The original Bantu stock of the Waswahili (the Wangozi) was to be found at the East Coast of Africa around Mombasa, Pemba, Kilwa, Pate, Lamu and Zanzibar. Due to this strategic geographical positioning, this society was soon in contact with visitors from maritime nations.
But, although visitors from diverse cultures arrived at the East Coast of Africa before the Arabs did, it was the advent of Arabic speaking visitors and their religion - Islam that greatly influenced the Waswahili: according to Al-Amin and Bakari. Islam began to penetrate East Africa in a significant way in the tenth century after Christ. The Waswahili as a people were then exposed to a new international religious idelogy. In the centuries which followed the Waswhaili became a people infused with external influences to an almost unique extent in Eastern Africa. (Mwamko 4:76).
This Arabic speaking group settled in Uswahili and mixed with the inhabitants of the coastal town. The interaction was through language, culture and free intermarriage. Soon, the immigrants became indistinguishable from their environment within a few generations. Through a unipolar process, a new Arabic Islamic/African culture was formed. This process did not affect, the Waswahili alone, but also other Bantu groups that were their neighbours. This was also the root of the dispersal of Swahili speaking people.
Among the original cultural aspects affected by this contact was the traditional rites of passage - Unyago and Jando. But whereas Unyago - a rite of passage from girlhood to womanhood - actually received propping from Islamic teachings, Jando - a rite from boyhood to manhood was affected to the point of near extinction (Trimingham, 1980:51). This scenario was due to the fact that the bottom line in Islamic teachings was that males have power over females. This total male dominance of Muslim authority excluded women from Muslim rituals and scholarship. Due to this, women became completely marginal in the Islamic culture. The results of this was that the traditional acculturation of women in this society remained intact, though there has been some gradual changes. On the other hand the male gender embraced Islam to the point of total immersion into it at the expense of traditional acculturation.
Thus, the implementation of Islamic norms and sanctions that were skillfully interpreted to suit the prevailing patriarchal social set-up influenced the way women were treated in the Swahili speaking society and has thus contributed to the unenviable position of women in it. However, the Quran clearly spells out gender stratified roles in society and, "despite all inadequacies and falsities, the ideological framework of Islam ensures basic rights for women" (Imam, 1989:59). However, patriarchal strategies emanating from both the Waswahili culture and that of the Arabs have subjugated this religious factor in relation to women.
For example it is an Islamic religious demand that women respect their husbands, however, this has been ridiculously stretched to exploit the women such that the husbands end up demanding several gestures of subservience from their wives.
Right from the early stages, a man is conditioned by his parents to believe that he has to grow to be the head of a family who bears all the marital power. On the other hand an upcoming Swahili speaking Muslim woman is subjected to a wide range of teachings that persuade her to devote hours of her life to make-up, new recipes, sweet words to please her husband and even new sex techniques. These teachings are the components of Unyago the context of the songs analyzed in the study.
In any given society the initiation of an individual into it is paramount. Children in the Swahili speaking Muslim society are no exception. As earlier stated, boys are more socialized towards an Islamic kind of life than a traditional one. On the other hand, the female gender still upkeeps the pre-Islamic modes of socialization, hence Unyago. Unyago involves both theoretical, initiative and practical modes of socialization. Unyago is carried out on the girls from soon after menarche - usually from the age of ten and twelve to two weeks after their wedding ceremony. The instructions are given by a traditional instructor Kungwi. The Kungwi usually identifies her own candidate as she grows. Soon after the menarche of the young girl - Mwanamwari the Kungwi, who should be a successful married woman, takes upon herself to instruct the girl on household chores, wifely duties and on matters relating to domesticity. This is the first phase of Unyago, namely Ndani ya mwanamwari.
Traditionally the girl is locked up in her room in her parents house. She is well fed to acquire the ideal shape of a woman as per this society. During this period which should ideally take three months, the girl is not only instructed on self cleanliness and the chores surrounding the domestic arena, but also dances and songs. The girl is secretly taught to dance to these tunes. The dancing is supposed to make her flexible and acrobatic especially in the bed chamber. By the end of these lessons, she is supposed to be able to beautify herself, walk gracefully and to entertain her husband in future.
