E Kire
‘Next week is Naknyulum. This is so apt a time, where besides the never-ending Naga issue, we are embroiled in darkness due to corruption and the uncertainty of COVID-19. The Naknyulum festival is so timely in that this festival calls for each of us to become the monster-killer. The darkness is so blinding that we do not seem to see the goodness in others, or that of our own ability to care and share. The six-tailed tiger is clearlyrepresentative of our own personal challenges and that of our shared social burdens. We don’t seem to know which tail to tackle first. This situation led the young Namumulou to walk out facing the danger right on until he could kill the monster, which act ushered in the light. In the Chang language, Naknyu is mother of all darkness. And yet, because of one brave soul, we celebrate this day as the festival of light. Can we not all become monster-killers, become our own Namumulou? Blessed Naknyu Lum’ - Rev Chingmak Chang.
This is the pre-festival message from the founder of Eleutheros Society, the ECS.
For Rev Chingmak, the pandemic situation in Nagaland at the present time has many parallels with the most importantof Chang festivals. The story of Naknyulum began when a period of great darkness covered the areas of the Changs. All work and activity ceased in the face of the darkening. The account narrated by Hakchang village of the Naknyu period says,
‘The light suddenly vanished and the world was plunged into darkness. For six days and six nights the murkiness remained. Life came to a complete halt and it was a difficult time as folk found out they could not carry out their daily activities. It was impossible for people to go to the fields, or go hunting or collect wood in the forest. Even the little firewood they had stacked turned damp and mouldy, and moss and fungi sprouted on the wood. People grew so desperate that they dismantled the beams and posts of their houses and burned them for light and warmth. Only the rich could keep their home fires burning using as fuel, the heads of cattle that were kept on display on their walls.
In this period of darkness, people starved and grew sick; they became depressed with the hopelessness of their situation. But there was a brave warrior named Namumulou who refused to submit to the unyielding gloom. He could hear the moaning of his people, and their sorrowful cries all around him as he sat in his house, sharpening all the points of his arrows by the dim light of a bamboo torch. “What is happening”? He wondered. “What is this power throwing this great shadow over us?”
On the sixth night when all his arrows were sharpened, Namumulou took his bow and bent it so he could tighten the string and keep it ready. He then stepped outside into the blackness. As his eyes became accustomed to the dark, he could discern a great shadowy figure looming over the rooftops. Choosing a good position, he raised his crossbow and shot arrow after arrow at the ominous shadow until at last, the figure fell to the ground. In that instant, the darkness lifted and the light suddenly returned. To this day, the Chang people celebrate the festival of Naknyulum with all its accompanying rituals to commemorate the coming of the light into a dark world.’
According to Rev Chingmak, the present pandemic reminds him of the terror of Naknyu, the mother of all darkness. The darkness persists even in our times when people fail to respond in the right way. He elaborates, ‘During this festival we share cooked meat and millet cake with neighbours. I guess the Covid period is a good opportunity to share and not stigmatize people as we do now.’
He concluded that Naknyulum could be celebrated because the hero made his preparations and killed the right enemy, and reminds us it is a challenge to us all to kill the monster that creates darkness in our minds, and perpetuates the present darkness.
Notes:
Source of the Naknyulum story: Folklore of Eastern Nagaland, collected and translated by Anungla Longkumer.
