About 5 kilometers from the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) lies a heritage site called NSEMBE. It is located to the Northern side of Bunda college a constituent of the university and to the bottom eastern side of Bunda hill. Seven students from the department of environmental sciences organized a walk to the heritage site to appreciate the site as part of 2016 world heritage day commemorated as hash tag make heritage fun.
NSEMBE heritage is in the village headman Chilowa which is highly sacred to the indigenous people of the location. This is the site where sacrifices are made to appease the gods whenever calamity has befallen their land. For example the incidence of drought in the past, called for human sacrifices and indeed rain could come. A child from a particular family could be identified and chosen at random and sacrificed to the gods. This happened only and only if there was drought. These times the practice of human sacrifice is abolished such that chiefs now days just gather and give thanks to the gods for good harvest. This practice is passed from generation to generation through orientation of young ones and the chiefs who take over the old ones.
Whenever the place is being cleared,fire is lit and this fire is used to scare the deadly wild animals such as Hyenas and snakes that are threats to people and and live stock of the indigenous people. The fire also protects houses from the uncontrolled wild fire and finally helps the people to catch mice ( mbewa). It is also for vegetation management.
Every person pays a clear eye to the site i.e when farming, they keep a reasonable berth to the site. If this is not followed it attracts a fine one goat. People respect the site slot and it stands a a memorial of their cultural heritage.
GoUNESCO is promoting world cultural heritage site by involving its ambassadors who are mostly university students from all corners of the world like LUANAR students. The seven LUANAR students will have a chance to have an internship GoUNESCO and make it as fun as it could be.
