The importance water in Bemba culture: Ukusefya pa N’gwena - celebrating the crocodile.

My home country Zambia is nation fillled with a rich culture consisting of around 72+ recognised tribes and dialects. The Bemba tribe makes up a significant portion of the northern province of Zambia and the most spoken language having about 3.6 million citizens who speak it as their first language. The origins of Abemba can be traced as an off shoot of the Luba-Lunda kingdom that originated from the Congo basin, (See The origins of Ababemba). The legend has it that a Luba king called Mukulumpe met a an alien woman in a forest named Mumbi Mukasa with ears as large as an elephant with no relatives but a descendant of the Ngwena clan (crocodile), that had allegedly fallen from the sky. They then proceed to birth three sons and one daughter Nkole, Katongo, Chiti and Chilufya Mulenga, who then fleed their fathers tyrannical rule and fled across the Luapula river into what is know today as the northern province of Zambia, my hometown.

This history has shaped the rituals and culture we've developed as a tribe in our culture, with one ritual in particular that celebrates the journey across the river that our ancestors partook in called Ukusefya pa N'gwena which directly translates to celebrating at the N'gwena (at the place crocodile)

The ritual honours the river and water that allowed for the passage of the four siblings to cross the river by allegedly getting on the back of a dead crocodile. It consists of throwing flour and other harvest into the water body as though it were a person that would need sustenance. This is done by the spiritual advisors of the chitimukulu ( the paramount chief) and is celebrated with festivities of dancing and song of the whole bemba clan. People travel from across the northern province from all villages and districts to come and celebrate. It happens in august and is a big cultural phenomenon known by everyone in Zambia. 

The deep and symbiotic connection that Ababemba have with water and spirituality is something that has come naturally to me, embedding its principles of fluidity and otherworldliness deeply into my relation of femininity, culture and gender. However this contrasts heavily with the relation I then was subjected to by being "educated" in a more western influence, forced to neglect and subdue my cultural instincts and inclinations in order to appeal to the academic Eurocentric structure. 

A fisher boy on the brink of Mubuluma falls on the Luapula river,

Through looking hydrofemnism in our personal reading groups I have now re-alligned myself, reminded myself of an almost forgotten nature that has been an intrinsic part of me. By seeing these western and other cultures breaking down the influence and claws of patriarchy within their understanding of femininity it has led me to a place of questioning. Who was I before I became a global citizen viewed by my appearance as feminine, what roles would I occupy in my ancestors land. What would my ethereal mother Mumbi Mukasa who lays in the forest with her protruding ears tell me if she saw me? Would she recognise me as her own child or would she deny me my heritage and say I'm disconnected from her alieness.