Maulid in Lamu

 

This is my favorite picture from Maulid - partly because it reminds me of how I felt much of the time as I wandered about with a camera plastered to my face, an audio recorder humming along in my pocket, and a rumpled schedule in my pocket telling me where to be and when. (Turns out the schedule didn't help very much, since, like most island communities, nothing starts on time here, except for the footrace!, the beginning of which I completely missed).

While many of the wenyeji ("natives". Literally, owners) snapped photos and videos with their cell phones and digital camera it was only us Wazungu who carried along camera bags, rushed from event to event, and didn't even pretend we knew how to sing along and join in the festivities - Patience of course is an aberration. Photographs weren't allowed in the women's portions of the festival; but by all accounts she was a hit at the Vugo dance, jumping right into the middle of the circle, spinning, dipping, rising, and beating the cow's horn which is the signature feature of the Vugo (celebratory wedding dance for women). At weddings I believe a processional precedes the actual Vugo dancing in which men participate with trumpets and a reed flute called a zamari, but that wasn't on display here during Maulid. And did we mention that Patience modeled the winning Heena design for her teacher? (see previous entry)

So, back to this picture; the young boys aren't really spying here, they're just short. They are looking at a group of men inside who are performing a ziara (Arabic for "visit") to the graves of the family of Habib Swaleh (حابب صالح) who founded the Riyadha Mosque and whose descendents expanded on his work of teaching Islamic sciences to poor and rich alike by establishing a college next door to the mosque (education: free of charge). Anyone is free to enter the shrine, though space and time is certainly allowed to the more prominent individuals first. In this case, the living descendents entered the shrine and sat around the graves first, leading a thirty to forty minute recitative of the Prophet Muhammad's life (i.e. a maulid)interspersed with songs about him and about Habib Swaleh. Once they finished, a man who goes on Hajj to Mecca every year and then visits 90 mosques to finance his next trip led a rather exuberant blessing and prayer (he's called the Dervish, which was the Turkish name for Sufi holy men who often travelled about seeking alms and leading a holy life… remember the whirling dervishes?). Then others filed in as desired.

While many of the visitors are locals (those wenyeji), some came from as far as the Comoros Islanda, Uganda, Yemen, Dar es Salaam, and up the Tana River which stretched deep into the north-eastern part of Kenya. For most of the visitors, many of whom make the long journey every year, I think the ziara is the most important component of their trip to Lamu. Many of their own spiritual leaders and teachers studied at Riyadha and some with Habib Swaleh himself. They were at pains to explain that this was an act of homage and giving respect, not worship.

Earlier in the week, going in search of a rumored football tourney (missed that) we passed by the cemetery and a group of five men motioned from afar for us to join them. They led us around to five different graves and prayed over each one. Though in the ramada covering Habib Swaleh's, they asked Patience to wait outside while they sat down and did an especially long recitation and prayer. Even though we were welcomed eagerly and personally, it was in these situations that I felt like I was looking through a stone gate at something that ought to be private. But time and time again we were welcomed in, given free reign to video record, ask questions, even get in the way sometimes. (This is in contrast to Mombasa, where at least two young men asked in suspicious tones why I was video taping the Maulidi processional since I was so obviously a Christian -- note: the Maulidi organizers in Mombasa were very gracious and welcoming). So we videotaped, and recorded, and took pictures; footraces, donkey races, lectures on globalization and living in harmony with other religions, ngoma (dances), and the crowds. (Usual estimate is around 20,000 visitors, aside from the locals).  You may have to wait for my dissertation (or second book) to get the full story behind everything, but here's a sampling of what we saw, followed by a brief description of the culminating event: the Grand Maulid at Riyadha mosque, at which recordings of any kind were expressly forbidden over a giant loudspeaker in Kiswahili and English.

Here's a sample of what we saw:

Zidaan and his father (our neighbors) preparing to join in the dances.

 

Kirumbizi? or is this another of the line dances? There's several versions of this dance, with a set of drummers providing music, a line of "dancers" in white kanzus holding canes (a symbol of age and wisdom) which they move up and down rhythmically while singing. There is a chorus leader (the man in the green sash), and a dance leader, who keeps the time with his cane, and then the man in the back with the cloth seems to keep the whole thing together - dancing freestyle, keeping the drums on time and....

