Traditional Ceremonies: Chakwela Makumbi

Chakwela Makumbi is a Soli traditional ceremony which means ‘pulling the clouds’. The event is held in Zambia's Lusaka province. At this ceremony, dancers entertain guests who have come to witness an event that marks the beginning of the planting season for the Soli community.

During the event, Chieftainess Nkomeshya Mukamambo ll blesses the seeds to be sowed and prays to God for sufficient rainfall, so the country can enjoy bumper yields come harvest time. The celebration happens once a year and according to Zambian culture, is one of the last traditional rituals of the year.

The actual day of the ceremony involves a lot of traditional song and dance that starts in the morning until a time when the cheiftainess comes out of her palace and is escorted to the main arena’s grand stand in the royal grounds where a throne is placed for her to officiate at the festivities.

As she emerges from the house, she is accompanied by her daughters, Indunas, some subjects and some musketeers that continuously fire muzzleloaders whose sound is said to symbolize the thunder of the much anticipated rains; it is after all a rain making ceremony.

The path on which she walks barefoot to the arena is specially painted with different shades of clay symbolizing purity, the people, the land and the Soli’s exodus from Kola in modern day Congo during the great Luba-Lunda migrations, and no one must dare step on it before she does, as they do so at the risk of being manhandled by the vigilant security personnel.

As the cheftainess sits down she is entertained by more dances and song, some are performed by the different groups that form the seven zones that make up the Soli chiefdom from Lunsemfwa in the north extending to the Kafue in the south, the Luangwa in the East and chief Shakumbile in Mwembeshi West of Lusaka.