It is not long time ago, when some people of the Northern part of Malawi especially Mzimba, could not be separated from their Livestock, like chickens, goats and cattle. In remote past, families who could not afford to raise kraals ( khola) were deprived of options beside sharing with animals their dwelling houses, to guarantee their safety .
I could still remember the days when my mother had taken some whips on me over a misdemeanor, I used to seek refuge at my grand father’s mud made and grass thatched house . The house depicted cool rooms smeared with cattle dung .
When dusk crept in, six gosts and three kittens, used to join us into the house. They used to go straight to a corner of the vacant ‘dinning‘ room where the big man used to skillfully tethered them so that the young ones were not trodden upon by the elders.
At night, it was something else.I could be waken up by either goats’ snizing, or bleeting by the she goat (mother) which could not trace its kitten. I could also hear a splash of urine that dug a canal that run up to the place we used to assemble fire.
I remember one night urine extinguishing some little fire that remained before we had left for bed. Although the extinguishing sound was loud my grand father pretended not to hear despite both of us having been awake. I knew he was accustomed to the sound having slept with goats for years.
At times, sleep could be disrupted by goats stampede over something I could not explain
“ It’s how goats behave” my grand father responded when I plucked courage to find out the cause of stampede
The morning task for my grand father was to untie the goats from a pole sunk at the corner of the room, and tether them outside the house, at a nearby garden. He used a reed basket to clear the droppings that had a special heaping place at one homeyard point, for them to mature before use in gardens, to boost soil fertility.
Sharing sleeping dwelling houses with animals, especially chickens, goats, sheep, and calves, was a common practice by most Ngoni families few decades ago. There was an art in tethering the elder animals so that young ones were not trodden upon.
This culture was being practised ostensibly to secure the animals, especially in remote rural communities infested by hyenas, wild cats and other prey bessts. Rarely from thieves.
Every tribe or society has its own culture and art that make people’s life complete and worthy.
Culture is a set of values, beliefs , practices, habits, behaviours , views and all that identify a group of people or a society. Cultural values can encompass food preferences, dressing styles, language, recreation and other elements that make a group of people unique and different from others.
Art is an expression of people’s way of life. Artwork is a reflection of culture of a certain group of people at a certain period of time. Art serves as a powerful medium of communication a particular group of people use to express their beliefs , values ,feelings,views and perceptions. It mirrors all elements a particular tribe or society stands for as their identity .
Art and culture are just two sides of a single coin. Art work can be presented in form of paintings, drawings, weaving, sculptures, pottery, dances and othet artistic performances, symbols, words , signs and sound .
Art promotes coexistence and tolerance among people of different cultural and religious backgrounds by communicating religious and cultural values and beliefs of individual groups.
Therefore, art enhances peace, unity and tranquility in societies habited by people who tow different cultures and religions . Undermining artistic features of a certain group of people leads to conflicts which, if not amicably and hastily resolved, will degenerate into civil war that can cost property and lives.
Religious and cultural groupings and institutions have always clashed into fierce conflicts over accusations of demeaning each other’s values and beliefs, through derogatory perceptions and actions, including blasphemy. Religious conflicts are rampant world wide bordering on misunderstanding of values and beliefs.
Eric Brahm for Substark Magazine wrote on 2005, November, “ Religion is central part of many individuals and any threat to one’s belief is a threat to one’s very being.”
In 2023, August 16, Al Jazeera journalist, Abid Hussain, reported that armed mobs attacked at least two churches in Punjab province’s Jaranwala town, in Islamabad, Pakistan, accusing two Christian residents of blasphemy.
“Hundreds of people armed with batons and sticks attacking the Salvation Army Church and the Saint Paul Catholic Church, setting them ablaze, while another mob attacked private homes, torching them and breaking windows.” reported Hussain.
Like other tribes, the Ngoni people are identified by their own unique culture and art that govern their society.
Ngoni people’s art and culture have been associated with animals ( both, domestic and wild ) and natural resources, especially natural forests. Animals have their own relevance and efficacy to their culture whose beliefs and values are reflected through their art.
Animals for instance, serve as key raw materials for artwork that makes Ingoma, the Ngonis’ war dance, complete and envious to watch.
Art work supported by animals is demonstrated in the dance whose gear and other accompanying materials are sourced from animal skins and other wildlife specimen.
Special artwork is applied in organising dancing regalia made from wild animal skins, which is knitted into clothes like wear. These skins, from different animals, such as leopards, lions and other smaller animals with beautiful dot spots skins cover the whole body, except the head, which is also taken care of , by state of the local art hat, skilkfully meshed with unique birds species feathers.
The skin ( from cattle) is also used to make shields (protective gear), spear handles and cattle tails are fixed at the end of the spear, to add beauty to the dancing weapon.
Dancing materials that were also sourced from wildlife include beads, ivory necklesles, rings, jewels and horn trumpets ( mbata), from an African antelope,known as Kudu.
Ingoma dance is a replica ( carry forward) of dances performed by the tribe each time they emerged victorious in fears battles, some time ago.
The Ngoni people , under Zwangendawa Jere, who fled hositilies perpetrated by notorious Ngoni King , Tchaka Zulu, in South Africa, from 1818 to 1822, engaged in persistent battles on their way to Malawi, and arrived in Malawi in 1840
Ingoma dance is called war dance because performers aggressively wield weapons like spears , shields and complemented by combatant facial expression and victory songs.
Armed men are main dancers and are called’ impi’ meaning a battalion. The dance is incomplete without women behind the impi who offer lead vocals. Women have their own attractive gear dominated by beads around their necks, hands with some donning birds feathers in their heads. And a Notable dressing for women is a cloth loosely covering their lower part of their bodies.
Some animal and birds specimen fixed in their heads and ears add a beautiful spectacle. In reasonnce with the songs, the impi pounce hard on ground with bare feet, as they wield shields and spears, a visitor will not help scampering for safety. Art skill is also demonstrated in the dance itself. Except for away performances, to ensure safety of the dancers, the dance is performed at a specific place in the village. It is performed in cattle kraal,where the matress -like -dung provides safe feet landing.
The use of skin and birds feathers were not limited to supporting Ingoma dance. Cattle skins were also used to bury chiefs while dried ones made good sleeping mats for miserable income families. Cattle skins were also used to bury chiefs while dried ones made good s
sleeping mats for miserable income families. The skin was also used as strings on wooden beds. Feathers from domestic birds (chicken) made good pillows.
