Drumbeats emanating from the foot of a leafy hill, accompanied by songs and ululation, can be heard from afar.
Visitors may think the source of the sounds is just another incident when the people of Phoka Hills invite a witchdoctor to catch talismans in the hilly community.
The drumming, singing and ululation are similar, but this is a different thing altogether.
Welcome to Kukwezga Mapiri, a ceremony performed to rid newborn twins of evil spirits before presenting them to their community and the rest of the world.
It is an age-old tradition practised by the Phokas of Rumphi District. The area nestles between the magnificent Nyika Plateau to the west and the Livingstonia Escarpment to the east.
“Twins are children of the hills,” says Henry Mkwenjere, who is at the centre of the ceremony in Mweyeye. “They are born with spirits that can connect with the spirits our forefathers prayed to and which live on top of sacred hills.”
In performing this ceremony, the culture warriors hope to cast the spirits out of the children.
“The twins and their parents are at the centre of this ceremony. The rest of the people join and participate in support,” says Mkwenjere.
The man has twin siblings and is a traditional leader.
He says there are so many spiritual hills around the area. However, this ceremony aims at casting the spirits to the distant Mwenembwe on the edge of Nyika National Park.
It is the most fearful of the hills where the Phoka still worship and offer sacrifices to their ancestral spirits even though many have converted to Christianity, Islam and other religions.
Held on the day the twins turn a month old, Kukwezga Mapiri is a culmination of a series of traditional religious activities that start soon after their birth. On their day of birth, the twins are sent into a shack erected to accommodate them and their parents until the umbilical cords drop off. Then they shift to another hut where they live until they clock a month.
During this time, the mother is not supposed to cook though she can participate in other household tasks unless she is breastfeeding the children.
“It is only cooking that she cannot do. If there is no one to cook for the family, the husband does,” Mkwenjere states.
The day is packed with a cocktail of activities, including the Phokas’ traditional meals, brews and dancing in the chosen hill.
“All these are adorned with superstition,” says the guide. “In the morning, we prepare a herbal concoction for the twins and their parents to drink using a reed straw or bamboo stem.”
As the person administering the concoction, Mkwenjere stays inside the shack with the parents and children. An assistant climbs onto the roof and then pierces the reed or bamboo through the roof into the shack.
From the rooftop, Mkwenjere’s aide pours the herbal concoction through the burrow. In the hut, one by one, the parents and twins are guided to drink the potion from above.
Meanwhile, the onlookers burst into song, dance, ululation and drumming to greet the couple and twins as they exit the shack.
A journey up the hill begins as the shack and everything they used in confinement goes up in flames behind them.
The bonfire lights the way back to a normal life.
“Climbing the hill is not your ordinary walk or hike. It involves dancing sessions. In fact, the parents are made to hold each other and dance while onlookers sing, clap and ululate,” adds Mkwenjere.
Meanwhile, the babies are thrown from one participant to another.
Welcome to the world.
Dancing continues at the hilltop until the community concludes the ceremony to banish the spirits from the children to the sacred hills while participants chant.
Group village head Mzilibanda, who has twin siblings, says the ceremony liberates the twins from dark forces.
“If not freed, the twins may be haunted by these spirits throughout their lives,” says the traditional leader.
He says the evil force could be to blame for disparities in twins’ disposition and abilities, including intelligence, cleverness and stubbornness.
“Legend teaches us that twins’ negative behaviours are a result of the remaining spirits. From time to time, the spirit sticking to the child interacts with those sent to the hills,” says Mzilibanda.
Mkwenjere shares this view, saying parents of twins who are denied this exorcism sometimes display weird behaviours.
While the debate on its efficacy heats up, the drumbeats, song and ululation continue.
The ending of the ceremony marks the beginning of a descent to a normal life, an enthralling return home to make merry.
