Singing Morality: Initiation Songs, Imagery, and Moral Education in Rural Malawi

Abstract

Initiation rites in Africa mark a transition for the initiates from one stage in life to another, and are aimed at imparting knowledge and moral values  that help them embrace and ably perform their new roles and responsibilities in society. One avenue through which lessons are conveyed to the novices during these rites is songs. In this article I examine and discuss the texts of selected songs used for moral education during the circumcision rite called Jando as it is performed in Muwawa village, Senior Chief Ngokwe, in Malawi’s southern district of Machinga. I wish to show that the messages in the songs reflect the agrarian context within which they were composed and are performed. I also attempt to show that in their  reference to animals and animal imagery, the songs reveal the people’s embeddedness in their environment. I argue that while the songs are specific to their context in terms of the human behaviour alluded to and the imagery used, they aim at promoting values whose significance  transcends time and space. My analysis of the songs is informed by a Functionalist approach to oral literature which focuses on the utilitarian value of a cultural activity for a particular society.

Keywords: Jando, initiation, song, imagery, moral education, tradition, Yawo, Lomwe