Vimbuza The Healing Dance of Northern Malawi

Introduction

   ϲ Introduction Our readings on and actual experience of Vimbuza possession dances stimulated us to peruse researches already undertaken. As this phenomenon was widespread, we thought that an in depth study could produce some interesting scientific results. In fact, there is enough material in Vimbuza for sociological, historical, medical and ethnological investigations. Moreover, through the richness of the texts and their stylistic features, Vimbuza has a firm place in oral literature. In the course of our enquiry, we were able to establish that Malawi is a country rich in oral traditions. With a surface area of 118,484 km2 and an estimated population of 13 million people (2008), researchers have registered more than seventy different dances. It is not by accident that we have so many dances; these traditional dances have diverse functions which can be subsumed under three categories: Entertainment dances Ritual dances War dances The Vimbuza dance belongs to the second category. The phenomenon of possession is recognized everywhere in Malawi. The phenomenon is also known in several of the African countries, of course under different manifestations and names. Our study relates to the districts of Mzimba and Rumphi. The area Mzimba – Rumphi is a crossroads of ethnic groups following the upheaval caused by the Mfecane wars in Zululand. The autochthonous Tumbuka live there in osmosis with a host of other ethnic groups brought there by the Ngoni, formerly the Ndwandwe, running away from Shaka Zulu. For a whole century these diverse ethnic groups have lived side by side in the area, each one bringing its own kind of Vimbuza, that’s why the Vimbuza healing dance is a complex phenomenon. The Vimbuza dances are rarely performed during the rainy season, as everybody is busy working in the fields. The situation changes after harvest for the people then find time for leisure. Certain men have the habit of making such items intended for sale such as mats, baskets,    ϳ mortars and pestles. The women, whose routine changes little because of domestic chores, find free time in the evenings, and their distractions are in the form of traditional dances, and particularly Vimbuza which seems to interest them greatly. Thus during the dry season the whole area engages in dancing Vimbuza in the evening. During the past thirty years Vimbuza has attracted many researchers. We are thinking in particular of the following departments in the Universities: English Department (theatre), African Languages Department (oral literature), Religious Studies Department (traditional religions), and Biology Department (Herbarium). We hope that our book will be of some use in all these different fields. In the final analysis, the interest of this book is to show that the possession cult of Vimbuza presents itself as an oral genre which is part and parcel of African Oral Literature. The ethnolinguistic study which we undertake will permit us to catch a glimpse of its whole complexity. The analysis has a bearing on four principal aspects: • historical developments: a certain number of facts concerning the birth of possession among the Tumbuka. • possession: the study attempts to show how the cult articulates itself with its beliefs and the use of divination. • the social role: analysis of social functions. • the style: an analysis of the linguistic procedures which are characteristic of Vimbuza songs. The presence of rhetorical figures would confirm that we are talking about an oral literary genre. It is our hope that the book will present an adequate representation of the Vimbuza phenomenon. ...