Witchcraft and scepticism by proxy: Pentecostalism and laughter in urban Malawi: Rijk van Dijk

Abstract

With hindsight, urban Malawi of the late 1980s and early 1990s was a veritable spectacle of power. These were the last years of the dictatorial regime of president Kamuzu Banda and in the various townships of a city like Blantyre, the country’s largest commercial centre, the political machinery was intensifying its coercive presence in a variety of ways. There were the Ayufi (youth-league of the ruling party) who by positioning themselves overtly near such places as markets, bus stations and hospitals embodied the presence of the state. People were flogged if they did not obey orders. Township residents were coerced into attending compulsory party meetings where the display of political power by party-bosses was required to be observed with awe and respect. People disappeared as a result of the many eyes and ears which those in power sent out secretly through the townships to control dissent or open criticism. Perhaps even more intimidating than the Ayufi were the Malawi Young Pioneers (MYP), Banda’s elite troops – well trained, well armed and parading in their splendid uniforms. It was as if no one could control the display of violence they would unleash on township residents if disobedience had been noted by those in power. Even the chiefs (mfumu) in the local residential areas shivered and shook when MYPs or the Ayufi entered their areas in search of dissention, as cries of agony came closer and closer. The noise of deliberately broken cooking pots as well as the sound of the destruction of small gardens were, on such occasions, heard through a township, provoking much anxiety. And in the Blantyre Kamuzu Stadium, President Banda would occasionally dance with the Zinyau, the masked representatives of the Nyau secret society. The young dancers of this society, to which only initiated men of the Chewa-and Mang’anja-speaking groups of Central and Southern Malawi belong, are commonly referred to as zilombo, that is, wild animals from the bush. They were notorious for spreading a reign of violent terror in the villages (see also Kaspin 1993; Englund 1996b). Their occasional appearance on the city’s outskirts invariably caused great alarm and distress.