ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the relationship between children and adult forms of masquerade as well as gender differences in children's masquerade. In Zambian Chewa villages where boys form the kalumbu association, girls often have a masked association of their own corresponding to kalumbu. The girls' association and its masked dancers are called chisudzo. Among the Chewa, almost all boys between the ages of twelve and fifteen are initiated into the nyau association. Each village has its own association, but membership achieved at one village holds good at any other Chewa community. The chisudzo association is a voluntary association, being composed of young girls who have not yet gone through the puberty ceremony, chinamwali. At the end of the day, following the initiation of girls into the chisudzo, elder members of the group take the girls back to their parents. The nyau and the chinamwali are also in marked contrast to each other in several other respects.
