Andermas
The old (Church) year was seen off with Gule, of course, but it is appropriate to record here the manner in which Advent Sunday was marked.
My colleague T. arranged for a service of Choral Evensong in the Kamuzu Academy chapel. Such rites are seldom performed in a chapel inspired by Presbyterianism and inclined more toward Evangelicalism. The programme (.pdf) is attached.
The influence is Scottish in part: hence this note on Andermas.
The chaplain G. kindly allowed Thomas Mpira’s Amayi Mariya ndi Mwana to stand at the front of the chapel: a handsome representation from Kungoni Centre of Culture and Art, Mua Mission, of the Virgin Mary with Child conceived as Malawians. Iconoclasm is alive and well in Malawi: I was accused by pupils on the morrow of idolatry; and Thomas Mpira’s stroke, which has taken his right hand, was ascribed to God’s punishment for such works.
Andermas has seen also the fall of the first rains. T. and I clomb Champhumi Hill, to look out over the Kasungu – Lilongwe plain and to watch the weather drawing closer. There is an old San image of a great Rain Bull stalking the heavens: !Khwa:ka Xoro, if I recall correctly. T. is now set to leave Kamuzu Academy, so the ascent was touched with a little melancholy. I welcomed the rains with the onset of night from my khonde. It occurs to me that five years ago, on Friday, 25th November, 2017, I clomb Champhumi Hill, not at dusk but at dawn, together with two Lattitude volunteers, Ella and Skye. Our purpose was to scatter what remained of Rita Herkal’s ashes. On that day too the rains followed our descent.