In addition to providing materials for Ingoma dancing gear, domestic animals (cattle) were also paid as lobola ( dowry system). In addition to providing materials for Ingoma dancing gear, domestic animals ( (cattle) were also paid as lobola ( dowry system).
Special art work is also depicted in metal fabrication works, in making spears,arrows machetes,, hoes knives and other useful metallic objects. Elderly artists used to craft a goat skin bagbags to blow charcoal into flames, in an improvised furnace, to melt metallic objects and shape them into designs of their choice.
Besides animal and birds specimen obtained from forests, trees are also important commodity harvested from the forests for artwork. The Ngoni people use special trees to make bows, spear handles, hoe and ax handles, beating sticks ( Mchiza), clubs and other useful wooden materials . Trees were also used to be carved into pounding sticks and mortars, sculpted into bee hives, rough wooden chairs, and poultry and pig feeding troughs.
Natural forests were also sources of food products like flying ants, mushroom, honey, fruits and other products used for various domestic purposes.
Wild animals were hunted down by dogs or killed with classical traps made from wire and ropes. Villagers close to streams devised their own unique art to fish. They used traps ( chono) or poisonous plants ( mutetezga) to catch fish, in their suffocated state.
Like said earlier, the Ngoni people have been always next to animals. Besdes serving as lobola, ( Cattle) animals were source of food ( milk, luwende ( boiled blood) and meat) and prestige . Some villagers boasted huge herds of cattle, just for fame, since animals were socio-culturally looked at as a symbol of wealth and prosperity. Some villagers in possession of tens of cattle, lack necessary basic needs, including school needs for their children. In some extent, family members took a bite at a piece of meat only when the animal breaks it’s leg in a fight, killed in a fight or rescued from a predator.
It is on meat preservation that the Ngonis prove to have no equals.They have unique art to preserve meat that people from other tribes are dsiilussioned with, and can invite serious nausea to some. This is Zimpeto art.
An animal meat ( cattle and goat) is chopped into long strings and are spread across small trees arranged in lines, resting on four elected trees, in between which, a very small fire is assemble. The fire is not so strong to gate keep flies. It is exclusively smoke that engurf the meat. As fire gets weaker and weaker, smoke too, decreases, opening swarms of blue flies to invade the meat, in the process. In a short time, the blue flies lay hundreds of eggs that swiftly hatch into white and legless larva like organisms, called maggots.
The more flies patronize the meat, the greater infestation of maggots is observed. What used to stun Ngoni visitors was the absence of attention to the infestation of flies to the meat. No one will spare energy to whisk away flies, let a lone shake maggots off the meat . Maggots that cling loosely on the meat, drop off and land on fire and blow up, bringing a horrible smell.
In fact the organisms were not maggots. They were given a special name, Zimpeto. Zimpeto was a culturally constructed name to replace the name maggots.
Zimpetos were just innocent organisms. They were good samaritans in meat preservation. They helped to tenderise and add a unique decomposing flavour to the meat. In absence of refrigerators, it could have been a big challenge to preserve meat without Zimpeto artwork.
We talk about times when food qualified to be a real meal when it accompanied meat. The Ngonis had their own derogatory words to relish like vegetables and legumes. They used to say relish must be killed. Relish must produce blood. “ Are you an animal to eat vegetables,” they could ask derogatorily. In those days, it was going to dawn for Nutritionists to preach the gospel of nutrition that emphasizes a minimum dietary requirement, only certified with presence of fiber rich food stuffs, like vegetables.
What was surprising, however, was that no family member was bed-ridden, suffering from macro and micronutrients deficiency related illness or food contamination. Those were times when parasites like biting ants, mosquitoes and flies could not register their presence and impact on people’s health.
“No one fell sick, let a lone open bowels after consuming Zimpeto tenderised meat, ” Challenged one villager, in his late 70s. It can be argued, therefore,that zimpeto were beneficial organisms.
In addition to aggressively hauling to the meat a strange decomposing flaour, the tenderising Zimpeto was also a strong catalyst for the softness of the meat, even when the animal was too old to cook and chew.
The Spokesperson for Mzimba Jere Ngonis, Ndawazake Thole said the art of Zimpeto was the only way people could preserve meat in large sizes.
Said Thole, “In those days, meat was just plenty. Meat was the best food for the Ngonis. Zimpeto culture was the only ideal technique to preseve meat for a number days,”
Zimpeto used to ba a serious and sensitive cultural value not to kid about.
No silly comments advanced towards Zimpeto meat preservation art could be entertained by elders.
Children living in towns, off for vaations in their parents villages, earned canes on their buttocks for wrongly calling Zimpeto as maggots. It used to take their parents to apologize for the wrong name of the glorified organisms.
Elderly men did not correct boys’ wrong doing by words of the mouth. The only treatments was severe beating with a special beating stick known as Mchiza. Of course, young boys were nurtured with good manners because of a culture of communal meals, a system where all meals from a few houses were brought and eaten at one place.
The Tcheni culture instilled cleverness and jack up way of doing things among boys. In Tcheni culture, boys carefully watched the pace of eating and they had to quickly remove the remaining food and place another dish of meals. The boy could shout the word ‘Tcheni!’ before pulling the remaining small meal from the center of eating circle, usually close to the cattle kraal, (ku mpala). Delays in removing remaining food was a big crime, attracting a penalty , usually beating with Mchiza.
The artwork for elderly women is demonstrated through pottery. Potters could draw something or write words to express their views and feelings over certain aspects of life. Married women without a child could use soil to mold an idol and wrap it behind their backs. The idol communicates a message that she wants a child.
Potters mold pots of various sizes, depending on their use and target clients. Pots were used as cooking, frying and storage facilities. They were used to keep and cool drinking water, ( traditional refrigerators), Pots were used as preservation and storage facilities for flour, seeds, dried meat and processing sour milk, ( chambiko). Pots were also used as livestock drinking troughs, hen laying, administering herbal medicine and bee hives.
Perhaps the most culturally respected use of clay pots is for brewing local opaque beer and sweet beer from millet grown through slash and burn cultivation practice.
Beer is one of the most favourites for the Ngoni people. The other two are women ( polygammy) and meat, the Zimpeto culture. Beer is a key component in all important events. Some of events that are spiced by beer are coronations ceremonies, special government functions and annual cultural cerebrations , the Umuthetho and other minor merry making gatherings.
