The tones from the mbiras combined with the rhythmic rattle of the hosco shakers was hypnotic. He had been in the dark rondavel hut for hours now watching the men dance on the hard-packed dirt floor. Their dance was more like a slow parade around the hut. The singing that accompanied the music and the dancing was almost a scream was still somehow melodic.

The hut as at the center of a small village named Epasur. He was part of a small group of exchange students who were spending a year studying in the small African country. They had been in the village for a couple of days on a field trip organized by one of their professors. He had told them that they were there to attend an important ceremony.

So far, the visit had been very interesting. They were welcomed to the village by the local headman who toasted them with a bowl of a tradition fermented beverage that was passed around the group for everyone to sip from. The beverage was very dense and grainy and did not taste like anything he knew from home.

Later, after the welcome, the professor translated the headman’s speech. He told them that the headman had welcomed them by telling them that the weekend’s ceremony commemorated a battle that took place in the village during the country’s war of independence. The Professor added that the battle was celebrated in order to honor the bravery of the nation’s independence fighters and their successful struggle for freedom and respect.

The first day of the visit had been very relaxed and interesting. The male students spent the mornings with the young men of the village. They walked to the surrounding fields, tended to the village cattle, ate a lunch of peanuts and fruit, and played a game of soccer using a taped up clump of cloth as a soccer ball. The females had collected water and tended gardens with the girls of the village. For the rest of the day, the students spent their time visiting with the residents of the village and just hanging out amongst themselves.

On the second day of the visit, he woke to the sound of chickens strolling in front of the “children’s hut” where they had been assigned to sleep. He stretched and crawled out of his sleeping bag quietly since some of the other students were still sleeping. He slipped on a tshirt and jeans, walked out of the hut, and headed over to the village bathroom. This was basically just a closet-size wooden structure that contained a deep hole in the ground and a stack of old newspapers. After using the facility, he went walked to the village standpipe to wash up and brush his teeth.

As he was finishing up, the Professor came up to the standpipe along with the village headman and two young men from the village. The professor told him that the two young men were headed to a nearby shop to pick up some supplies for the evening’s ceremony. He introduced them as Samuel and Theta and ask the student to join them on their chore.

Later that morning, he was sitting outside the hut when he saw the two village guys walking towards him. They stoped in front of him and told him they were leaving for the shop. As they began their walk, the two young men introduced themselves as brothers, While they talk and walk, he looked at the countryside around them. He saw a pretty sizable corn field and a worn foot path. To the right there appeared to be a dirt road and on the other side of the road a forest. The forest looked pretty deep and not a little foreboding. Every now and then, the small group of young men would cross in front of a small compound with a few rondavols or small square buildings made out of hard dried mud and maybe a bicycle or a cart in the yard. For a good while, they are followed by some stray dogs which his two companions chased away by throwing stones.

After a period of awkward silence, he asked them if up the nerve to ask them if they were going to see any wild animals. Not in the daytime, was their reply. In response to other questions he learns that they left school last year and that they learned their excellent English at school. Both of them stated that they planned to leave the village soon for the capital city where they hoped to get a job and live together in a house owned by an Uncle and his family. Laughing among themselves, the two guys mentioned that these plans made their mother very sad and their father very mad. But, they affirmed, they were going to leave the village - life was too hard and too boring there.

Then, they asked him about America. Was his family rich? No, he said, we are an ordinary family. But when he told them about the family house and their two cars, they shouted out loud that yes, yes he was a rich man! Samuel quickly started asking him about life in America and Theta stated that someday he wanted to go to a rich country.

Things were getting somewhat uncomfortable for the student, so he was glad to look up and see that they were closing in on the bottle shop. As the three young men entered the store, he looked around the small shop. It was very neat, containing mostly necessaries such as eggs, water, cooking oil, some vegetables, and chicken along with some little candies and plastic toys for children. His companions greeted the proprietor and asked for a bag of corn meal and a case of bottled water. The old fellow nodded and asked the two brother a question in the local language which made the brothers laugh and point at him. Nodding, the old man gave them their goods in return for a handful of money. On the walk back to village, the exchange student kept wondering why he had been laughed at in the store. Finally, he asked.

Do not worry, Samuel said, Mr. Apoczem wanted to know why we were buying water and we pointed at you and told him that we had a group of white people staying in the village for our ceremony. Nothing to worry about. In fact, he told us to take good care of you. And, with that, both boys laughed some more.

The rest of the walk was quiet and not a little difficult. The bag of meal and the crate of water bottles were pretty heavy, so they stopped often to rest and switch loads. He was very glad to see the village when they came back to it. When they arrived at the hut where he was staying, Samuel and Theta said goodbye and started to walk away.

Theta, Samuel, he shouted, will I be seeing you tonight? No, they replied, the youth are not invited tonight. He was pretty tired from the walk so he went into the hut, laid down, and fell fast asleep.

