First, the function, form and practices of indigenous female Chisungu initiation rituals are explained. This study will provide a gender analysis of the Chisungu initiation rituals among the Bemba people of Zambia to unearth the values of indigenous female initiation rituals that can critique patriarchy and empower women in the context of HIV and AIDS.
Motivation and background of the research topic
The Church inherited the teachings of missionaries who condemned female initiation rites as pagan. This is what motivated me to undertake a gender analysis of Chisungu initiation rites in order to determine the efficacy of the values of indigenous female initiation rites in HIV prevention.
Literature review and location of research
Longwe (2003) also conducted a study of initiation rites among Chewa Baptist women in Lilongwe. Furthermore, it fails to link the social and religious role of women, initiation rites and women's empowerment against contemporary problems such as HIV and AIDS.
Research question and objectives
- The research problem and statement
- The research question
- Resaerch hypothesis
- Key questions
- Research
How can the gendered cultural values of female Chisungu initiation rituals be recovered for HIV prevention? To demonstrate how gendered cultural values of indigenous female Chisungu initiation rituals can be recovered for HIV prevention.
Theoretical framework
How to Inculcate the Values of Indigenous Female Chisungu Initiation Rituals in UCZ Empower Women in HIV and AIDS. Building on indigenous resources that can empower women in connection with HIV can therefore be a good starting point.
Methodology
The church in Zambia consists of people who predominantly come from African culture. Therefore, a feminist cultural hermeneutics is important for my study to reclaim cultural values that can empower women and critique patriarchy in the church and African culture.
Outline of chapters
Conclusion
Initiation rituals remain an important feature of almost all African societies, although they are now performed in an abbreviated form (Fiedler 2005:5). La Fontain has shown that initiation rites are events with a social meaning and symbolic actions.
The purpose
This is true of Bemba society where the masterful man and a submissive woman are portrayed differently during the Chisungu initiation rites. The third purpose of the Chisungu initiation rites is to mark the change of status and give identity to the initiate (Richards 1982: 130).
The cultural setting of the bemba people
Gifts and gifts are given to the initiate at the conclusion of the ceremony (Richards 1982:133). It is clear from written information that Christianity and Western anthropologists have contributed to the misinterpretation of Bemba culture.
Form and practice
The parents then invite the teachers of initiation (Bana chimbusa), who arrange the ceremony and lead the lessons. On the first day, the initiation teachers take the initiate and lock her in the initiation house. The teachers of the initiation teach the initiate about the essential role of women as life sustainers.
Conclusion
The chapter will also provide details on the symbolic meaning of the rites and the interpretation of the initiation songs and sacred emblems. The symbols and teachings presented during the ceremony embody social, political, religious and moral meanings (Cameron and Jordan 2006: 238). Given that the gender roles and identities constructed and demonstrated during initiation can be both life-giving and life-denying for women, it is necessary to question the gendered values of Chisungu initiation rituals.
Gendered cultural values
On the second day of the ceremony, the initiate is taken into the forest for libation and initiation. The sun is the symbol of the divine and the morning rays of the sun symbolize the male power of fertility. The groom is also advised about the importance of purity in marriage as in the saying: sunga umukoshi ubulungu tabwayafya (take proper care of your neck, there will be no shortage of beads) which means that the husband must be faithful to the wife in marriage and God will bless them with children (Hinfelaar1994:11). The emphasis on fidelity and purity in marriage stems from the belief that the "mother-father" God can only be approached through marital sexual relations.
Indigenous gendered roles of women
Another role of a woman was the initiator of worship (Kabumba wa mapepo). The third role of a woman taught during Chisungu initiation is Nachimbusa wa chisungu (Mother of Law or Sacred Symbols). Hinfelaar argued that the title Na chimbusa wa Chisungu only refers to the role of initiation teacher (Nachimbusa).
Sacred emblems
- Emblems of traditional food stuff
- Emblems of fruit bearing trees
- Clay/pottery emblems
- Emblems of wall designs
The mortar and pestle are symbols of the unity of soul and spirit between husband and wife through marital sex (Rasing 1995:55). The second clay emblem is of a hoe. The guide for the initiation emphasizes the importance of refusing intercourse with the man until the child is weaned. The emblem emphasizes the woman's superior position in marriage and in her family.
Initiation songs
The first day
The eighth wall emblem called Mushintililo (Mutual Understanding) is presented towards the end of the initiation. He is the lion, the king, because the initiation ritual is also associated with the king's strength (Ukukafya umushi). The king is responsible for the fertility and well-being of his people, and he is dependent on knowledge of his wife's marital ritual (La Fontaine 1982:xxxi).
The second day
The initiate is subjected to physical torture, including having her thighs clamped, especially if she is known to be stubborn in the community. This song teaches the initiate that no matter how badly a man insults his wife, she should not reciprocate. This song represents a woman who goes out to hunt for love at night in the dark.
The third day
The groom is told that both a man and a woman can be the head of the house. He must not think that only a man can be the head of the house. While he is expected to solve problems at home, the marriage will never thrive without the wife's wisdom (Richards 1982:198).