There are testimonies that emphasize great value the Ngoni people attach to beer. Monotheistic Christian missionaries from Scotland had to first recognize and honour the value of beer and polygammy to Mzimba people before converting the Ngonis’ to Christianity in 1878. Even today, in no sermon will a church minister refer to a biblical scripture that denounces beer . During important events attended by Christian leaders, beer spicse the occasions while men of the collar watch in disbelief. In Christian doctrine, peple who practice polygammy and drink beer are serious sinners.
Pottery is a very special art. There were just counted potters in a particular community. At Kausiku Nyoni Village, in Mzimba North District, Jane Dorica Mzguli was the only famous potter whose products supported families in the community.
Jane Dorica Mzgulu was a skilled potter whose art work in molding clay pots is still cherished today. She made pots of different designs and uses, as her source of income to support her two sons . In most of the times , the pots were battered with food items like maize ( corn), legumes and other perishables. In 1970s, seldom were pots sold for money, in a remote and hard to reach place where people spent months without touching a coin.
In a place where all food stuffs were organically produced, money was only used to buy three basic commodities, clothes( at spaced intervals) soap and salt, though the last two items were skillfully improvised . Elders discovered a tree ( (munthopa or mulolo) whose ropes worked just like soap, if pounded and soaked in the water. They also discovered certain soils where salt was extracted from,through the art of evaporation. Salty soils were soaked in water and later strained. The salty water was vigorously heated in a strong clay pot, leading to evaportion. The salt sedimented into sand like stuff, ready for use . It tasted just like the factory processed one, only that the colour was deadly compromised. It was not crystal clear.
When her aunt forced Mzguli to master pottery art, absolutely little did she know, she was being empowered with vocational skills, in her illiterate state. She had never seen the four walls of the classroom She could not read and write but ably counted her pots and slightly attempted simple additions and subdtructions of small figures. Most of the times she was in aid of her two sons who used to help her in pegging prices on the pots and were unbargainable.
Talented Mzguli did not use ordinary soil and trees to mold and burn her pots. She discovered special soil and special trees to burn the products. Beliefs came to play.She used to argue that pots made from ordinary soils easily break just as those made from the right soil could break too, when burnt by wrong trees.
Unfortunately, pottery skills were not transfered to anyone ,for continuous maximization of the art because she did not have a girl child to master her art.
Besides clay pots, women also used a different art to preserve dried vegetables and mushroom They craftily weaved misuku tree leaves to store the food stuffs to be consumed during lean season of the year.
In their part, girls while young trained in smearing house floors with cattle dung, decorating houses with coloured soils mixed with charcoal and plastering house walls with a mixture of sand and soils (kuchuchuta). They mastered skills in cooking locally sourced food that met the taste of their parents. They were drilled in how to string beads to wear around their waists and necks. They learned how to pound maize and grind groundnuts on stones called mphero. They also learned some sensitive sexual and reproductive health and motherhood skills to spice and sustain their marriages.
“Sexual and reproductive health skills are more important to a girl than any other skills. They serve as a martiage catalyst. Women ignorant of these skills were stereotyped by their husbands as fake women,” explained Juliet Nyoni, of Kausiku Nyoni Village, local chief Mthwalo, in Mzimba North District. She was economical with details.
Boys had their share of art to exercise. They learned different type of art while young, as a strategy to own the tribe’s culture . In their tender ages, most of them began to master the art.
They gained skills to train young cattle bulls to fight and ride like horses. They used sharp knives to sharpen horns of the bulls to launch dangerously strikes on their opponents. Boys also mastered the art of making fire through fliction, using special tree branches, in grazing fields. Another artwork boys used to enjoy was kiln style of roasting sweet potatoes. They used to bury potato tubers under heated sand, and were eaten together with milk, squeezed from cow breasts, straight into their mouths. The art is traditionally called ‘mubojo’ They befriended cows to the extent that animals could respond to invitation whistles.
Perhaps the interesting part is how to spark bulls fight.
Bulls fights were initiated by sniffing two bulls blood from ticks, coupled by vuvuzela ( whistling and cheering noise) to charge the animals into war. This art is called mubongo.
They were trained special skills to aim at a wild animal and birds, using bows and arrows, spears, catapults, stones and traps.
Just as art is a vehicle of communication, the Ngoni people have their own artistic techniques of passing information from one point to the other. Besides errand boys, they use sound from different sources. They use ( mbata) horn trumpet ( long curled horn from wild animal, the African antelope, Kudu), mouth whistling, drum beatings, names and songs. Every sound has it’s own meaning. For example, dogs whstle is different from a whistle to drive stray livestock from invading crop fields.
In the bush, the Ngonis recognised the sound of dangerous snakes ( like (nkhomi ) and birds and what such sounds communicate. The sound of a bee bird ( Solo) for example, is different from other birds. A bee bird makes consistent sound to lead people to a bee hive . The bird is a human real companion. After directing people to a hive, usually tree trunks, it waits few meters away for its share of honey. Once honey has been harvested, some portions of combs are put on a clear place for the bird (solo) to make a meal of.
Most of songs done by women communicate problems inflicted on them by husbands. Such songs are common when they pound maize ( corn) in wooden mortars.
Names also communicate messages. All names of Ngoni headquarters have special meaning. Most names for belongingle such as shops, oxcarts, dogs and maize mills carry messages that communicate misfortunes people encounter in life or response to insults others shower them. Names were also used to cover something unpleasant. Maggots that infest meat that has gone bad is called Zimpeto, a Ngoni word to cover meat in state of decomposition.
Symbols such as a cross is a sigh of Christian worshiping place, graveyards and a home of practicing herbalist.
Elders deemed power house for intuition knowledge, derived from their strong beliefs snd perceptions, helped the Ngonis to detect some trends of natural occurences. They had their own traditional early warning systems that run parallel with the present technological way of forecasting and future predictions.
Ndawazake Thole said elders used to observe certain natural changes and behaviour of certain organisms to detect what could happen some time in the near future.
“They knew that massive flowering of of trees was a sign of first rains and indeed rains used to come” said Thole, who is also the Secretary of Esangweni, a Ngoni powerful forum where elders known for their wisdom discuss impotant affairs of the village.
They were also being alerted about onset of rains by cry ( sound) of certain birds (chakupomoha) while the sound of flying insects ( (jaghayagha) could warn the end of rainy season is nearing.
They trusted their beliefs. They could detect food situation in a season way before planting their seed crops.
