Late Hodi Mame – A Traditional Dancer from Mbaga in Southern Pare Mountains. He was the leader of Tona Lodge Cultural Troupe, and for over a decade
he had become a tourist attraction by himself in Mbaga, Manka Village
By Benjamin Wa Mahiga
Just as Christians says they have a rock of ages cleft for them, the residents of ragged Southern Pare Mountains too have not only one but two: Malameni and Ibwe Leteta rocks- literally.
Southern Pare Mountains can truly be described as the land of the rocks but the said two rocks are awe inspiring to visitors as some of the wondrous of nature and to the locals they are sacred up-to-date.
Malameni rock is a huge mass of rock that leaps about 70 metres high from the Mbaga forest. On climbing the rock at the top there is a house, where its keeper lives with his family!
It’s a wonder that he has a family- including young children and rears a cow and several goats – I was told not even any of his livestock ever falls down the horizons of the rock!
Standing atop Malameni rock, you can see the fantastic diversity of the Southern Pare Mountains beauty- hills up on hills, with breathtaking moorlands. And when you enter Malameni caves at the bottom of the rock, you
feel the wonders of nature and feel like you have moved back to the beginning of history…
The first time I visited the two rocks in 2012, my guide the late Captain, who was s in the army for many years before his retirement told me many moving tales about the rock and its caves.
He was adamant that people living in the mountain hold it in such high esteem, and no one would ever dare go against the rock. If anyone would cut and use for firewood or whatever purpose any of the few trees spring out of its belly, he would die instantly.
The Lutheran church build a church a few metres away from the rock decades ago to counter the superstitious belief associated with it, but residents said even the most ardent church goers there dare not interfere with the ecology of the rock.
The late Hodi Mammy, was a traditional singer in the Manka village. I am told he passed away 3 year ago. When I spoke last with him he admitted to be a professing Christian but could not ignore some sacred traditions. He held the rock in awe saying its presence and bearing are not only mighty awesome but contain incredible supernatural power.
He was of the opinion that sugarcane farm used to be ravaged by thieves but when he went atop the rock and made his prayers, the thieves one by one sought him seeking forgiveness. A number of villagers confirmed the incident.
Many villagers I spoke to had many stories to tell about the rock but few were willing to
talk about their personal experiences with the rock.
According to the late Johnson Mdemi, a Second World War veteran who lived less than a
kilometre away from the rock, it was a sanctuary of prayers by people who have been wronged, denied justice or those with great problems wrought by nature.
The rock has become a tourist attraction in Mbaga after having been featured in several travel guides across the world the last few years. But visitors from far and wide don’t only go there as tourists, some go there to pray.
A number of people from Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe and elsewhere, villagers visit the rock at times for the purpose. According to Hodi Mammy, ‘white’ visitors to the stone are always tourist, but when you see ‘black’ tourists at the site there is always more than meets the eye.
When I visited the rock, unfortunately its keeper was not there to grant me an interview. I was told after people have made their prayers they always go back to offer sacrifices to thank the almighty for answering their pleas. The sacrifices involve slaughtering a goat where the keeper invites selected villagers to feast.
Woe to you if you have wronged a man and he goes to seek justice from the Malameni rock – a calamity will befall you unless you seek forgiveness from the person you have wronged and at the same time go and make a sacrifice atop the rock or at its caves.
According to a legend immortalized by the first German Lutheran missionary in Mbaga, Jacob Janssen Dannholz 918) in his book, “Lute Luvivi –Lwendi: The curse and the blessings,” the rock was used for killing abnormal children in Pareland as they were believed to be carrying evil spirits.
When a child was born with any noticeable disability, the family took the kid while asleep atop the rock at the edge. The child would fall to his death.
Up to early 19c, he wrote it was believed thousands of kids lost their lives at Malameni to appease evil spirits. But all the villagers I spoke to have a different story to tell about the same rock. They said Malameni was never used for killing children but it has always been a sacred place of prayers, where a witch or any evil person cannot set foot on.
Unlike Janssen and subsequent German missionary in Mbaga, residents there believe the rock that was used for killing children was Ibwe Leteta rock, which several kilometres away from Malameni.
Ibwe Leteta rock lies above the village of Marindi in Mbaga, a massive stone that Janssen describes in his book as “huge, bare boulder, angular and jagged.” Ibwe Leteta in Pare language means the stone that speaks.
Nighttime travelers, Captain told me always avoid the stone from time immemorial. Even today children are never allowed to go and play around it. The rock is cloaked in mystery with might dread brooding over it.
“No one prays or plays at Ibwe Leteta rock. It can swallow you or your children,” Hodi Mammy told me.
The Southern Pare Mountains are not as famous as Mt Kilimanjaro as a tourist target or even like the Northern Pare Mountains, where we have the famous Usambara game reserve but still I found out they are any adventurers paradise destination with some incredible features like the two rocks I have described that are so fascinating.
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