... playing with the swordsmaster. In this version of the dance, in addition to the chorus line and drummers, there is a bit of ritual swordplay. The swordsmen bob up and down to the rhythm of the drums and then advance a couple quick steps with the drums as they raise their swords, stall for a few beats, then one of them will hit the others' sword. Then they retreat and start the process again. There's another version we saw in Malindi last week which is much less ritualized and the young men just tend to advance at each other and hit each others swords with great speed and force. If I can get a good video clip I'll post that later as well.

View of Riyadha mosque at night - the group in white is another group doing a similar dance as above, all the shadowy part is the women dressed in buibuis (similar to a burka). The Maulidi celebration was split between dance events in front of the mosque and competitions sponsored by the Museum along the seafront.

A group of young men using matwari (those hand drums) during the zefa (processional) to the cemetery.

These well dressed men are some of the descendants of Habib Swaleh.

Just a small taste of how many people were attending the main ziara (visit) to the cemetery. All those white specks are men in kanzus, no women were present.

This is a view of the zefa from our apartment balcony; on the trip to the cemetery everyone marches slowly, maybe playing a few songs and beating their matwari to keep the march on pace. On the way back, they keep space between the groups and give every group an opportunity to display their dance and a song in praise of the Prophet Muhammad at several points along the "parade route". Once they arrive at Riyadha things get a little more cramped as each group makes its way to the microphone provided for them to share their song with the crowds. 

 The crowd waits for the next group to enter the mosque courtyard - the women in buibui on the far side, the men closer to the mosque, most in kanzus some in kikois (a colorful waist wrap). The children often are brought by their mothers, hence the three boys in kanzus on the women's side - there were probably just as many young girls on the men's side. The ropes are for clearing a path for the processional.

The Maulid zefa is a religious devotion, but it doesn't mean its all serious. One of the praises was composed in the style of "bonga flava" a kenya style of rap. That brought a lot of chuckles. And some of the dancers replaces their kofias with other more playful hats, such as this faux coonskin cap. They continued for about 3 hours before every group had had their chance to present their praises. This was on Friday night, so it was the last BIG event and no one was in a hurry to get home. Thursday night was the true "culmination" of the Grand Maulid which I'll describe at the bottom of the post.

Somehow, I failed to get a picture of bao ya keti (the one that looks like mancala), though I did get some video. Here is another kind of bao (ya dama?) with people playing dominoes (bao ya meza?) in the background. Bao ya dama is like checkers without spaces between pieces, and only horizontal movements allowed. The museum sponsored this bao tournament with a cash prize.

On Tuesday night many of the community leaders were invited to the top floor of this posh yet still under-restoration house to perform a maulid (recitative of the Prophet Muhammad's life). This man then gave a hotuba (speech) which may or may not have included a poem, I forget. The pieces of paper hanging from his kofia (hat) are 500 and 1000 Kenyan Shilling Notes. Its common to stuff peoples' hats and clothes with money if you appreciate their performances. And at the end of every Maulid, treats are served as well as sodas or punch. Here, we received a whole bag of goodies prepared by a bakery, more common are the cheap baghias that are readily available on the streets.

 Punda Race (I think this person came in third, but we got a better picture of him than the winner)

These are the winning designs of the kofia embroidery contest. All those hats you see everyone wearing in all of these pictures are hand embroidered. The person who should've won (according to the judges) lost because he didn't FINISH. His design was the best but his execution was flawed so he didn't even place. (The cash prize for this competition was also sponsored by the museum. The cameraman is from the Museum.)

Right after returning from our day of snorkeling (see previous post) we walked past this wedding celebration. I quickly dressed, grabbed the camera and rushed back for some great pictures and videos of the Chama dance. This is usually performed by men from Matondoni (the village we rode back from on donkey back). This is a celebration for the groom who's sitting off camera dressed as "an arab". Each of the men in the line is wearing a sash and ribbons and some carry flowers, along with their sword (real or wooden). This is one of the more popular dances but isn't a formal part of the Maulidi celebration - I was just lucky that someone hired them for their wedding. Though I'd guess its common for someone to get married during Maulid.

