Abraham Lotha
If there is a showroom that exhibits the variety and richness of Naga cultural heritage, it is the Hornbill Festival held at Kisama every December for the past six years. This is my first at the Hornbill Festival and I am inebriated by the cultural extravaganza. The Department of Tourism’s brief note on the festival in the invitation card proclaimed it as “an annual tourism promotional event to showcase Nagaland’s traditional and cultural heritage in all its ethnicity, diversity and grandeur.” That’s an understatement, I would say. There is a lot more being exhibited than just the performance arts like songs, dances and dramas.
In terms of performance arts, every tribe seems to outdo the others. From the traditional dresses and dances, pottery making by the people from Mimi, and the dramas, to the games by the Lothas and Konyaks, one could see the distinctness in each tribe’s individuality, and at the same time vibe with the underlying common Naga value systems beneath the performances.
There is no better way to protect and preserve the richness and uniqueness of the Naga heritage than by practicing them, and performance art is an attractive medium to transmit Naga cultural heritage to the future generation. A good example of preserving Naga culture this year was the inclusion of Ao and Sema children dance troupes. These children stole the show every time they performed. They learned well the dances and the chants, and the leaders of these two troupes were like the elders in any typical Naga morung teaching the younger ones in the village. These Sema and Ao children certainly learned a thing or two about their own culture. To prove to me that they were serious, the two youngest kids in the Sema children’s troupe sang for me a Sema folk song even if it was just a chant.
The learning experience was not confined to the young alone. Sharing her experience of the Hornbill festival, an elderly Angami woman from one of the stalls said, “Yes, I am learning much more about Angami culture. I also see that people of other tribes are progressing much. Many activities are being revived and many women are taking active part. We are getting to know many others. Even if we meet only here we are getting to know each other and it will be beneficial for us.”
In terms of reviving traditional Naga culture, many of the tribes have chosen items that are important and engaging to their tribe. The Sangtam troupe from Singrup, for instance, chose items that they feel are important to revive and not necessarily the best ones. So also the Zeliangrong group from Jalukie B. A common complaint from most of the cultural troupes was that they had prepared many more items to perform but due to the lack of time they were asked to choose just a few. As a member of one of the Konyak troupe expressed, “We have so much to tell, but how can we do it in five to ten minutes?” But, even if they do not get a chance to perform all their items, they are at least satisfied that they have taught the younger ones in the troupe some aspects of their culture.
Another objective of the Hornbill festival was for the Nagas to know each other’s culture, and for visitors, domestic and foreign, to taste the cultures of different Naga tribes in one platform. As Kaito Aye, Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism & Women Development, said in his welcome speech, “Hornbill Festival is also an occasion to have a spirit of openness to learn from others from within and outside the state, from domestic and foreign tourists.” Except for the first day and the third day, which was a Sunday, the crowd was very small compromising mostly of the performers and a few visitors. But for those who went to Kisama, it was a golden opportunity to learn about the variety and richness of Naga culture. The Angami house perhaps has seen the most number of visitors curious to know Angami tradition. “Visitors come and ask us the meanings of the various artifacts in our house,” said one of the women hosts in the Angami house. Incidentally, besides the minimal help by the Government to all the dance troupes, the Angami Public Organization also spends some amount every year to help showcase Angami culture at the Hornbill Festival. It terms of showcasing traditional Naga hospitality, the Angami house (not morung as one of their hosts told me) was the most exemplary. They had a display of different types of beans and cuisine in tasting trays. This has certainly paid off dividends in terms of promoting Angami culture, particularly hospitality.
Members of the Zeliang morung also felt proud to say that many visitors were asking lots of questions about Zeliang culture. At the Konyak morung, I asked the cultural troupe members if non-Konyaks were coming to learn about Konyak culture and they replied, “Yes, many, many visitors come. They ask us many questions about the Ang system among the Konyaks.”
