Dance Fever

This weekend we spent a day at Mua Mission for its annual “Cultural Dance Celebration”. Mua is Catholic mission run by a French-Canadian priest named Father Bouche. Mua’s approach to Catholicism is untraditional compared to other missions. Rather than seeking to distance the Malawians from their tribes and cultures and introduce them to Catholicism, the mission emphasizes the importance of local culture. It works to create a Catholicism that embraces and uses traditional practices to enhance the spirituality of worship. The mission is decorated with tons of tribal art and has a museum where visitors can learn more about the different tribes indigenous to the area.

If you are wondering, today tribes are still important in Malawi. People are encouraged to marry within their tribe and keep the traditions alive. In the city however, tribes mix more freely. The Chewas were the tribes of the former Dictator Hastings Kamuzu Banda and he chose the Chewa’s language Chichewa as the national language, even though it is only one of many tribal languages. This decision helped to create a unified language and general unity in the country but also clearly favored one tribe over another. Mua Mission has also revitalized wood carving as an important and very beautiful art form in Malawi. The

The Celebration we attended was a dance festival where members of many different tribes came to perform their songs and dances. The performances were interesting and fun and the costumes were great. We included some pictures from the day.