When the beginning of a growing season is characterised by abnormal production of fruits ( natural mango trees), swarms of edible flying ants (manyenye) and plenty mushrooms, they dreaded a worst hunger to strike .
Swarms of certain butterflies foretold risks of outbreaks of army warms, stalk borer and other devastating crop pests.
These beliefs, non of which missed the prediction, served as a powerful weather forecast and foresightedness mechanism. They used to help the people to strategically lineup ( agriculture) plans of actions whose implementation were free from shocks of naturally occurring catastrophies, like floods, droughts, crop and animal diseases outbteaks and pests infestation. For example, if the forecast was infestation of army warms, they could organize local herb conctions to fight the pests.
Also strangely, these people boasted miraculous art to block the rains in order to finish their tasks . Say if they are holding a local wedding, they could tie the rains up to the end of the wedding.
It can be argued, therefore, that while animals were key component in ingoma dance, on the other hand , natural resources were the survival belt for the Ngoni people. Besides supporting their art, natural resources made the people always food secure. Apart from animal kraals,Ngoni villages are identified through granaries as storage facilities for maize, groundnuts, peanuts and millet. Maize is the staple food for the people of Mzimba and the grain is supported with foods like cassava, sweet potatoes and banana, in some villages, Grain is pounded in mortars to remove hasks and soaked in huge clay pots. After a few days in water , it is dried and pounded again into flour ready to cook nsima, usually taken with meat, including the Zimpeto tenderised stuff, but rarely vegetables and legumes alone.
Rice makes special meal at great intervals, mostly during Christmas days. Every family made it a point to ensure that at least there is a chicken and rice during Christmas day, for the enjoyment of children and their mothers.
Younger boys ganged up into groups to engage in communal piece works (fande ) in agriculture fields to mobilize money for chickens,rice and soft drinks.
Christmas day used to be a yardstick for economic well-being of a family, measured through preparation of delicious meals, with rice and meat highjacking the day’s menu list.
Paradoxically, Ngonis take rice as a snack and not food. Until recently, it used to be a big insult to prepare rice as lunch or supper for a visitor from Mzimba.
People of Mzimba boasted uninterrupted food security record because of maximum crop production, owing to fertile soils, and good and reliable rainfall patterns, supported by natural forests that has, for life immemorial, been undisrupted. The natural resources also promoted livestock production due to abundance of food ( grass and water), accessible at any direction cattle could be driven to.
But the glory of swiming in food abundance and livestock driven affluence has been short-lived. Blame is squsrely pushed to environment mismanagement. The whole district has suffered worst natural forests degradation , through poor agriculture practices that plunder trees, like millet cultivation, bush fires set by game hunters, overgrazing, settlement and cultivation in upland, river banks and catchment areas, leading to soil leachng, flash floods and river siltation. This natural resource plunder is cause for erratic rains, droughts and drying up of rivers and other water bodies that has negatively impacted crop and animal husbandry production.
Forests depletion is also a major factor attributed to an extinction of wildlife which has delt a big blow to the preservation of Ngoni culture and art for posterity .
It has now become a big challege for today’s youths to sample wild animals and birds unless they book a tour to parks and wikdlife sites , with several strings of bureaucracies to satisfy. Villages that share boundaries with parks and game reserves, at times, catch the eye of a stray wild animal , though with high risk of prosecution upon any attempt to attack the animal.
Government has framed tough legislation to protect the game from widespread poaching blamed for dwindling wildlife populations. Crimes such as killing an animal, trespassing in protected reserves and possession of wildlife animals specimen attract harsh custodial and fine penalties.
Dedpite all the benefits the Ngonis used to reap from their culture and classic art, key cultural beliefs and values, including the famous Zimpeto , slowly began to diminish following civilisation that swept across a lot of Ngoni communities.
Some well to do people began to graduate into refrigeration methods of meat preservation and other foods tuffs. Refrigeration has also outdated pots and transfered their use to merely flower containers. They are used for decoration purposes, by planting or fixing in them natural and artificial flowers, respectively, especially in high class families.
Rarely will one notice women brewing local beer or sweet beer in clay pots. Selected villages which still cling to local beer (masese) use metallic drums and plastic pails, whose beer imbibers complain about poor taste.
Local beer made from millet and maize was recommended for its nutritional value. Those who fell for masese berr, and planned their drinking spree very well used to be always healthy.
Unfortunately, masese beer has been substituted with locally distilled gin ( (kachaso) and laboratory processed chemical spirit beer, packaged in miniature bottles and sachets. This type of beer is hazardous to health as it kills appetite for food, in addition to dehydrating the body. The beer is also nlamed for erectile dysfunction sweeping across newly married youths.
Despite its risk, the beer has become the favourite to many due to its accessibility and affordability. “You only need K1,000 to be knocked down,”explained one teenager, who said he can not test a sleep without taking some beer.
Metallic and aluminum pots, have now become common cooking utensils, which are said to have robbed the real flavour and taste of food stuffs, like meat and beans. Refrigerated drinking water, by far, fails to quench thirst in comparison with drinking water cooled by a a clay pot, only rested on wet sand, placed at a corner of a dung smeared floor house.
Maize and groundnuts fried on a metalic frying pan are not as tasty as the stuff roasted on a broken pot ( dengele), just as milk porridge ( chithuwi) cooked on metalic pots lose the real flavour enjoyed from the same stuff cooked in a clay pot. Meanwhile, most elderly men opt for local chickens fried on clay pots, by elderly women. The chicken passes through hands thst offer !sure touch of perfection withoutt any colour and flavour additives, to appreciate the real natural taste and flavour of a bird.
The Ngoni people and other neighbouring tribes who endorsed that the Mzimba culture and art were exceptional in societies, agree that the natural way of living of the Ngoni people has changed tremendously and seems to be irreversible .
Meanwhile, some quarters are suggesting to establish local museums at every traditional authority level to be stuffed with artifacts and all Ngoni art work and local skills in an effort to reclaim, publicise and preserve their cultural heritage.
Mzimba Heritage Association ( Mziha), a Ngoni grouping, introduced to champion and preserve Ngoni cultures, has plans on its drawing board to institute a tourism center at Hora mountain, the focal point of The Jere Ngoni cultural heritage.
Hora Mountain is an important historical site for the Ngoni people. Situated to the far South west of Mzimba Boma, the place is where first Mzimba District administration began. It is also place where Ngoni soldiers under general Ncumayo Makamo attacked the Tumbuka people, on allegations that their general, Baza Dokowe, had staged a rebellion against Chief Mmbelwa in 1880.
