, November, “ Religion is central part of many individuals and any threat to one’s belief is a threat to one’s very being.”
In 2023, August 16, Al Jazeera journalist, Abid Hussain, reported that armed mobs  attacked at least two churches in Punjab province’s Jaranwala town, in Islamabad, Pakistan,  accusing two Christian residents of blasphemy.
“Hundreds of people armed with batons and sticks attacking the Salvation Army Church and the Saint Paul Catholic Church, setting them ablaze, while another mob attacked private homes, torching them and breaking windows.” reported Hussain.
Like other tribes, the Ngoni people are identified by their own  unique culture and art that govern their society.
Ngoni people’s  art and culture have  been associated   with   animals ( both, domestic and wild ) and natural resources,  especially natural forests.  Animals have  their own relevance and efficacy   to their  culture whose    beliefs and values    are reflected through  their art.
Animals for instance, serve as key raw materials for artwork that makes Ingoma, the Ngonis’  war dance, complete and  envious to watch.
Art work supported by animals is demonstrated in  the dance whose gear and other accompanying   materials are sourced from animal skins and other wildlife specimen.
 Special artwork is applied in organising dancing regalia made from wild animal  skins, which is knitted into clothes like wear. These skins, from different animals, such as leopards, lions and other smaller animals with beautiful dot spots skins  cover  the whole body, except the head, which is also  taken care of ,  by state of the  local art hat, skilkfully meshed  with unique birds species   feathers.
The skin ( from cattle)  is also used to make shields  (protective gear), spear handles and cattle tails are fixed at the end of the spear, to add beauty to the dancing  weapon.
Dancing materials  that were also sourced from wildlife include beads, ivory necklesles, rings, jewels and horn trumpets ( mbata), from an African antelope,known as  Kudu.
Ingoma dance is a replica  ( carry forward) of  dances  performed by the tribe  each time they emerged victorious in fears battles, some time ago.
The  Ngoni people , under Zwangendawa Jere, who  fled  hositilies perpetrated  by notorious Ngoni King , Tchaka  Zulu, in South Africa, from   1818 to 1822,                 engaged in persistent  battles on their way to Malawi,  and arrived in Malawi in 1840
Ingoma  dance is called war dance because performers aggressively wield weapons like spears , shields and complemented by combatant facial  expression and  victory   songs.
Armed men are main dancers  and are called’ impi’ meaning a battalion. The dance is incomplete without  women behind the impi  who  offer  lead vocals.  Women have their own attractive  gear dominated by beads around their necks, hands with some donning birds feathers in their heads. And a Notable dressing for  women is a  cloth loosely covering their lower part of their bodies.
Some animal and birds specimen  fixed in their  heads and   ears add a beautiful spectacle.      In reasonnce with the songs, the impi pounce hard on  ground with bare feet, as  they wield shields and spears, a visitor will not help scampering for safety. Art skill  is also demonstrated in the dance itself.  Except for away performances, to ensure safety of the dancers, the dance is performed at a specific place in the village. It is  performed in  cattle kraal,where the matress -like -dung provides safe feet landing.
The use of skin and birds feathers were not limited to    supporting Ingoma  dance.  Cattle skins were also  used to bury chiefs while    dried ones made good sleeping mats for miserable income families. Cattle skins were also  used to bury chiefs while    dried ones made good sleeping mats for miserable income families. The skin was also used as strings  on wooden beds. Feathers from domestic  birds (chicken) made good pillows.
In addition to providing materials for Ingoma dancing gear, domestic animals  (cattle)  were also paid as lobola ( dowry system). In addition to providing materials for Ingoma dancing gear, domestic animals ( (cattle)  were also paid as lobola ( dowry system).
Special art work is also depicted in metal fabrication works, in making spears,arrows machetes,, hoes knives and other useful metallic objects. Elderly artists used to  craft  a goat skin bagbags to blow  charcoal into  flames, in an improvised  furnace, to  melt  metallic objects and shape them into designs of their choice.
Besides animal and birds  specimen obtained from forests, trees are also important commodity harvested from the forests  for artwork.  The Ngoni  people use special trees to make bows, spear handles, hoe and ax handles, beating sticks ( Mchiza), clubs and other useful  wooden   materials . Trees were also used to be carved into pounding sticks and mortars,  sculpted  into  bee  hives, rough wooden  chairs, and poultry and pig feeding troughs.
Natural forests  were  also  sources of food  products like flying ants, mushroom, honey, fruits and other products used for various domestic purposes.
