Gule Wamukulu, a ritual dance, performed by members of the Nyau society of the Chewa people, during the annual Kulamba Ceremony in Zambia. Photographs by Ian Murphy.

Gule Wamukulu, a ritual dance, performed by members of the Nyau society of the Chewa people, during the annual Kulamba Ceremony in Zambia. Photographs by Ian Murphy.

“Nyau is a semisecret men's mask association, the primary spiritual practice of the Chewa people of central Malawi [and eastern Zambia, western Mozambique and areas where Malawians migrated to in Zimbabwe]. As originally viewed by Christian missionaries and colonial administrators, it was an exhibition of "obscenity, sensuality and cruelty," a "national evil." The moral instruction Nyau employs relies upon sophisticated reverse role-playing: good behavior is illustrated by the portrayal of extremely bad behavior. Owing to this and the secrecy surrounding the association, its moral underpinnings have generally been misunderstood and (to the benefit of the Christian church) misrepresented. Yet, despite concerted efforts to ban the community performances of its masks and dancers, Nyau has survived to retain its hold on the spiritual imagination of the rural Chewa, enabling them to define and demarcate the mwambo, the archive of their moral universe. 

The secrets of membership are preserved through coded language, riddles, and signing. According to Matthew Schoffeleers (Religion and the Dramatisation of Life, Christian Literature Association, Malawi, 1997), the origins of Nyau are to be found in the Chewa myth of creation: Chauta (God) descended to Earth with man, woman, and all of the animals. They lived together in harmony until the day man accidentally created fire by rubbing two sticks together. With the grasslands and the forest aflame, the animals (with the exception of the dog, the goat, and the pig) ran away in fear and anger. From that time forward there has been discord in the world. 

The Nyau dancers (termed zilombo, or "wild animals") represent the spirits of the animals (nyama) and the ancestors (mizimu) brought back from the spirit world to attempt a temporary reconciliation with mankind in the village. This symbolic spirit world is presented to the village through Gule Wamkulu (The Big Dance) and at other significant events, including puberty rites and funerals. Through the elaborate pantheon of Nyau masks, zoomorphic constructions, song, and dance, the rules and traditions (mwambo) entrusted to the guardianship of the ancestor spirits are portrayed and renewed for the villagers. The masks portray every aspect of human behavior, from Bwindi, the careless philanderer, to Wakana, the helpless epileptic refused in marriage, to Chibano, the warthog who teaches the need for the rules of the culture. Lust, greed, foolishness, vanity, infertility, sorcery, blind ambition - each has a Nyau counterpart who dances its story.

In addition to inculcating the traditions and beliefs of the community, Gule Wamkulu provides a social safety valve, venting tensions that may build within a closed community reliant on consensual decision-making. Songs incorporating issues ranging from politics to AIDS may be voiced and profiled through a new masquerade figure who has entered the Nyau pantheon. With the dancers' identities hidden behind the masks and elaborate trappings of fur and sacking, voices of dissent are freely expounded in the forum of song and dance.” - African Arts Vol. 32, No. 3: Nyau Masks and Ritual, by Douglas Curran