Abstract
Ahunter’s moon shone down on the village in Chiawa Chieftainship in the lower Zambezi valley. I was at chirero festivities, when a dead person’s spirit is recalled to its kin and people dance and sing all night. Young people dance to drums, while the mature people sing chirero songs accompanied by the beating of wooden pestles with sticks and the very old sit and chat together. I wandered over to the young people’s dance. Called chips, it involves fast drumming and songs. On impulse, I joined in and was swept up by two young girls who spun me round and round to the enjoyment of the onlookers. It was one of those occasions in which one feels part of the community.
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© 2005 Lahoucine Ouzgane and Robert Morrell
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Dover, P. (2005). Gender and Embodiment: Expectations of Manliness in a Zambian Village. In: Ouzgane, L., Morrell, R. (eds) African Masculinities. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403979605_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403979605_11
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-52921-6
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