Makunduchi

The Makunduchi fighting festival, properly called the Mwaka Kogwa festival, is a four-day-long celebration that takes place every July to mark the start of the Shiraz New Year, though its roots actually pre-date the arrive of Islam in Zanzibar.
It begins when two brothers from the north of Makunduchi village challenge two brothers from the south to a fight. Soon everyone is joining in to vent their feelings and rid the rest of the year of any animosity. The fights are colourful and free ranging, men charge all over the field hitting each other with banana-leaf stems. In the past clubs and cudgles were used but injuries and even death were not uncommon so the safer but still painful leaf stem became the normal weapon for the men. The weapon of choice for the women is their tongues and as the men fight, the women, all dressed in their finest clothes, dance around the field singing insults at the men. The men in turn can insult them back and everyone has a good time letting off steam. At the end of the day’s fighting, a small thatch hut is built in a corner of the field and then set alight. A man, who has been waiting inside, jumps out as the flames engulf it symbolizing that no-one will die in a house fire that year. After these celebrations the people of the village gather to eat and enjoy each others company until late in the night.

Return to gallery here