#katetedistrict

the chewa are a remnant of the maravi people — the great empire of central africa whose territory at its height in the seventeenth century stretched across much of what is now malawi, tete province of mozambique, and eastern province of zambia. the chewa, nyanja, nsenga, tumbuka, and mang'anja are all peoples of the maravi world — sharing common origins, related languages, and the cultural legacy of the empire.

the two great chewa clans: the phiri, associated with kings and aristocracy, and the banda, associated with healers and mystics. the paramount king today: kalonga gawa undi — whose royal headquarters is in katete district, eastern province, zambia, with authority stretching across malawi, zambia, and mozambique. the kulamba ceremony — held every august at mkaika village in katete — brings chewa from all three countries to the zambian headquarters of a kingdom that colonial boundaries divided but did not destroy.

the nyau secret society. nyau is a spiritual brotherhood of initiated men rooted in the maravi empire's seventeenth century. since 2005, the gule wamkulu — the great dance of the nyau — has been recognised by UNESCO as one of the masterpieces of oral and intangible heritage of humanity.

the gule wamkulu — the great dance. the masks represent animals and ancestral spirits: crocodiles, lions, dogs, and named spirit characters carrying moral and social messages. the masked men are considered zirombo — animals or spirits — rather than human performers. when they approach, people traditionally hide, kneel, and place money on the ground.

a cave painting depicting a nyau mask may date to 992 CE — more than a thousand years old. the gule wamkulu survived portuguese missionaries, british colonial administration, and christian churches' efforts to abolish it. it survived because the community that carries it knew it was worth surviving.

the three-country kingdom with its seat in katete. the UNESCO-recognised dance. the secret society whose masks have been described since the tenth century.

the word: kulamba means "to pay homage" in chewa — specifically the act of kneeling before a superior and presenting gifts as an acknowledgment of their authority. the ceremony is named for what every participant is doing. when a chewa person from malawi drives for hours to reach mkaika village every august, they are not attending a cultural festival. they are performing an act of political allegiance to a king whose authority crosses three national borders.

the homage structure: chiefs from zambia, malawi, and mozambique — each in their own traditional regalia, each with their retinue, each carrying gifts — arrive at the royal palace of kalonga gawa undi in sequence. the sequence matters. the order of arrival, the specific gifts, the acknowledgments exchanged — these are protocol, a living record of the political relationships within the chewa kingdom, performed publicly every year.

the gule wamkulu's role within the ceremony. the nyau secret society doesn't merely perform at kulamba — it occupies a specific constitutional role. the nyau represents the presence of the ancestors themselves. when the gule wamkulu dancers move through the ceremony ground — the crocodile figures, the lion figures, the ancestral spirit characters — they are not entertainment. they are the ancestors, present at the ceremony, witnessing the homage being paid on their behalf.

gule wamkulu performers prepare at graveyards or river streams before entering the ceremony space — transitioning from human performer to ancestral spirit representative. when they approach, the community kneels and places money on the ground. the money is not payment for a performance. it is offering to the spirits the masked men represent.

the three-country political argument. colonial borders divided the chewa world among three successor states: zambia, malawi, and mozambique. each has its own government, citizenship, national identity. and yet, every august, the citizens of all three travel to katete district, in zambia, to pay homage to a king whose authority none of the three states formally recognises but none has been able to extinguish.

the government officials from all three countries who attend are not attending a foreign ceremony. they are attending their own ceremony — of their cultural community, which happens to be held in a different country. kulamba is the most explicit annual demonstration in zambia of the gap between colonial-era borders and the actual shape of african cultural communities.

one kingdom. three countries. one august ceremony in the red soil of eastern province. that is what kulamba means.