N'cwala Ceremony

Yesterday we went to the N'cwala Ceremony in the village of Mutenguleni a few miles outside of Chipata. This is a yearly celebration of the first harvests by the Ngoni people of the Eastern province.

It's a big deal - even President Edgar Lungu came, with an entourage of armed guards.

His picture is displayed in most shops/establishments so it was fun to see him in the flesh. He had the exact same expression!

The ceremony involved a lot of tribal dancing...

We managed to get into the main area because whilst we weren't technically invited, there were a number of representatives from Saint Francis invited and we blagged our way in...

Inside we got moved on a couple of times for being in the way, so sat behind the tribes waiting to dance, trying to blend in!

Lots of people wanted to take photos with us...

Becky and Nicola with a man called Abraham who was very upset that I couldn't print him a copy of the photo there and then

After the dancing there were a lot of speeches. It was really hot so we decided to make a move. This meant we missed the main event where the chief of the Ngoni people drinks the blood of a black bull... Which might have been interesting to watch, but instead we went to Protea to have a fancy Chipata lunch!

If you thought portaloos at festivals in the UK were bad...!

Thousands of people came from all over the whole province.