At about 6 that evening, the Professor stuck his head in the hut and shouted “rise and shine,” time for dinner. Hustle up, the ceremony starts at 7 or so. So he got up and walked outside where all his fellow students were gathered around a small fire eating dinner. When he arrived the village headman handed him a bowel of corn meal porridge and a cup of that local beverage. The professor spooned into the porridge a little vegetable and spice relish and told them not to drink the local beverage if they didn’t want to, warning them that is was made from fermented grain and was pretty strong. Still, he ate all his porridge and washed it down with two cups of the local drink.

Soon they were called into a large rondavol with a thatch roof near the center of the village. It was the largest structure in the village. When they walked into the hut, they saw a group of 6 or 7 men singing and playing thumb pianos and shakers over on the far side of the building. In the middle there was a small fire and a large group of villagers were tramping around the fire with bowed heads and bare feet. The students and their professor were seated beside others of the villagers on mud benches built into the walls of the rondavol. As they listened and watched, the musicians played, the dancers danced, and every now and then people would join or leave the dance. This went on for hours. Maybe it had to do with the walk or the drinks he had, but he began to feel sleepy. Sometimes he dozed off but soon a dancer would yell or scream or someone would come in or go out of the hut and he would startle back awake. As the night wore on, the fire died down and the musicians and dancers began to seem like shadows moving about the hut. Eventually, many of the players and dancers left the hut and so did a lot of his fellow students. And, finally, he himself fell asleep.

The sound of the hut door slamming shut woke him up. When he opened his eyes, he noticed that there were now only two mbira players alongside one honcho player. The fire had died down to just red glowing embers and the inside of the hut was very dark. He also saw that he was the only person sitting along the wall. Then he remember the slamming door and looked to his left. There, standing in front of the rondaval’s only door was a very large women in a ragged dress and apron with a red scarf wrapped around her head. In her left hand was an axe. She closed the door and began to tramp around the hut, swinging the axe over head and down by her side as she danced. Every so often she would moan and growl.

He thought to himself that this was a scary situation. Where was everyone else? Where was his professor? Who was this women. Why did she have an axe and what was she going to do with it? He felt sure that he should not be there alone, the only white person in a very dark hut with a large African woman swinging an axe. Just then, the woman seen to notice him. She began to swing the axe wildly, screaming and yelling in a deep voice. Then she approached him, still shouting and swinging the axe. She stopped right in front of him and stared at him. Suddenly, she took the axe in both hands and lifted it above her head. The music stopped and the woman became quiet. She smiled at him a little and brought the axe down fast and hard. It hit the bench next to where he was sitting and bounced onto the hard mud floor. The woman turned and opened the door of the hut.

As the woman was she running out of the door, his professor came running into the hut. What the hell are you doing here, the professor shouted. You are not supposed to be here. Do you realize you could jeopardize the whole ceremony? Go back to your hut now! I guess it was a mistake to invite a bunch of selfish and self-important students to this village. Damn it! Get out!

Still a little frightened and now very ashamed, he walked back to his hut. He laid down in his sleeping bad on the hard mud floor and tried not to think of the woman and the axe. After a while he managed to fall asleep.

The next morning he woke up when another student came into the hut saying that the professor wanted them up and packed by the time the van arrived. They would be stopping for breakfast along the way back to the university. When he sat up, the other student came over to where he was sitting and said that he thought the weekend was so cool and that it was really interesting to see how everyday life was in a poor third world village. But, he added, it will be great to get back to civilization.

The student stood up and went to the standpipe to wash up and brush his teeth. As he was finishing up, the professor walked by and stopped to talk. Listen, he said, sorry I was so angry last night but these ancestor ceremonies are very important. I spoke with the headman last night and he told me no harm was done. In fact he said your presence in the hut with the axe woman added an important special dimension to the whole event. You see, he explained, this was a ceremony honoring and offering respect to the village ancestors who fought in the revolution to win national independence and freedom from European colonialism. The songs we heard from the musicians represented the villagers calling to their ancestors who fought in the battles and other actions of the independence struggles. The dancers tramping around the fire represented those ancestors who made the long trek to freedom. Our presence symbolized the wish that all whites would someday honor the countries of Africa and respect its peoples and their rights as fellow human beings. I did ask him about the woman and the axe. He said she represented a real ancestor of the village who, they believe, committed the last act of bravery in the independence war. Apparently, she killed a colonial official who had come to the village to arrest some men for fighting against the settler army. When the official came to her hut, in a sudden act of defiance,she killed him with her axe. So, unbeknownst to you, last night you and her played out the final act of revolution in honor of the ancestors who won freedom for their country.

The student was overcome with emotion and, shaking with both fear and awareness, he turned and walked back to his hut. When he got inside, he sat down on the floor to roll up his clothes and pack his overnight bag. Getting up to his feet, he walked over to the bag and leaned down to place his clothes in it. There in his bag, he saw the axe, the axe the women had last night, the axe she had swung at him. Looking more closely he saw there was a note written in pencil on a torn piece of notebook paper. It said:

“All people deserve respect. After many years of abuse, my ancestors won their respect from your ancestors. Last night I offered my respect to you. I hope we have yours.”