20 which must become true and their names vindicated.

These signs especially the possession aspect to Bimbiship bring us face to face with another important f a c t o r . They curb the ambitions of those who would be rivals to this holy office. This means that faction groups and their supporters do not exist at the moment, at least, in an organized form. The confidence and the tremendous spiritual power that the Bimbi acquires as a result of his being possessed

makes him impregnable against forces which are constantly engaged to discredit him or even to kill him.

The act of possession also distinguishes the Bimbiship from what the present Bimbi calls the village

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headman of the book and his own which he calls spiritual village headmanship. The Bimbi, by most oral a c c o u n t s , is a charismatic leader in the

Weberian sense of a figure who is treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman powers or qualities on the basis of which the individual concerned is treated

22 as l e a d e r .

The Call

and the rituals involved in the making of a Bimbi is an ideal description of the events as recounted to me by a number of my i n f o r m a n t s . It is very

likely that in real life situations the processes vary from individual to individual. According to Abasi Tambala when a person is possessed by the spirits as a call to Bimbiship amawoneka ngati akudwala misala

(he appears as if he were m a d ) . He shouts, climbs trees and moves around anywhere. The first signs of Bimbiship are repoted to ku-Tambala first and no one else. Abasi Tambala claims that he is the grandson of Timang'amba Bimbi on the father's side. The

reporter is said to be always che ku-Malekano a leading 23

councillor within the Bimbi lineage. ■' According to oral traditions recounted to me by Ali Nyama, on the day when signs of possession reach a climax many people from the surrounding villages converge into

the Bimbi village to see what is happening and eventually to take part in the rituals which lead to the making

of a Bimbi. They all assemble in front of the house of the possessed person. They sing and clap their hands. They sing thus mentioning only the names of Chewa ancestral spirits:

A Nyangu A Sokopio A Namanje A Chibalala A Mchelecheta A Mkulukutwa

Kodi uyu ndi Bimbi

[tell us is this Bimbi?]

Ali Nyama has it that when the possessed hears this song he is seized by these spirits. This is accompanied by convulsions and shouting aloud unintelligently

(kubw e b w e t a ) . Then suddenly he comes out of the house and runs into the bush shouting as if he were mad.

any other person in the group. What is special in this ceremony is the climbing of a special tree commonly

2 4

called njale - Sterculia a p p e n d i c u l a t a . All my informants assetted that the Bimbis climb only this type of tree and no other. The Bimbi and his officials say that they do not know why the Bimbis climb this particular tree. What is significant, however, is that a tree is involved in the process and trees among the Chewa seem to be imputed with spiritual power which

lies far beyond their physical properties. Ad de Vries has indicated that trees are symbols of cosmic life a prodigious growth towards heaven. The tree connects the three worlds: its roots are in the under world, its trunk on earth and its foliage in heaven. It is thus a symbol of perpetual regeneration victory over death and at a far higher level a symbol of

2 5

immortality. This may, by implication, be the meaning of the climbing of the njale tree. For the Bimbi, by and large, is a kind of bridge between the physical world and the spiritual forces in heaven and people believe that through his activities they can have the life-giving rain.

When word reaches ku-Tambala that the possessed person has climbed the njale tree he in turn sends ku-Malekano to address the possessed in these words:

"If you are Bimbi I command you to come down from the tree and then go down to « the shrine or in any other house you w i s h " .

If the possessed complies with this command then ku-Tambala comes to examine him whether he is true Bimbi or not. Meanwhile ku-Tambala sends Mposa to inform the Group village headman Namdumbo about this. Nandumbo and Mposa in turn go to tell chief Kalembo. By and large the chief does not take action but leaves everything in the hands of the Chewa themselves who understand the meaning of the rituals surrounding the making of a Bimbi. Word is also sent to village

headman Msungu for him to inform chief Liwonde about t h i s .

The anointing in the waters of the Shire River

When the ritual of climbing and descending the njale tree is over the Bimbi 'elect' runs down to

Mponda Forest and plunges himself into the water fifty yards away from the shrine. All this time people sing, clap their hands and d a n c e . Once in the water a new song is sung. They sing thus led by ku-Tambala:

A Nyangu A Sokopio A Namanje A Chibalala A Mchelecheta A Mkulukutwa

Munthu amene ali m'madziyo

[if that man in the water] ^

Ngati ali Bimbi mutipatse

[if he is Bimbi send him back to us] Ngati Sali Bimbi afele mmadzi momwemo

[If he is not let him die there in the water]

According to Ali Nyama this is the most critical point in the long and complex process of making a Bimbi. It is common belief that it is at this time that the Bimbi elect is anointed and commissioned by the ancestral

spirits to be their representative and spokesman to the people round about. The anointing and the

commissioning is believed to be done by Nyangu,

Sokopio, Namanje and Chibalala all of them legendary Chewa heads of the past now very important ancestral

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spirits, and believed to live in the waters of the S h i r e .

The ritual at the 'lake s h o r e ' appears to have great theological significance. Here water, as in many

other religious institutions, plays a crucial role. By going into the water the Bimbi enacts the symbolic

acts of death and resurrection. The new Bimbi undergoes a process of death and burial by immersion in the water and he comes back to new life as he emerges from the water. One of my informants put it in this way.

"The Bimbi dies and wakes up, and he dies again and he wakes up again".

It may also be pointed out that the ritual at the river side may signify fertility and the progressive irrigation of the soil. This ties up significantly with the

Bimbi cult which in a sense is a fertility cult concerned with the productivity of the soil by the fertilizing rain water symbolic of life.

It appears plausible to say that it is the symbolic death and resurrection enacted in the water which is the decisive factor in the transitional process from being a commoner into becoming a Bimbi. It is at this point that the person chosen by the spirits, is enabled, through the rituals at the river side to participate directly in the affairs of the spirit world. He can now be called akumidzimu or even m zimu (one who belongs to the spirit world, the spirit) since he is the incarnation of the previous Bimbis.

The symbolism of death is, according to V. Turner, typical of the liminal stage in initiation ceremonies and seems to emphasize the separation of the individual from an earlier fixed point in the

social structure to a new and far superior position in a new social structure. The initiand 'dies' in order

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