A Tale from Mua

Friday!

It feels great to come to the end of a lazy week. I woke up to realize that it is the end of yet another week but zthe emptiness of the week was so much so that there was nothing that I could jump at in a bid to draw some inspiration for an article. How sad!

I happen to be on holiday which means that I haven’t been doing some life-saving lately. That, in itself takes away a big chunk of opportunities for ‘article fishing’. On the other hand, an adventurous holiday brought me in touch with something that I could possibly share with the readership.
I like to move around a lot and we happen to be reading this article thanks to the miracle of a suboptimal account balance (again). If I had the enablers, I probably would have been in the middle of nowhere with no internet access feasting on some raw cassava with the villagers or playing on some beach in the northern parts of Malawi… and I would have forgotten to draft something for the dear reader. On the other hand, we are here and I would like to share an interesting experience from the holidays.

Having survived a trip to Neno and back, I found myself on another bus last Friday. The destination was Mua mission, which is in the eastern part of Dedza district, along the Blantyre-Salima road. I happened to be on this trip with a group of church-mates and we were headed to Mua to interact and share the little we had gathered with the students of Mua School for the Deaf.
This trip to Mua was my third, having gone to the place two times prior (when I was in college). The first time I went there was for a Catholic students’ trip, which was aimed at exploring the concepts of enculturation that is heavily practiced in the mission there. The trip had its own highs and lows that are best not mentioned but it was a good and eye-opening experience.
Some of you might be surprised by this but the College of Medicine organizes these trips for doctors to be to go to Mua and appreciate the depth of the culture and some of the interactions between health issues and our culture. This trip was another eye opener because we got to explore Mua’s heritage rooms in the cultural museum.

I was still looking forward to seeing Mua despite having gone there two times. I mean, I feel like it is one of those places that never gets old. I would probably be unfair to you if I don’t give you a background of the place and a couple of reasons as to why you should take some time to visit Mua.
Mua Mission was established in 1902 by Catholic missionaries called the White Fathers. It was built on a slave trade route from Mangochi to Lilongwe (that probably crossed the mountains in Mua and went through the present day Bembeke). The site was preferred mostly because of its friendly locals who allowed for co-existence with the missionaries and received Christianity with warm hands. Like any other Christian (or Muslim) missionaries, they preached against the local traditions and called on the faithful to renounce some defining traditions like Gulewamkulu.
The later years saw the coming in of another of the White Fathers. This was Fr Claude Boucher from Canada and he, like other missionaries before him, came to do some pastoral work at the mission. His work and interaction with the flock at the mission got him interested in the Chewa culture and gave him the curiosity to understand more. That curiosity was so much so that he ended up being an initiate in the Chewa culture and it led him into studying and building a museum dedicated to the history and traditions of the Chewa, Ngoni and Yao tribes. This place attracts both local and international tourists who want to learn about the culture and to see the cultural carvings and paintings that are exhibited in the gallery.
I had interacted with Fr Claude (who changed his name to Chagomerana Chisale) in the previous visits and I had enjoyed his narration of the history of the place which he likes to deliver in fluent Chichewa. This was the reason I was more than excited when I heard that he had asked to meet us and show us around the heritage center. Little did I know that this chat with the extraordinary missionary would be a source of yet another thought-provoking discussion.

Our discussion took and interesting beginning. Fr Claude asked us to introduce ourselves by where we came from and our tribes. He then asked us if we were initiated in our cultures. To his disappointment, it was only two Chewa guys who gave a positive response. He, then began to give his talk of how important it was for us to recognize and honor our cultural roots. Slowly the narrative began to show the convergence of Biblical history, culture and modern day religion.

The highlight of the talk came in when Fr Claude pointed out that Christian missionaries did not show up in this country until around the 19th Century. He also highlighted that it is good to note that local people knew about God way before the coming of the missionaries and more importantly that God did not get to know and be interested in African people in the 19th Century. He also explained that there was a good intersection and common ground between Christian and cultural principles although the early missionaries chose to dismiss everything traditional as pagan. His point was simply that there is need for us to recognize that religion and culture are not contradictory but rather complementary. Adding to that, he pointed out that most of church rites originate from middle eastern (Jewish) culture from which the church was conceived and European (Greek, Roman, etc) through which the faith was propagated. He ended the culture and religion parts of the talk by asking us to imagine what the church would have been like if Christ were born among our kinsmen.

Thoughts of this talk were reignited when I bumped into some guys discussing the interesting link between Christian missionary work and colonialism. While this might not have been a related thing, it got me to think about whether it was possible for early missionaries could have managed to blend into the culture like the later day Chagomerana Chisale. It also got me to think about the necessity of allowing the application of traditional elements in modern day Christianity (that thing of playing the mbalule and guguda drum during a Catholic mass of CCAP service). I honestly do not have the answer to that and I will leave it to you to ponder.

The curiosity and exceptional enthusiasm of people like Fr Claude gave birth to Mua’s Kungoni Cultural Heritage Center which boasts of a very rich cultural history and a huge collection of arts. For people who would like to spend some time and learn more about the Chewa, Ngoni and Yao Culture, Mua is the place to go. With a visit to Mua, you would also get the chance to visit a place called Pamtondo pa Namalikhate, a story around which I will leave to you to find out. If you are looking forward to spending a couple of days at the place, Namalikhate village which is around the mission premises is there to sort out your accommodation and catering needs.
Kamuzu Banda once said that to travel is to learn. His sentiments were echoed by one Annie Matumbi who encouraged us all to visit the attractions we have in the country. Perhaps this cultural place could go on the list when you want to visit some place different.

Have a lovely weekend.