Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 299
seclusion the bride was only fed liquid food, after which she was released from seclusion and
a sacrifice to the ancestor stones was carried out, initiating her into her future husband's
patrilineage with the ability to form a matrilateral 'kitchen' (kuÉ—ige) of descent.
Plate 29a: View of child's room
Plate 29b: Thatched roof of child's room
The following two pictures (Plate 29c and 29d) show views of the upper kitchen. The one on
the left shows the grindstone board (A) with beautifully decorated plastering. It has cooking
pots on top (B). The photo to the right shows the open thatched roof and the walls formerly
plastered with adobe, which have darkened from cooking. In the corner we see a large beer
pot (C). Most kitchens such as this had been used for grinding and brewing sorghum beer. We
know that the lower kitchen only was dedicated to brewing ancestral beer. That the upper
kitchen was directly next to the child's room might have been practical in terms of childcare.
Plate 29c: Upper kitchen with grinding top
Plate 29d: Thatched roof of upper kitchen
Plate 29e is of the lower kitchen of Kalakwa Wila's house, showing that the grinding stones
(A and B) were embedded into the top of the adobe construction, which also shows remains
of former elaborate plaster decoration (D).
Plate 29e: Grinding stones in Kalakwa's lower kitchen
Plate 29e demonstrates that
the lower kitchen was
primarily a beer kitchen,
which is indicated by the
large pots for making beer,
similar to those in Buba's
upper kitchen above. The
word for grinding top was
vra, while the large beer
pots were called ndughwe.
We note that upper and
lower kitchen look more or
less identical.
Plate 30a below shows
again the front passageway
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