To culturally honour the place, the Ngoni people conduct annual festive celebrations, the Umuthetho, right at the foot of the mountain, where Ingoma dance, beer drinking and feasting steal the show.
Ngoni chiefs from Zambia, South Africa and Tanzania attend the cultural event.
Besides working as an income avenues for Mziha,through tourism, the center will also serve as a training center for youths to master Ngoni culture and art , such as language, Ngoni songs, Ingoma dance and skills in metal fabrication, making skin shields, carvings and other war dance and hunting gear.
The Ngoni dance and language and some key artwork are facing extinction due to intermarriages, flourishing businesses, and agriculture that has of late witnessed an influx of people of all works of life to the district. These people bring with them foreign cultures which are easily copied by the new generation.
The Secretary General for Mziha, kingsley Jere, laments that the invasion of technologies exposes the youths to modern recreation, characterised by foreign music and movies ( pop culture), which are accessible and more attractive than traditional entertainment.
Said Jere “Foreign cultures pose a big threat to the Ngoni land which previously was admired for its values and beliefs that promoted moral uprightness .”
The risk is that most of the values copied from foreign cultures and arts have elements potential to promote moral decay. Indeed, to people of Mzimba, modernisation has come with a cost.
It is not long time ago, when some people of the Northern part of Malawi especially Mzimba, could not be separated from their Livestock, like chickens, goats and cattle. In remote past, families who could not afford to raise kraals ( khola) were deprived of options beside sharing with animals their dwelling houses, to guarantee their safety .
I could still remember the days when my mother had taken some whips on me over a misdemeanor, I used to seek refuge at my grand father’s mud made and grass thatched house . The house depicted cool rooms smeared with cattle dung . When dusk crept in, six goats and three kittens, used to join us into the house. They used to go straight to a corner of the vacant ‘ dinning ‘ room where the big man used to skillfully tethered them so that the young ones were not trodden upon by the elders.
At night, it was something else.I could be waken up by either goats’ snizing, or bleeding by the she goat (mother) which could not trace its kitten. I could also hear a splash of urine that dug a canal that run up to the place we used to assemble fire. I remember one night urine extinguishing some little fire that remained before we had left for bed. Although the extinguishing sound was loud my grand father pretended not to hear despite both of us having been awake. I knew he was accustomed to the sound having slept with goats for years.
At times, sleep could be disrupted by goats stampede over something I could not explain
“It’s how goats behave” my grand father responded when I plucked courage to find out the cause of stampede
The morning task for my grand father was to untie the goats from a pole sunk at the corner of the room, and tether them outside the house, at a nearby garden. He used a reed basket to clear the droppings that had a special heaping place at one homeyard point, for them to mature before use in gardens, to boost soil fertility.
Sharing sleeping dwelling houses with animals, especially chickens, goats, sheep, and calves, was a common practice by most Ngoni families few decades ago. There was an art in tethering the elder animals so that young ones were not trodden upon.
This culture was being practiced ostensibly to secure the animals, especially in remote rural communities infested by hyenas, wild cats and other prey beasts. Rarely from thieves.
Every tribe or society has its own culture and art that make people’s life complete and worthy.
Culture is a set of values, beliefs , practices, habits, behaviours , views and all that identify a group of people or a society. Cultural values can encompass food preferences, dressing styles, language, recreation and other elements that make a group of people unique and different from others.
Art is an expression of people’s way of life. Artwork is a reflection of culture of a certain group of people at a certain period of time. Art serves as a powerful medium of communication a particular group of people use to express their beliefs , values ,feelings,views and perceptions. It mirrors all elements a particular tribe or society stands for as their identity .
Art and culture are just two sides of a single coin. Art work can be presented in form of paintings, drawings, weaving, sculptures, pottery, dances and other artistic performances, symbols, words , signs and sound .
Art promotes coexistence and tolerance among people of different cultural and religious backgrounds by communicating religious and cultural values and beliefs of individual groups. Therefore, art enhances peace, unity and tranquility in societies habited by people who tow different cultures and religions . Undermining artistic features of a certain group of people leads to conflicts which, if not amicably and hastily resolved, will degenerate into civil war that can cost property and lives.
Religious and cultural groupings and institutions have always clashed into fierce conflicts over accusations of demeaning each other’s values and beliefs, through derogatory perceptions and actions, including blasphemy. Religious conflicts are rampant world wide bordering on misunderstanding of values and beliefs.
Eric Brahm for Substark Magazine wrote on 2005, November, “ Religion is central part of many individuals and any threat to one’s belief is a threat to one’s very being.”
In 2023, August 16, Al Jazeera journalist, Abid Hussain, reported that armed mobs attacked at least two churches in Punjab province’s Jaranwala town, in Islamabad, Pakistan, accusing two Christian residents of blasphemy.
“Hundreds of people armed with batons and sticks attacking the Salvation Army Church and the Saint Paul Catholic Church, setting them ablaze, while another mob attacked private homes, torching them and breaking windows.” reported Hussain.
Like other tribes, the Ngoni people are identified by their own unique culture and art that govern their society.
Ngoni people’s art and culture have been associated with animals ( both, domestic and wild ) and natural resources, especially natural forests. Animals have their own relevance and efficacy to their culture whose beliefs and values are reflected through their art.
Animals for instance, serve as key raw materials for artwork that makes Ingoma, the Ngonis’ war dance, complete and envious to watch.
Art work supported by animals is demonstrated in the dance whose gear and other accompanying materials are sourced from animal skins and other wildlife specimen.
Special artwork is applied in organising dancing regalia made from wild animal skins, which is knitted into clothes like wear. These skins, from different animals, such as leopards, lions and other smaller animals with beautiful dot spots skins cover the whole body, except the head, which is also taken care of , by state of the local art hat, skilkfully meshed with unique birds species feathers.
The skin ( from cattle) is also used to make shields (protective gear), spear handles and cattle tails are fixed at the end of the spear, to add beauty to the dancing weapon.
Dancing materials that were also sourced from wildlife include beads, ivory necklesles, rings, jewels and horn trumpets ( mbata), from an African antelope,known as Kudu.
Ingoma dance is a replica ( carry forward) of dances performed by the tribe each time they emerged victorious in fears battles, some time ago.