Unfortunately, some of the other tribes’ morung have minimal artifacts and the focus is more on running a hotel. For instance, in both the Lotha and Sema morungs, except for a few artifacts, the attention is more on the hotel. Similarly, the most common comment that I heard people say about the Ao morung was how tasty the rice-beer was. As a result, except when the cultural troupes are present (usually from about 10:30 am to 2:30 pm), the morungs look empty even though the shops and hotels remain open.
Culturally, even though each tribe has distinct characteristics, there are also common elements. Outwardly, as the brief note in the invitation to the festival reads, “the awe and admiration for the bird is the symbolically displayed at almost all tribal traditional headgears worn during the festivities and is indicative of the commonness amongst the Nagas.” More than the external commonalities, however, there is a true feeling of ‘unity in diversity’ among the Nagas.
Another unsaid commonality among the Nagas was perhaps articulated best by the Governor, Shyamal Datta, when he said, “More than nine of cease-fire has shown the yearnings of the people for peace and prosperity in bold relief.” Khekiho Zhimomi, Minister for Industries and Commerce, also reiterated this commonness in his speech: “For the Nagas, peace is above everything. Today at this very moment also, … different problems and the factional fights are going on. …Whatever may be happening even now, yet we come together in search of peace.”
How can we achieve this peace? In his welcome speech, Parliamentary Secretary Kaito Aye said, “The idea to celebrate Hornbill festival is to bring peace and harmony among the people of the state by bringing them together and making them understand each other’s cultures and way of life and thereby develop closer bonds.” He also added that in the present context of the Naga society, the Hornbill festival was an occasion for us to forgive and reconcile with in the spirit of traditional festivities. Forgiveness and reconciliation are part and parcel of our major festivals. In the traditional celebration of Tuluni festival, for example, on the fourth day of the festival, if there were any misunderstandings between two people, each would take out the best meat and rice beer and offer them to the other and then have a meal together in the spirit of trying to understand each other but forgiving one another and reconciling. That, Khekiye Sema, Secretary Tourism and Art & Culture said, is “forgiveness as a matter of rule, as a matter of life, as a matter of custom, as a matter of way of life – being able to accommodate each other despite the differences and making sure that the community does not fracture out of that disunity between you and me.” This spirit of forgiveness was the underlying focus at the Tokhu Emung and Ngada festivals that I have attended this year.
The Hornbill festival is a perfect platform to prove that Nagas can live in peace and harmony. Even as factional fights were going on in some parts of the State, the feeling at Kisama was one of friendship, networking, openness and oneness. Practically everyone that I interviewed expressed weariness at the factional killings and wished for peace and reconciliation. If only the underground factions saw such unity, they would be put to shame. For they do not hear he cry of the people.
The State Governor, Shyamal Datta spoke about “a silent revolution taking place in the minds of the people to change for better.” The yearning for unity, peace and reconciliation is another silent revolution that is going on in the present Naga society. And, like the Governor said, the “time has come to listen to the voice of the people, take care of the wishes of the people, and do all that is necessary to strengthen the peace as a prelude to the progress and development.”
Ultimately too, as Minister for Industries Khekiho said, the Hornbill festival “is a process of Naga integration. We shall give service to the Naga nation contribute not by lips but by our action as the different tribal groups coming and participating and exhibiting for the greater interest of the Nagas.”
In some respects, Kisama is like one big pan-Naga ‘morung’ in the modern sense. In this new ‘morung’, women are also given spaces and ample roles (more than men in some cases) to play in the present Naga society. Many aspects of our culture have been exhibited. And like in traditional morungs, through action and word of mouth, the elders are transmitting our cultural heritage to the younger generation on an annual basis. If there are some Nagas who feel bored and fed up of seeing or hearing the same stories or performances over and over again, something has been recorded in their minds. As Khekiye K. Sema, the Secretary for Tourism & Art and Culture, said in an interview, “the point when they reach being fed up is a record of history being passed.” I hope that the present Naga society will utilize the Hornbill Festival as a pan-Naga morung to pass on the Naga tradition of reconciliation and forgiveness to the future Naga generation.
