ngoma

September 5th (part two)

As I was walking home from Isoko on Saturday I ran into one of my students, Christopher, and asked him if he was planning on attending the celebration. He was and offered to come to my house and walk with me. Since I didn’t know where the celebration was I accepted and was looking forward to ngome. As we walked Christopher explained the importance of the celebration. In part one I explained how ngoma is a ritual that lasts about a month and occurs each year after the harvest. At the celebration there is a fence constructed out of the stalks of banana trees. Within this fenced in area there is a group that will enter and dance, beat local drums, and blow horns for about fifteen minutes before the next group enters. There are three entrances and each group (there are three) can only enter and exit their designated entrance. At the start of the celebration people wear brightly colored clothing of their choice, but as the celebration goes on the groups switch to an all-white ensemble (or close to all white depending on whether they can afford the clothing). Some groups will even put white powder on their faces. The dancing and drumming is very sporadic and does not have much of a theme or routine. Some groups will carry carved sticks which they thrust this way and that while others will carry a wash cloth and hold that up. Some groups will have branches that they shake and others will have nothing. The irregularity of the whole thing keeps you mesmerized throughout the evening, you just don’t know what to expect.

There are certain rules that must be followed during the celebration in order to keep the spirits that they are worshipping happy. First, you must be completely and utterly drunk and possibly high. There is a local alcohol called pombe that is consumed in large quantities on these occasions. Outside of the fenced in area there are many stands that are set up for the selling of various food and items. There is also a designated area for the drinking. After the evening was over I found out that you must enter the dancing only when you have some alcohol in you. I did not know this fact at the time of the celebration and when the school cook invited me to join her and dance inside the fence I reluctantly agreed. Everyone came to watch as the “mzungu” danced away. During the dancing the group goes around counterclockwise at a very slow pace. I did one full loop before I ran out with everyone cheering for me. About halfway through the loop I was offered a stick to smoke. The stick was about a foot and a half long with a big opening at the top and two small holes at the bottom. I didn’t understand what it was until I saw the smoke coming out as the lady was pushing it towards me. I declined about five times before she finally left me alone. The second rule for the celebration is that you are not allowed to enter if you are a student. For some reason being educated is bad luck. When Christopher didn’t enter to dance I didn’t think twice about it since he was a student. Later I found out that he asked Lindsay if she was a Christian while I went off to dance. She said yes and so he told her to stand next to her and not dance. In one evening I managed to get all of the students to think I am drunk and a devil worshipper without even knowing it.

That night I went over to the postmasters’ house excited to tell him that I danced at the celebration. Since he is always dancing I thought he would be excited. He thought it was hilarious that I danced but his son was very confused and said he thought I was a Christian. Sikujua! I did not know! And that was the sentence I spoke for the next two days. On Sunday I made sure to attend church so that people would remember that I am a Christian and that I have been attending church every Sunday that I have lived in Kafule. There was a very low attendance, however, and so many still do not believe me.

Today at school we started midterm examinations. There are only two midterms today. Mathematics was this morning so I have a busy week of grading to look forward to. The form 4 students do not take midterm examinations so I will be taking breaks throughout the week to teach them. Today all of the teachers have been teasing me about dancing at ngome and one of the teachers has now given me the nickname tiger which I don’t quite understand.

My poor computer is losing battery yet again!

Love,
Gretchen