The Ngoni people , under Zwangendawa Jere, who fled hositilies perpetrated by notorious Ngoni King , Tchaka Zulu, in South Africa, from 1818 to 1822, engaged in persistent battles on their way to Malawi, and arrived in Malawi in 1840
Ingoma dance is called war dance because performers aggressively wield weapons like spears , shields and complemented by combatant facial expression and victory songs.
Armed men are main dancers and are called’ impi’ meaning a battalion. The dance is incomplete without women behind the impi who offer lead vocals. Women have their own attractive gear dominated by beads around their necks, hands with some donning birds feathers in their heads. And a Notable dressing for women is a cloth loosely covering their lower part of their bodies.
Some animal and birds specimen fixed in their heads and ears add a beautiful spectacle. In reasonace with the songs, the impi pounce hard on ground with bare feet, as they wield shields and spears, a visitor will not help scampering for safety. Art skill is also demonstrated in the dance itself. Except for away performances, to ensure safety of the dancers, the dance is performed at a specific place in the village. It is performed in cattle kraal,where the matress -like -dung provides safe feet landing.
The use of skin and birds feathers were not limited to supporting Ingoma dance. Cattle skins were also used to bury chiefs while dried ones made good sleeping mats for miserable income families. Cattle skins were also used to bury chiefs while dried ones made goods
sleeping mats for miserable income families. The skin was also used as strings on wooden beds. Feathers from domestic birds (chicken) made good pillows.
In addition to providing materials for Ingoma dancing gear, domestic animals (cattle) were also paid as lobola ( dowry system). In addition to providing materials for Ingoma dancing gear, domestic animals ( (cattle) were also paid as lobola ( dowry system).
Special art work is also depicted in metal fabrication works, in making spears,arrows machetes,, hoes knives and other useful metallic objects. Elderly artists used to craft a goat skin bedbags to blow charcoal into flames, in an improvised furnace, to melt metallic objects and shape them into designs of their choice.
Besides animal and birds specimen obtained from forests, trees are also important commodity harvested from the forests for artwork. The Ngoni people use special trees to make bows, spear handles, hoe and ax handles, beating sticks ( Mchiza), clubs and other useful wooden materials . Trees were also used to be carved into pounding sticks and mortars, sculpted into bee hives, rough wooden chairs, and poultry and pig feeding troughs.
Natural forests were also sources of food products like flying ants, mushroom, honey, fruits and other products used for various domestic purposes.
Wild animals were hunted down by dogs or killed with classical traps made from wire and ropes. Villagers close to streams devised their own unique art to fish. They used traps ( chono) or poisonous plants ( mutetezga) to catch fish, in their suffocated state.
Like said earlier, the Ngoni people have been always next to animals. Besides serving as lobola, ( Cattle) animals were source of food ( milk, luwende ( boiled blood) and meat) and prestige . Some villagers boasted huge herds of cattle, just for fame, since animals were socio-culturally looked at as a symbol of wealth and prosperity. Some villagers in possession of tens of cattle, lack necessary basic needs, including school needs for their children. In some extent, family members took a bite at a piece of meat only when the animal breaks it’s leg in a fight, killed in a fight or rescued from a predator.
It is on meat preservation that the Ngonis prove to have no equals.They have unique art to preserve meat that people from other tribes are disillusioned with, and can invite serious nausea to some. This is Zimpeto art.
An animal meat ( cattle and goat) is chopped into long strings and are spread across small trees arranged in lines, resting on four elected trees, in between which, a very small fire is assemble. The fire is not so strong to gate keep flies. It is exclusively smoke that engulf the meat. As fire gets weaker and weaker, smoke too, decreases, opening swarms of blue flies to invade the meat, in the process. In a short time, the blue flies lay hundreds of eggs that swiftly hatch into white and legless larva like organisms, called maggots.
The more flies patronize the meat, the greater infestation of maggots is observed. What used to stun Ngoni visitors was the absence of attention to the infestation of flies to the meat. No one will spare energy to whisk away flies, let a lone shake maggots off the meat . Maggots that cling loosely on the meat, drop off and land on fire and blow up, bringing a horrible smell.
In fact the organisms were not maggots. They were given a special name, Zimpeto. Zimpeto was a culturally constructed name to replace the name maggots.
Zimpetos were just innocent organisms. They were good samaritans in meat preservation. They helped to tenderiser and add a unique decomposing flavour to the meat. In absence of refrigerators, it could have been a big challenge to preserve meat without Zimpeto artwork.
We talk about times when food qualified to be a real meal when it accompanied meat. The Ngonis had their own derogatory words to relish like vegetables and legumes. They used to say relish must be killed. Relish must produce blood. “ Are you an animal to eat vegetables,” they could ask derogatorily. In those days, it was going to dawn for Nutritionists to preach the gospel of nutrition that emphasizes a minimum dietary requirement, only certified with presence of fiber rich food stuffs, like vegetables.
What was surprising, however, was that no family member was bed-ridden, suffering from macro and micronutrients deficiency related illness or food contamination. Those were times when parasites like biting ants, mosquitoes and flies could not register their presence and impact on people’s health.
“No one fell sick, let a lone open bowels after consuming Zimpeto tenderized meat, ” Challenged one villager, in his late 70s. It can be argued, therefore,that zimpeto were beneficial organisms.
In addition to aggressively hauling to the meat a strange decomposing flavour, the tenderising Zimpeto was also a strong catalyst for the softness of the meat, even when the animal was too old to cook and chew.
The Spokesperson for Mzimba Jere Ngonis, Ndawazake Thole said the art of Zimpeto was the only way people could preserve meat in large sizes.
Said Thole, “In those days, meat was just plenty. Meat was the best food for the Ngonis. Zimpeto culture was the only ideal technique to preserve meat for a number days,”
Zimpeto used to ba a serious and sensitive cultural value not to kid about.
No silly comments advanced towards Zimpeto meat preservation art could be entertained by elders.
Children living in towns, off for vacations in their parents villages, earned canes on their buttocks for wrongly calling Zimpeto as maggots. It used to take their parents to apologize for the wrong name of the glorified organisms.
Elderly men did not correct boys’ wrong doing by words of the mouth. The only treatments was severe beating with a special beating stick known as Mchiza. Of course, young boys were nurtured with good manners because of a culture of communal meals, a system where all meals from a few houses were brought and eaten at one place.
The Tcheni culture instilled cleverness and jack up way of doing things among boys. In Tcheni culture, boys carefully watched the pace of eating and they had to quickly remove the remaining food and place another dish of meals. The boy could shout the word ‘Tcheni!’ before pulling the remaining small meal from the center of eating circle, usually close to the cattle kraal, (ku mpala). Delays in removing remaining food was a big crime, attracting a penalty , usually beating with Mchiza.
