The Chimwale Ceremony of the Ngoni Tribe

Last week was the annual Ngoni festival called Chimwale. The Ngoni's, which is the tribe that I belong to gather every year to celebrate their culture and traditions. The day was filled with dancing, singing and eating. Several volunteers came to stay with me since I was just a stone's throw away from where the festivities took place. The photos are of the Ngoni warriors holding Nkoli's and their traditional dress of many types of animal skins.

The ceremony lasted for two days. On the second day the Paramount Chief Mpezeni kills a bull and drinks from its blood. I didn't attend this part of the ceremony since there is an unbelievable amount of people and things can get out of hand. I was extremely pleased just to watch all the dancing.

We met some amazing people at the ceremony including a Swedish man passing through while cycling the last 20 months from Norway to Cape Town. He spent the night in my village and had the most amazing stories photos from his travels across Turkey, Egypt, the Sudan and just everywhere he has gone. He has about 5 more months to go before he reaches Cape Town. Talk about an adventure, but I felt so lucky to meet such an interesting person. He hopes to write a book about his journey.

While we were at the ceremony, we started chatting with the Ngoni warriors and I decided to buy a spear from one of them. Its a genuine Ngoni spear and I love it. Its been the talk of my village ever since I brought it home. They keep saying, "Ah, Juliette, you are a true Ngoni now." Yes, yes I am.

We also saw the cutest warrior at the ceremony. The little boy pictured below. And to our astonishment, this kid sure does know how to dance. He was quite shy, but so cute.

It was quite an amazing experience because these ceremonies are not for tourist at all. They are only for their tribes to celebrate their culture. It was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity to be able to see something like this. As always we got plenty of attention, however since I lived nearby they were very happy that we came. Didn't hurt that I was willing to try their traditional dances with an Nkoli. Its difficult and I'm sure I looked like a fool. But hey, only in Africa, right? They just laughed and laughed.