Nyau
Nyau (also: Nyao meaning mask[1] or initiation) is a secret society of the Chewa, an ethnic group of the Bantu peoples from Central and Southern Africa.
Initiations are separate for men and for women, with different knowledge learned and with different ritual roles in the society according to gender and seniority.
A cave painting in Zaire depicts Kasiya Maliro, a type of Nyau mask that may date to 992 CE.
[11] The Nyau beliefs include communication with those who are dead, or their spirits, calling this act pemphero lalikulu ("Great Prayer").
Words for God include Chiuta, the great bow or rainbow in the sky and Namalango in the earth, like a womb, where seeds germinate and is a source of new life.
Primarily the Nyau perform their masked dances at funerals, memorial services and initiations (for girls: Chinamwali).
[6][13] Initiation of men into the secret society begins with residing in a wooded grove, the place the dead are buried (cemetery) for a week or much longer in the past.
However, senior women perform in the Gule Wamkulu with intricate clapping, singing, dancing and chanting, responding to the song of the masquerader and are close to the dancers.
Men and women both enter the graveyard grove burials at the end of the Nyau funeral performance.
Initiated women attend the Nyau performances freely, though they will deny knowledge of the men wearing masks.
The dancers, described as "fleet-footed or nimble-footed", appear in masks representing the dead, human being or animal; the weak-kneed run away from sights of such dances.
The masks worn by the dancers on such performances are in the form of animals or "beasts" such as antelopes believed to capture the soul or spirit of the deceased that brings renewed life.
[18] Over 400 masks which are associated with the Nyau society and the Gule wamkulu ritual are exhibited at the Chamare Museum in Dedza District, Malawi.
[21] They are representations of a large variety of characters, including wild animals such as antelope, lions and hyenas.
[4] With names such as Bwindi, Chibano, and Wakana, the masks portray a variety of traits and types such as a philanderer, a helpless epileptic, lust, greed, foolishness, vanity, infertility, sorcery, and ambition.
Highly respected animals are also believed to resemble very important ancestors such as chiefs or members of the Nyau cult.