The artwork for elderly women is demonstrated through pottery. Potters could draw something or write words to express their views and feelings over certain aspects of life. Married women without a child could use soil to mold an idol and wrap it behind their backs. The idol communicates a message that she wants a child.
Potters mold pots of various sizes, depending on their use and target clients. Pots were used as cooking, frying and storage facilities. They were used to keep and cool drinking water, ( traditional refrigerators), Pots were used as preservation and storage facilities for flour, seeds, dried meat and processing sour milk, ( chambiko). Pots were also used as livestock drinking troughs, hen laying, administering herbal medicine and bee hives.
Perhaps the most culturally respected use of clay pots is for brewing local opaque beer and sweet beer from millet grown through slash and burn cultivation practice.
Beer is one of the most favourites for the Ngoni people. The other two are women ( polygamy) and meat, the Zimpeto culture. Beer is a key component in all important events. Some of events that are spiced by beer are coronations ceremonies, special government functions and annual cultural celebrations , the Umuthetho and other minor merry making gatherings.
There are testimonies that emphasize great value the Ngoni people attach to beer. Monotheistic Christian missionaries from Scotland had to first recognize and honour the value of beer and polygamy to Mzimba people before converting the Ngonis’ to Christianity in 1878. Even today, in no sermon will a church minister refer to a biblical scripture that denounces beer . During important events attended by Christian leaders, beer spices the occasions while men of the collar watch in disbelief. In Christian doctrine, people who practice polygamy and drink beer are serious sinners.
Pottery is a very special art. There were just counted potters in a particular community. At Kausiku Nyoni Village, in Mzimba North District, Jane Dorica Mzguli was the only famous potter whose products supported families in the community.
Jane Dorica Mzgulu was a skilled potter whose art work in molding clay pots is still cherished today. She made pots of different designs and uses, as her source of income to support her two sons . In most of the times , the pots were battered with food items like maize ( corn), legumes and other perishables. In 1970s, seldom were pots sold for money, in a remote and hard to reach place where people spent months without touching a coin.
In a place where all food stuffs were organically produced, money was only used to buy three basic commodities, clothes( at spaced intervals) soap and salt, though the last two items were skillfully improvised . Elders discovered a tree ( (munthopa or mulolo) whose ropes worked just like soap, if pounded and soaked in the water. They also discovered certain soils where salt was extracted from,through the art of evaporation. Salty soils were soaked in water and later strained. The salty water was vigorously heated in a strong clay pot, leading to evaporation. The salt sedimented into sand like stuff, ready for use . It tasted just like the factory processed one, only that the colour was deadly compromised. It was not crystal clear.
When her aunt forced Mzguli to master pottery art, absolutely little did she know, she was being empowered with vocational skills, in her illiterate state. She had never seen the four walls of the classroom She could not read and write but ably counted her pots and slightly attempted simple additions and subtractions of small figures. Most of the times she was in aid of her two sons who used to help her in pegging prices on the pots and were unbargainable.
Talented Mzguli did not use ordinary soil and trees to mold and burn her pots. She discovered special soil and special trees to burn the products. Beliefs came to play.She used to argue that pots made from ordinary soils easily break just as those made from the right soil could break too, when burnt by wrong trees.
Unfortunately, pottery skills were not transfered to anyone ,for continuous maximization of the art because she did not have a girl child to master her art.
Besides clay pots, women also used a different art to preserve dried vegetables and mushroom They craftily weaved misuku tree leaves to store the food stuffs to be consumed during lean season of the year.
In their part, girls while young trained in smearing house floors with cattle dung, decorating houses with coloured soils mixed with charcoal and plastering house walls with a mixture of sand and soils (kuchuchuta). They mastered skills in cooking locally sourced food that met the taste of their parents. They were drilled in how to string beads to wear around their waists and necks. They learned how to pound maize and grind groundnuts on stones called mphero. They also learned some sensitive sexual and reproductive health and motherhood skills to spice and sustain their marriages.
“Sexual and reproductive health skills are more important to a girl than any other skills. They serve as a marriage catalyst. Women ignorant of these skills were stereotyped by their husbands as fake women,” explained Juliet Nyoni, of Kausiku Nyoni Village, local chief Mthwalo, in Mzimba North District. She was economical with details.
Boys had their share of art to exercise. They learned different type of art while young, as a strategy to own the tribe’s culture . In their tender ages, most of them began to master the art.
They gained skills to train young cattle bulls to fight and ride like horses. They used sharp knives to sharpen horns of the bulls to launch dangerously strikes on their opponents. Boys also mastered the art of making fire through friction, using special tree branches, in grazing fields. Another artwork boys used to enjoy was kiln style of roasting sweet potatoes. They used to bury potato tubers under heated sand, and were eaten together with milk, squeezed from cow breasts, straight into their mouths. The art is traditionally called ‘mubojo’ They befriended cows to the extent that animals could respond to invitation whistles.
Perhaps the interesting part is how to spark bulls fight.
Bulls fights were initiated by sniffing two bulls blood from ticks, coupled by vuvuzela ( whistling and cheering noise) to charge the animals into war. This art is called mubongo.
They were trained special skills to aim at a wild animal and birds, using bows and arrows, spears, catapults, stones and traps.
Just as art is a vehicle of communication, the Ngoni people have their own artistic techniques of passing information from one point to the other. Besides errand boys, they use sound from different sources. They use ( mbata) horn trumpet ( long curled horn from wild animal, the African antelope, Kudu), mouth whistling, drum beatings, names and songs. Every sound has it’s own meaning. For example, dogs whistle is different from a whistle to drive stray livestock from invading crop fields.
In the bush, the Ngonis recognised the sound of dangerous snakes ( like (nkhomi ) and birds and what such sounds communicate. The sound of a bee bird ( Solo) for example, is different from other birds. A bee bird makes consistent sound to lead people to a bee hive . The bird is a human real companion. After directing people to a hive, usually tree trunks, it waits few meters away for its share of honey. Once honey has been harvested, some portions of combs are put on a clear place for the bird (solo) to make a meal of.
Most of songs done by women communicate problems inflicted on them by husbands. Such songs are common when they pound maize ( corn) in wooden mortars.
