Gule Wamkulu, the Great Dance
At Chewa funerals and festivals, masked dancers appear from the bush. They're not people in costumes, tradition says, but spirits of the dead.
What was reported
Gule Wamkulu, 'the great dance', is performed by the Nyau, a secret society of Chewa men in Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique. Dancers wear masks of wood and straw representing ancestors, animals and spirits, some of them huge frames that several men carry together.
They appear at funerals, at the end of the harvest and at initiations of young people. While dancing, they're treated as the spirits themselves, coming back from the world of the dead to visit the living.
Explanations offered
The society's members keep its secrets, and outsiders aren't meant to know who dances. Gule Wamkulu is on UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, as one of the oldest living traditions in southern Africa.
- When
- For centuries, and today
- Where
- Dedza, Central Region, Malawi
- Witnesses
- Chewa communities of Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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