#lwiindi

lwiindi — the annual festival of the tonga people of southern province — is a thanksgiving ceremony that encompasses the tonga people's relationship with their ancestors, their land, the rains that fertilise it, and the harvest that results. the word lwiindi means thanksgiving for the harvests — thanks directed specifically to the first chief monze, monze mukulukulu, who is believed to have disappeared rather than died at a place called gonde, west of monze town, and whose spirit is believed to send the rain that makes the harvest possible.

chief monze mukulukulu was believed to be blessed with wisdom, to be a rain maker, and to have the power to eradicate diseases. the tonga would travel long distances to seek his advice, presenting him with traditional iron hoes — maamba — before speaking. he did not die in the conventional sense. he disappeared at gonde. his body was never seen. the place became a shrine.

the ceremony at gonde: a visit to the thick bush where the first chief monze disappeared, led by a team of spiritually possessed women and men clad in black. visitors must be barefoot. the current chief monze presides — consuming the first meal of the new season's harvest, songs sung praising the first chief monze who according to tradition sends down the rain.

the ceremony encompasses two rituals: the lwiindi lwakumwaka, associated with preparing the land for planting, and the lwiindi lwa kooloka, the harvest celebration. at the harvest lwiindi, the community cannot begin harvesting until the ceremony has taken place. the sikatongo — the earth priest — announces the date. the community waits.

the lwiindi ceremony reminds the tonga community — and reminds zambia — that the relationship between a people and their land is not merely economic. it is sacred. the rain falls because the first chief monze, from his disappearance at gonde, sends it.

whether that is metaphysical belief or ecological understanding expressed in the language of spiritual relationship, it produces the same result: a people who know their land, who honour their ancestors' relationship with it, and who gather every year to renew the covenant that makes the harvest possible.