The Makewana

Description

She was the oracular high priestess of the Chewa people, and the highest religious authority in Malawi. Her title means “Mother of Children” — all children, all the people. She belonged to a long non-hereditary line of women who were designated by spirit selection, by known signs and manifestations. The Makewana presided over the Pool of Malawi, where the Python lived, and for which the country is named. These priestesses wore a spiral shell and carried an ebony staff. Another title, Mang’adzi, means “betrothed maiden,” because of the oracle’s spirit marriage to the python god, whose bow was the rainbow. Among the Banda clans, priestesses called Mwall called rain, prophesied, and presided over intitiation ceremonies. In southern Malawi, the Mang’anja people also had shamanic rain shrine prophetesses.