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The Chewa immigrated in the 16th century from the Kongo to Zambia and further on to Malawi and Moçambique. They are lead by a king which rules over the whole kingdom which extends now over at least three countries. To his honour, once a year all chiefs - the regional leaders - gather and bring him presents. This ceremony is celebrated as a big party where al Chewa of the area - and who can afford to travel from further - come to join: we guess about seven thousand visitors in a mood to party!
Early in the morning we start walking to the ceremony and jump onto a pick-up which takes us to the ceremonial grounds at the next crossing.
Already hours before the ceremony starts, everybody tries to get the best place 
in the specially for that occasion erected open-air party-room. As an advantage for us, the Malawian Vice-President arrives shortly after us and about three thousand people rush to see him landing in his helicopter. In the meantime we are shown places in the first row - white people are not very common here.
At 11 o'clock the ceremony starts: The King, surrounded by ten "bodyguards" 
and many dancing women, walks a round through the ceremony ground before sitting down on his throne, decorated with elephant tusks and the skins of lions and leopards 
. Now some speeches follow, mainly of representatives of the governments of the three states which honour and praise his majesty. Is clearly to see that they are very concerned to keep up a good relationship with the king - he is the one who leads the people.
Following that, the presents are presented: Like on Christmas lots of nicely wrapped and decorated packets are brought to the throne. Just the living goat of one of the chiefs is not wrapped ...
A little bit late - the speeches took up more time than planned - the part everyone was waiting for starts: about 20 groups - selected to be the best - from different regions present their dances. These dances appear to be very different and are meant to - as a spectator explains us - teach the children good manners, pride, courage and virtue. They are the means to pass on tradition.
Some of the dances are presented by women: they tell stories singing and piping, sometimes accompanied by nearly naked, nicely with pearls decorated girls. The more impressive dances are the ones of the "Nyau", secret societies from former times. The dancers are completely hidden in strange clothes and bizarre masks. Their identity - like the dances and the places where they train - are kept highly secret.
The dancer jump and crawl like mad over the place, surrounded by wild drumming and rattling. Some children run away crying because of the strange and wild sight.
After four hours of raging and dancing - we also saw two men on stilts - the king ends the ceremony and draws back into his palace. Some of the dancers who did not find time to show their art now show what they can 
and the crowd gathers now tight and uncontrolled around them.
Slowly the mood ebbs and we wander around the market-place like stands around the ceremony grounds. Finally we - like everybody else - try to find transport back to our resthouse. We find a truck going in the needed direction and squeeze among at least 70 others taking the same direction. Immediately after the truck starts moving, big discussions arise: many of the passengers don't want to pay the usual transport-fee. The comment of the money-collector to us: "I like the whites, whites are not difficult!"