OLIVER SAMBOKO writes
@SunZambian
A NGONI man based in Choma, in Southern Province, has said the ban of women from parading bare breasts at this year’s Nc’wala ceremony is against the Ngoni culture and traditions.
Mr. Jealous Zulu of Siampande Compound said the decision by Chief Mpezeni will have a negative effect on the Ngoni culture and the future of the Nc’wala traditional ceremony.
He said some Ngonis like him, and many others from across the country, have decided to boycott this year’s ceremony because they disagreed with the move taken by their traditional leader.
He was hopeful that next year’s ceremony will not have similar restrictions.
”While I cannot challenge the King, I’m personally not happy with his decision and I hope his advisers will go back to him and persuade him to rescind the decision so that next year people will be able to go to Chipata in their Ngoni traditional attire as it has always been,” he said.
He advised the traditional leader to desist from classifying African culture as being unchristian because it is based on traditional practices.
Mr. Zulu said what the Ngoni king should have banned at the ceremony is the indiscipline practice of fondling old women’s breast like what was reported on social media in 2014.
The Ngoni people are an ethnic grouping, living in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia, and whose origin is traced to the Zulu people of kwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.
The Ncwala Traditional Ceremony is held in February when the Ngoni people, in the Chipata district, celebrate the first harvests of the year.
