Mozambique Mysteries by Lisa St Aubin De Teran

Author:Lisa St Aubin De Teran
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780748127801
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2010-12-01T20:00:00+00:00

XVI

Natural and Supernatural

IN THIS PLACE OF BASICS, where everything has to be conjured out of what is available, and where so little of what we think of as basic materials in the Western world are available, even the trappings of traditional ceremonies are about as simple as such things can be. At the beginning and at the end of life, the voice of these rites is that of beaten rhythms and whispered prayers, beaten rhythms and whispered spells, beaten rhythms and cabalistic signs written on scraps of paper. Until the Mestre Canira began his clandestine drum upgrades, all the local drums were four pieces of wood stuck together with resin glue with a piece of brittle goat hide stretched across them. An unskilled drummer will split this hide within a few minutes; a skilled drummer will wear it out with his fingertips and the palms of his hands. When someone is sick, or when someone dies, the drums are beaten all night. One drummer sustains the rhythm in a thinner solo while the others tighten the skins over hot charcoals. There is shame in a slack skin, shame in a badly kept drum. Caring for the drums (batoke or nlapa) is an honoured position within society.

When a child is initiated or a baby is born, when someone reaches puberty, marries, sickens, dies, leaves or returns, then drummers pound out their quick rhythms for hour after frenzied hour. Since there is hardly a day one or other of the above events does not occur, the drumming becomes part of the night. Only during the month of Ramadan, when drumming and dancing are not allowed, or when goatskin breaks putting a drum out of action, is there really any silence in the village at night.

There is no easy way to learn about the traditional Macua ceremonies, not least because all questions regarding them are answered identically: it is the tradição. The word is like coming up against a brick wall without any apparent fissure, let alone a window, through which to glimpse a little further. As a spoken language with an oral culture, learning has to be from people and not from books. The Portuguese colonists came to Mozambique to make money from ivory, gold and slaves, they did not come to observe or record the local customs. Few Christian missionaries came and most of those who did were more intent on stamping out the local culture than preserving it. Some of the more recent Italian Catholic missions have gathered valuable information on various aspects of Macua culture, but it remains largely unpublished and unavailable (such as to me, a novice Macua scholar).

If I trespass into the more secret realms of the tradição, it is with the knowledge that TV and Western values will, inevitably, change this area, and when they do, the rich cultural treasure currently stored in the elders’ heads should be preserved for future generations to come back to when the joys of soap operas and advertising eventually pall.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.