Wild animals were hunted down by dogs or killed  with classical traps made from wire and   ropes.  Villagers close to streams devised their own  unique art to  fish. They used traps ( chono)  or poisonous plants  ( mutetezga) to catch fish, in their suffocated state.
Like said earlier, the Ngoni people have been always next to animals. Besides serving as lobola, (cattle)  animals were source of food ( milk, luwende ( boiled blood) and meat) and prestige .  Some villagers boasted huge herds of cattle, just for fame, since animals were socio-culturally looked at as  a symbol of wealth and prosperity. Some villagers in possession of  tens of cattle, lack necessary basic needs, including school needs for their children. In some  extent, family members took   a bite at a piece of meat only when the animal breaks it’s leg in a fight, killed in a fight or rescued  from a predator.
It is on meat preservation that the Ngonis prove to  have no equals. They have unique art to preserve meat that   people from  other tribes are disillusioned with, and can invite serious nausea  to some.  This is Zimpeto art.
An animal  meat (  cattle  and goat)  is chopped into long strings and  are spread across  small trees  arranged in lines, resting on four  elected trees, in between which, a very small  fire  is assemble. The fire is  not so strong to gate keep flies.  It is  exclusively  smoke that engulf  the meat. As fire gets weaker and weaker, smoke  too, decreases, opening  swarms of blue flies to invade the meat, in the process. In a short time, the blue flies lay hundreds of eggs  that swiftly hatch into   white and legless larva like organisms,  called  maggots.
The more flies  patronize the meat, the greater infestation of maggots is observed. What used to stun Ngoni visitors was the absence of attention to  the infestation of flies to the meat.  No one  will spare energy to whisk away flies, let a lone shake maggots off the meat . Maggots that cling  loosely on the meat, drop off and land on   fire and blow up, bringing a horrible smell.
In fact the organisms were not maggots. They were given a special name,  Zimpeto.  Zimpeto was a culturally constructed  name  to replace the name  maggots.
Zimpetos   were just innocent organisms. They were good samaritans in meat preservation.  They helped to  tenderise  and add a unique decomposing flavour  to the meat.  In absence of refrigerators,  it could  have been a big challenge to preserve meat without Zimpeto artwork.
 We talk about times when food qualified to be a real meal when it accompanied meat. The Ngonis  had their own derogatory  words to  relish like vegetables and legumes. They used to say relish must be killed. Relish must produce blood.  “ Are you an animal  to eat vegetables,” they could ask derogatorily.  In those days, it was going to dawn for.
Nutritionists to preach the gospel of nutrition that emphasizes a minimum dietary requirement, only certified with presence of fiber rich food stuffs, like vegetables.
What was surprising, however,  was that no family member was bed-ridden, suffering from macro and micronutrients deficiency  related illness or food contamination. Those were times when parasites like biting ants, mosquitoes and  flies could not register their presence  and impact on people’s health.
“No one fell  sick, let a lone open bowels  after consuming Zimpeto tenderised meat, ” Challenged one villager, in his late 70s.  It can be argued, therefore,that  zimpeto were beneficial organisms.
In addition to   aggressively  hauling to the meat a strange  decomposing flaour, the tenderising  Zimpeto  was  also a strong  catalyst for the softness of the meat, even when  the animal was too old to cook and  chew.
The Spokesperson for Mzimba Jere Ngonis, Ndawazake Thole said the art of Zimpeto was the only way people could preserve meat in large sizes.
Said Thole, “In those days, meat was just plenty.  Meat was the best  food for the  Ngonis.   Zimpeto culture was the only ideal technique to preseve meat for a number  days,”
Zimpeto  used to ba a serious and sensitive cultural  value  not to  kid about.
No silly comments  advanced  towards Zimpeto meat preservation art   could be entertained  by elders.
Children living in towns, off for vaations in their parents villages,  earned canes  on their buttocks for  wrongly calling Zimpeto as maggots. It used to take their parents to apologize for the wrong name of the glorified organisms.
Elderly men did not correct boys’ wrong doing by words of the mouth. The only treatments was severe beating with a special beating stick known as Mchiza. Of course, young boys were nurtured with good manners because of a culture of communal meals, a system where all meals from  a few houses were   brought and eaten at one place.
The Tcheni culture instilled cleverness and jack up way of doing things among  boys. In Tcheni culture, boys carefully watched the pace of eating and they had to quickly remove the remaining food and place another  dish of meals.
The boy could shout the word  ‘Tcheni!’  before pulling the remaining small meal from the center of eating circle, usually close to the cattle  kraal, (ku mpala). Delays in removing remaining food was a big crime, attracting a penalty , usually beating with Mchiza.

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