Ndani ya harusi is the second phase of Unyago. This takes place before the wedding day. Ideally this should take one to three months. During this stage, the earlier instructions are reemphasized. At this time the girl is more or less in a fattening room. She is very well fed. Sometimes she is even bathed by her kungwi. The kungwi, assisted by other married women beautify her through smoothening her skin. This is done by rubbing it with camwood, heena and white chalk and sometimes curry powder or ashes. At this stage the girl is also taught exact body movements during sex. These are taught in the accompaniment of songs. Alongside the movements, there is also a deliberate acquisition of endearing voice and diction. All these are to be used to cultivate a good relationship with her husband. Through the songs, the girl is thought, graceful movements. After this, reckless walking is not womanly. The songs are highly rhythmical and she should use them during her household chores also to avoid clumsiness. The dancing styles also differ. There is that which should make her waist very flexible - chakacha and that which makes her move pleasurably during sex - msondo. Chakacha is danced in an upright position and msondo is a lying position. The girl's ability to swing the waist "kutikisa kiuno" in a kind of ticket to marriage. Whoever acquires the skill faster gets a suitor sooner. This is because word about her flexibility goes round and soon her hand in marriage is sought. Further, women's songs are sung and danced in the wedding ritual.
But weddings are not women only rituals. However, the society is fully compartmentalized. Whereas women gather, dance, `discuss' together, men have their own place. They sit together and listen to music. Women also engage themselves in the chakacha dance whilst men drink as they listen to the artist singing. This was clearly verified through observation by my male research assistant who also managed to record the singing of Ismail Swaleh. Through this involvement in research, I observed how the society ends up having women's song "ngoma za kika" hence chakacha and men's songs "ngoma za kiume". No gender dared venture into the domain of the other.
In general therefore, one can safely argue that the Unyago context is designed to instruct a girl on how to grow into an ideal Swahili Muslim woman. One who will get a suitor as soon as she is of age. Above all, Unyago is meant to domesticate the woman. She is clearly made to learn how to be housebound. She is thus encouraged to direct her energies towards growing into a submissive and subservient housekeeper.
As the girls are instructed through a near formal institution - Unyago, all attempts are made, though very informal, to socialise the male members of the society on how to keep their future wives in their `rightful' places. They are made to learn how to keep them nurtured and above all patronised. This is explained by the popularity of such proverbs such as Mke ni nguo, mgobma kupaliliwa (a woman is like a garment, or a banana plant that needs to be well nurtured).
According to this proverb, a garment is a necessary article, for it to serve its purpose, the owner needs to take good care of it. Same case applies to a banana plant, for it to be productive and serve its purpose, the farmer needs to pay extra attention to it. In the same way the Muslim Swahili speaking community believes that the woman is a source of labour, comfort, love and sexual pleasure, for the man. He has therefore no alternative but to carefully tend for, control and tame his woman. Women in this society have thus to be kept under constant surveillance and `care'.
The above scenario is created with the main goal of promoting peace and harmony in marital life. A mother will go to all extents to make sure that her daughter is completely endowed with these wifely teachings. Hence one, Mwanakupona had to compose a poem as a death wish for her daughter. This poem has been didactically used publicly to instruct on the societal expectations of a young married woman. The following stanza from this famous epic Utendi wa Mwanakupona, should exemplify this;
Akinena simjibu, If he speaks (angrily) do not answer
Jitahidi kunyamaa, Endeavour to be silent
(Harries, 1962)
Ironically enough, it is within the same institution of Unyago that defiance is built in the female gender. Some prefer to call it women's liberation, but whatever name might befit the reaction of the Swahili Muslim Woman I could not really find. There seems to be a growing awareness of a sexual/gender bondage in her. And she, like any other person in bondage, who cannot use force, takes to a silent fight. This is what she is doing through her oral poems. These are songs that have remained in the background because unlike Utendi wa mwanakupona, they are against the patriarchal values prevailing in the society. These songs collected during Unyago actually convey the pains and agonies of a married woman.
The purpose of this study was to collect and analyse songs from women only rituals, the ndani ya mwanamwari and ndani ya harusi _ hence Unyago. Specifically the objectives of this research were:
(a) to establish the existence of women only rituals in Swahili Muslim settlements.
(b) to categorise the songs performed during such rituals.
(c) to explore the thematic/symbolic concerns of these songs.
(d) to identify any protest and/or resistance in these songs.
(e) to look for the reactions towards (d) from the male singers if any.
To achieve the above stated objectives, the study investigated the following research issues and/or questions:
(a) Women rituals in Swahili Islamic Communities.
(b) Gender relations in the communities.
(c) Messages of appreciation and/or discomfort in the songs during the women's rituals.
(d) Realisation by the favoured - in the relations towards (c) above.
(e) Possible suggestions and/or interventions after the findings.
