Chief Mwene Mutondo blesses the new crops at the 2011 Kazanga ceremony, Kaoma, Zambia

One of the four royal Chiefs of the Nkoya people (Zambia) to take part in the 2011 Kazanga ceremony, Chief Mwene Mutondo, accompanied by a shrine priestess and traditional court policemen (kapasu) and followed by his royal orchestra of portable royal xylophone, drums, and chief's bells, goes around the kara shrine (a temporary copy of a similar shrine at his distant palace, built on the Kazanga grounds for the duration of the ceremony) and, by lifting the speciments of newly harvested traditional crops, imparts his blessing to them by rhythmic movements of his royal eland-antelope flyswitch. Held annually since 1988, and organised around a traditional first-fruits ceremony presided over by royal chiefs, the massive Kazanga ceremony is a two-day inventory of musical and dancing genres of the Nkoya people of Zambia, performed by villagers, urban poor and school children, in front of a predominently local audience also comprising national-level politicians, members of the urban elite, and media journalists; for an introduction, see Wim van Binsbergen's text at: http://www.shikanda.net/topicalities/...