Conclusion
If a married man dies with long pubic hair, the widow is abused by the next of kin of the deceased (Kabonde 1996: 192). She stressed the importance of being aware of the shortcomings in the initiation rites, while maintaining the positive aspects that can empower women, especially in the context of HIV and AIDS. It is therefore necessary to recover the values of Chisungu initiation rites to empower women in the context of HIV and AIDS as will be shown in the next chapter.
Practices and elements to be revised or removed from the rites
Demythologising sex and menstrual blood
It is this uneasiness that causes parents in African culture not to openly discuss issues of sex with their children. Demythologising sex and seeing it as a gift from God can therefore empower women in the context of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. Emphasizing the initiative of the Chisungu initiation to include lessons given to both the bride and the groom can therefore promote reciprocity and empower women in the context of HIV and AIDS.
Demythologising marriage
While it is true that beads give women power over sex, it is more empowering to promote mutual respect and open communication between a man and a woman. It will also be life-giving to encourage open discussion about sex between husband and wife and between parents and children. It is therefore more empowering for women in the context of HIV and AIDS to see marriage as a place or institution of love, reciprocity and commitment rather than a place for reproduction.
Inspection for labia elongation
This diminishes the status of women and as Masenya has pointed out, it makes women more vulnerable to HIV and AIDS as they are treated as property by their husbands and society and cannot negotiate protected sex. Given the likelihood that dry sex will cause tears and cuts in the vagina, this practice clearly increases the risk of HIV transmission and should be discarded. However, it is worth noting that while there are many practices that make women more vulnerable to HIV infection, there are also practices and values that make women more empowered.
Practices and values to be retrieved
- Economic empowerment of women
- Leadership roles of women
- Protest and talking back
- Virginity testing and delaying the sexual debut
- Fidelity and multiple sexual partners
First, during the initiation of the Chisungu natives, it is emphasized that the wife is the head of the household. Kaunda (2010:6) showed that in pre-Christian Bemba society, the wife was the head of the house. In other words, hierarchy in the relationship between husband and wife was not encouraged.
Conclusion
These values critique patriarchy from within and empower women in the context of HIV and AIDS. They argue that rituals can be useful in empowering women in the context of HIV and AIDS (UCZ Synod 2008: 22). This chapter will therefore assess the importance of inculcating the values of the indigenous Chisungu initiation rites in the UCZ in the context of HIV and AIDS.
Inculturation as a theological concept
The issue of the enculturation of female initiation rituals has received considerable attention from African women theologians over the past twenty years. The critical question, however, is whether inculturation of Chisungu initiation rituals can be life-giving for women in UCZ in the context of HIV and AIDS. Given that there are values in Chisungu initiation that can empower women in the context of HIV and AIDS if reclaimed and enculturated, it is important to question the position of the UCZ on the enculturation of female initiation rituals Pull.
The UCZ's position on inculturation of female initiation
Initiation teachers therefore lost respect and command in the church and community (2003:136). The women's protest in the Lumpa uprising challenged the missionary church to inculturate traditional rites such as the Chisungu initiation rite for the needs of the Christian community. Despite the fact that the UCZ maintains the position of missionaries regarding women's initiation rites, women organize them outside the church agreement.
Inculturation of chisungu initiation for HIV prevention
Given that Chisungu have good values that can empower women in the context of HIV and AIDS, as demonstrated in chapter four, the women's guild provides a good platform for sexual education and the empowerment of women if the UCZ inculcates Chisungu initiation rites. It is worth noting that the inculturation of female initiation rites has its own challenges. It is therefore important for the UCZ to maintain explicit lessons about sex in the enculturated version of Chisungu initiation rites, as the context of HIV and AIDS requires a theology of sexuality that deconstructs the myths surrounding sexuality and the physical bodies of women (Landman 1998) :138).
Conclusion
By analyzing the purpose, form, practice and gender-related values of Chisung initiation, I expected the study to provide insight into whether the recovery and inculturation of gender-related values of Chisung initiation in UCZ would empower women in the context of HIV and AIDS. . This question was based on the hypothesis that the initiation rites of indigenous Chisungu women among the Bemba people of Zambia have cultural values that can critique patriarchy and empower women in the context of HIV and AIDS. In this chapter, I will provide a summary of the conclusions from the research findings and highlight new research questions arising from this study.
Concluding remarks
A comparison of past and present reveals both continuity and discontinuity in the structure and content of Chisungu initiation rites. The third chapter highlighted the gendered cultural values of Chisungu initiation rites and the indigenous gender roles of Bemba women. I further argued that cultivating the values of indigenous Chisungu initiation rites that promote women's equality and leadership roles can empower women to negotiate safer sex.
New questions raised by the study
The chapter also demonstrated practices that can be successfully replicated to challenge patriarchy from within and empower women in the context of HIV and AIDS. Chapter five assessed Chisungu's enculturation at UCZ for women's empowerment in the context of HIV and AIDS. This suggests that the enculturation of chisungu initiation rites in UCZ also raises issues of women's religious leadership roles in the church.
Conclusion
The mother's cow”: A study of Old Testament references to virginity in the context of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. African indigenous churches and polygamy in the context of HIV and AIDS: The case of the Mutima Church in Zambia. Problematizing a 'norm': A religio-cultural gender analysis of child marriage in the context of HIV and AIDS.
