Cultural Orientation: Day 1

As part of our introduction to Malawi, WUSC provides new volunteers with a week long cultural and language training course. To be honest I wasn’t really looking forward to it. Things are getting going at work and I thought I would much rather spend the week there, but it’s pretty good actually. JJR, Cole, Claire and I were accompanied by a WUSC staff member named Joyce to an arts and crafts centre in a town called Mua. Our accommodation is lovely, and we each get our own room, which pleases me greatly. The food is ok, though it seems like it might be pretty standard fare and not too much variety. Mua is actually more often referred to a Mua Mission, as there is a large mission here, established by the White Missionaries, a group of Fathers so named not because of the colour of their skin but by the colour of the robes they wear (though all the fathers seem to be white, from the ones I’ve seen). The mission includes a hospital and the Arts and Crafts centre works with local artisans teaching wood carving skills. The village is a working village but looks far more beautiful and well planned than any of the others I’ve seen. The exteriors of the buildings are painted in colourful African motifs and there is a proliferation of plants and vines.

Our trainer for the cultural portion of the program is a 60 year old chain-smoking Father with a potbelly who wears flipflops, was born in Montreal and has lived in Malawi for 40 years. Our Day 1 morning program was a bit of a snooze. We looked at the history of Malawi, from about 2000BC, tracing the migration of the different populations of peoples across Africa and how they intersect and created the people, language and culture that exist today. I know it is interesting stuff, but I think it must be genetically engrained in my being that my brain can not focus on anything historical. The only thing I can remember from the entire 3 hour morning session, in addition to the thoughts of creative escape plans to get myself out of the room, was that chiefs pass down their name, and they are usually powerful and often sexual in nature – which goes well to explain why at some point in history chiefs took the names “Go and Fuck the Fire”, and "Fuck me" (the English translations of course) and why a chief in that line still retains the names. I actually think it’s humorous to know that the current Chief Go and Fuck the Fire is actually a woman, and wonder if that causes any awkwardness at things like parent-teacher interviews or bible study. (And know that I feel no remorse in using the word fuck in my blog, cause it’s from the mouth of a priest).

In the afternoon we learned about the matrilineal family structure, which I found much more interesting (though less humorous). It is actually a very basic and fundamental concept that underlies so much in Malawian culture, and is so foreign to North Americans. Basically the way it works, is the belief that the bloodline is passed down through the mothers, and the centrality of the family is with the woman. So for example, if a woman has a son and a daughter, the daughter will eventually marry, and her husband will have to come live with her and her family, and the woman’s son will have to leave the village to go live with his wife’s family. But the eldest son in the family will be responsible for caring for his mother and sister and his sisters children, even at the expense of his own family, and even though he now has to live with his wife’s family. Within the family, they even use titles differently than we do. A child will call his/her mother “1st mother” and any of her sisters “mother”, and same goes for father. Any children born to your mother’s sisters are called your brothers or sisters. Any children born to your mother’s brothers are called your cousins. Your mothers sisters children can marry your mothers brothers children because they are not deemed to be in the same bloodline.

So, to put that into perspective, for anyone who knows my mothers side of the family:
I would call Elaine “mother”, Terry and Michael “father”. Elaine and her kids would live in the same area/compound as me and my mom, and Do and Pops. Terry would be “the one who protects the family” but he would have to live in Fiona’s village. He would be responsible for taking care of me and Mark as well as Elaine’s kids, before being responsible for Andrew. Michael would also have to have moved out when he got married (though I’m pretty sure we would have gotten him back after the divorce). Elaine’s kids (Shannon, Reid, Elyse) would be my brothers and sisters. Terry’s son (Andrew) and Mike’s kids (Mikey, Katie) would be called our cousins. Therefore Mark could marry Shannon, I could marry Mikey, Elyse could marry Andrew and Reid could marry Katie (in fact, it’s encouraged). At the end of all that, everyone would be back living with Pops and Do! Not that it ever happens so exclusively like that, but you get the point, I hope. Interesting stuff huh?