Names also communicate messages. All names of Ngoni headquarters have special meaning. Most names for belonging such as shops, oxcarts, dogs and maize mills carry messages that communicate misfortunes people encounter in life or response to insults others shower them. Names were also used to cover something unpleasant. Maggots that infest meat that has gone bad is called Zimpeto, a Ngoni word to cover meat in state of decomposition.
Symbols such as a cross is a sigh of Christian worshiping place, graveyards and a home of practicing herbalist.
Elders deemed power house for intuition knowledge, derived from their strong beliefs snd perceptions, helped the Ngonis to detect some trends of natural occurrences. They had their own traditional early warning systems that run parallel with the present technological way of forecasting and future predictions.
Ndawazake Thole said elders used to observe certain natural changes and behaviour of certain organisms to detect what could happen some time in the near future.
“They knew that massive flowering of of trees was a sign of first rains and indeed rains used to come” said Thole, who is also the Secretary of Esangweni, a Ngoni powerful forum where elders known for their wisdom discuss important affairs of the village.
They were also being alerted about onset of rains by cry ( sound) of certain birds (chakupomoha) while the sound of flying insects ( (jaghayagha) could warn the end of rainy season is nearing.
They trusted their beliefs. They could detect food situation in a season way before planting their seed crops.
When the beginning of a growing season is characterised by abnormal production of fruits ( natural mango trees), swarms of edible flying ants (manyenye) and plenty mushrooms, they dreaded a worst hunger to strike .
Swarms of certain butterflies foretold risks of outbreaks of army warms, stalk borer and other devastating crop pests.
These beliefs, non of which missed the prediction, served as a powerful weather forecast and foresightedness mechanism. They used to help the people to strategically lineup ( agriculture) plans of actions whose implementation were free from shocks of naturally occurring catastrophies, like floods, droughts, crop and animal diseases outbreaks and pests infestation. For example, if the forecast was infestation of army warms, they could organize local herb concotions to fight the pests.
Also strangely, these people boasted miraculous art to block the rains in order to finish their tasks . Say if they are holding a local wedding, they could tie the rains up to the end of the wedding.
It can be argued, therefore, that while animals were key component in ingoma dance, on the other hand , natural resources were the survival belt for the Ngoni people. Besides supporting their art, natural resources made the people always food secure. Apart from animal kraals,Ngoni villages are identified through granaries as storage facilities for maize, groundnuts, peanuts and millet. Maize is the staple food for the people of Mzimba and the grain is supported with foods like cassava, sweet potatoes and banana, in some villages, Grain is pounded in mortars to remove hasks and soaked in huge clay pots. After a few days in water , it is dried and pounded again into flour ready to cook nsima, usually taken with meat, including the Zimpeto tenderized stuff, but rarely vegetables and legumes alone.
Rice makes special meal at great intervals, mostly during Christmas days. Every family made it a point to ensure that at least there is a chicken and rice during Christmas day, for the enjoyment of children and their mothers.
Younger boys ganged up into groups to engage in communal piece works (fande ) in agriculture fields to mobilize money for chickens,rice and soft drinks.
Christmas day used to be a yardstick for economic well-being of a family, measured through preparation of delicious meals, with rice and meat highjacking the day’s menu list.
Paradoxically, Ngonis take rice as a snack and not food. Until recently, it used to be a big insult to prepare rice as lunch or supper for a visitor from Mzimba.
People of Mzimba boasted uninterrupted food security record because of maximum crop production, owing to fertile soils, and good and reliable rainfall patterns, supported by natural forests that has, for life immemorial, been undisrupted. The natural resources also promoted livestock production due to abundance of food ( grass and water), accessible at any direction cattle could be driven to.
But the glory of swiming in food abundance and livestock driven affluence has been short-lived. Blame is squarely pushed to environment mismanagement. The whole district has suffered worst natural forests degradation , through poor agriculture practices that plunder trees, like millet cultivation, bush fires set by game hunters, overgrazing, settlement and cultivation in upland, river banks and catchment areas, leading to soil leaching, flash floods and river siltation. This natural resource plunder is cause for erratic rains, droughts and drying up of rivers and other water bodies that has negatively impacted crop and animal husbandry production.
Forests depletion is also a major factor attributed to an extinction of wildlife which has delt a big blow to the preservation of Ngoni culture and art for posterity .
It has now become a big challenge for today’s youths to sample wild animals and birds unless they book a tour to parks and wildlife sites , with several strings of bureaucracies to satisfy. Villages that share boundaries with parks and game reserves, at times, catch the eye of a stray wild animal , though with high risk of prosecution upon any attempt to attack the animal.
Government has framed tough legislation to protect the game from widespread poaching blamed for dwindling wildlife populations. Crimes such as killing an animal, trespassing in protected reserves and possession of wildlife animals specimen attract harsh custodial and fine penalties.
Dedpite all the benefits the Ngonis used to reap from their culture and classic art, key cultural beliefs and values, including the famous Zimpeto , slowly began to diminish following civilisation that swept across a lot of Ngoni communities.
Some well to do people began to graduate into refrigeration methods of meat preservation and other foods tuffs. Refrigeration has also outdated pots and transfered their use to merely flower containers. They are used for decoration purposes, by planting or fixing in them natural and artificial flowers, respectively, especially in high class families.
Rarely will one notice women brewing local beer or sweet beer in clay pots. Selected villages which still cling to local beer (masese) use metallic drums and plastic pails, whose beer imbibers complain about poor taste.
Local beer made from millet and maize was recommended for its nutritional value. Those who fell for masese berr, and planned their drinking spree very well used to be always healthy.
Unfortunately, masese beer has been substituted with locally distilled gin ( (kachaso) and laboratory processed chemical spirit beer, packaged in miniature bottles and sachets. This type of beer is hazardous to health as it kills appetite for food, in addition to dehydrating the body. The beer is also nlamed for erectile dysfunction sweeping across newly married youths.
Despite its risk, the beer has become the favourite to many due to its accessibility and affordability. “You only need K1,000 to be knocked down,”explained one teenager, who said he can not test a sleep without taking some beer.
Metallic and aluminum pots, have now become common cooking utensils, which are said to have robbed the real flavour and taste of food stuffs, like meat and beans. Refrigerated drinking water, by far, fails to quench thirst in comparison with drinking water cooled by a a clay pot, only rested on wet sand, placed at a corner of a dung smell.
maltepe elektrikçi SEO hizmetleri ile Google sıralamalarında ciddi bir artış sağladık. https://www.royalelektrik.com/