conducted and taped during field work for this dissertation in December 2008."
Eight members of this association participated in the viewing and discussion. The
tape was a video of “purifying the impure”, a cleansing reenactment by a cultural
group called, Wendo wa Kavete in the Kibwezi District.100
The objective of the re-enactment was to show the purification process in
Kenya. It was a performance that included singing, dancing, drumming, chants,
and prayers. The ceremony included going through the process of purification
using artifacts and gestures. The reenactment provided an opportunity to
experience a simulated purification. The exercise, although limited, was valuable
in understanding how cleansing was conducted in the past. Although the
performance was effective in providing a glance back at purification that was
done during the 1950s, it also spoke in the present. From the modern dress of
the participants, to the obvious presence of the videotape equipment, there were
constant reminders of the realities of the present. To this point, it helps to
remember what Jan Vansina states, “Traditions must always be understood as
reflecting both past and present in a single breath.”101
The viewing was followed by a group discussion. The most striking aspect
of the conversation was the consensus that the Emerald Initiative participants felt
that the reenactment “was consistent with what they knew about healing and
99 Viewing and discussion, The Emerald Initiative Kenyan Association, January 2010 of Wendo Wa
Kavete. Kibwezi District. “Purification Ritual Performance.” December 2008. Video tape recording and
notes.
100 Wendo Wa Kavete. Kibwezi District. “Purification Ritual Performance.” December 2008. Video tape
recording and notes.
101 Vansina, Oral Tradition As History, xii. The fact that was giving in the present makes it a product of the
present; it is the present view of the traditional past which some question if this is reality or an invention of
tradition.
222
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