Tsenene - THE BIG CRICKET Tsenene is a very large cricket, which burrows in the ground and is referred to in the song that accompanies the action. I have heard it described as a ano (show), and it is also called 'a punishment' (tshengedzo). Each novice runs the gauntlet between a line of men and a line of women, who beat her buttocks with sticks. The song which accompanies the action is Domba Song No. 2. I never saw the rite to which Stayt (1931 :118) gives the name tsenene. In his description of the 'grasshopper' ngoma, which follows tsenene and which I shall describe later as a show (ano), he refers to a thrashing similar to that which I associate with tsenene. Lesson This is supposed to remind girls that child-birth will be painful, but that it is the logical outcome of marriage, and a woman's first duty to her husband. Another version of the chorus ran, I a beba munna wayo (it gives birth to its husband). I was told that this referred to cycles in the life of some insects and was intended to express the idea that man and woman are mutually interdependent, although the woman is both the receiver and the producer of the male principle.    To return, click 'Back' in the browser. Next