This is a Zumari horn, accompanying the Chama dance. Its a reed instrument in which the reed actually floats freely in the cavity of the mouth so that the you can use your throat muscles as well as tongue and lips to effect the airflow. (Right behind him you can see the posted schedule for soccer matches that will be shown in the "movie theater" later in the evening.)

So, there's a sampling of hundres of photos, I haven't even tried to edit the videos yet -- too daunting until I find a decent video editor. But before closing out I wanted to say a few words about the Grand Maulidi, which is the whole purpose of these events in the first place, and the reason we decided to spend a few months in Lamu at all.

Maulid means "birth", and thus birthday ('id al-milaad) in Arabic. According to the lunar Arabic calendar, Muhammad was born on the 14th of Rubb al-awal, the 3rd month of the Arabic year. According to Swahili reckoning which counts the end of Ramadhan as the beginning of the Arabic lunar year, this is the month of Mfungosita (the sixth month). In order to celebrate the prophet's birth, Muslims will sing/read a recitative of Muhammad's life, and sometimes the history before Muhammad to give proper perspective to his contribution to the world. There are many kinds of recitatives used throughout the Islamic world, and in Lamu they use at least two (i've heard of a third that seems to be out of practice). They can also be recited at any time, usually at weddings or to celebrate some achievement in a person's life - but they are always recited on the Prophet's birthday and many times during the month of his birth. The Grand Maulid at Riyadha Mosque uses the recitative written by al-Habshy, a Sufi saint from Yemen in the 19th century. It is interspersed with Swahili songs (written by locals) and drumming on matwari. The great innovation (which some say was/is heretical) was to bring the recitative AND the drums into the mosque itself, whereas most recitatives are performed in homes and outside courtyards. One elder explained that he preferred not to attend because it was mixing things into the religion which would confuse people about what was and wasn't religion. I suppose its the same reason we Mormons do plays in the cultural hall instead of the chapel.

So that's the background. When I arrived on Thursday night, many men in Kanzus were milling around outside the mosque. I decided not to go in because it was already packed. Many had staked out their places within the mosque two prayers in advance (that's about 2.5 hours) so they would have a spot right when the main event started after the 8pm prayer. As a result I didn't get to the see the actual drumming. Before they began, a voice came over the loudspeakers which piped the music and singing out into the courtyard explaining that this was a solemn event and that no recording of any kind, audio or video, would be tolerated. If anyone planned to do so, they should leave now. Thankfully, I figured it would go like this and had already left my recording equipment at home. Since it was about to start I left my concrete seat in the front of the mosque and found some soft sand at the back of the mosque in which to sit. This gave me a partial view of the inside of the back portion of the mosque - it was completely packed with people. I'm not going to rehearse every phase of the celebration, but essentially they would recite the history for about 20 minutes then sing for about 10 minutes - songs about Muhammad, about Habib Swaleh, in praise of Allah, etc. - all while swaying in a seated position on the floor. This process repeated for an hour and a half, at the end of which everyone stood and we were sprinkled with rose water from water bottles and incense smoke was passed around for everyone to inhale or waft onto their clothes as they desired. Occasionally a man with a large tin pot would offer water from a tin cup for those who were thirsty. After the "cleansing" we sat again and listened to a 30 minutes speech from the Imam of the mosque touching on everything from the Draft Constitution of Kenya to the proper duties of Muslims to their families and communities. Essentially, it was exactly the same as every other maulid i've attended in Lamu (about 3) except that more people were there and it was done in a mosque and, the speeches were done by more prominent people; which makes me wonder why no recordings were allowed. As a final note, while the mosque was crowded with men inside and in the courtyard, several hundred women also attended. All dressed in buibuis and sitting on blankets in a specially roped off area for them (maybe 20 feet distance from the men). Their area wrapped around the front of the mosque where they could look in the windows at the drummers if they staked out their seats soon enough. There was probably close to 2000 people in attendance (certainly not less), but that's just a guess since I'm awful at guessing crowd numbers.

So that's the long awaited and LONG Maulid post. Stay tuned for our next post on our safari.