Thwump

Ok so obviously I've seen animals killed many times in Malawi. Still, every so often you see something so stunningly grotesque or different that you can't look away.

Early one morning I went to a meeting of my neighbors called The Line group. It was a Sunday, church day in the mornings and market days in the afternoons. So the activity level in my village increased in a manner of different aspects. People were going to church, then hustling to the market to set up their wares at the makeshift stalls constructed of tree branches tied together with local 'rope' make from thin slices of soaked tree flesh. Of course there is also a healthy group of people brewing local beer, made of maize or millet most commonly, and an even larger number drinking....even at 7 in the morning. Sunday is also get drunk day.

At the market you have to show up around 3pm to get the best variety and availability of items, except meat. Animals are slaughtered early in the mornings, so if your too late you won't get any meat. There is normally goat and pig and the pig goes first. Only fat and bones are left by afternoon for the scavenging.

Our meeting had just concluded and most people were eagerly off to prepare for church. Some of us loitered by the building, chatting and finishing up business odds and ends. Our meeting building is a simple thing. Mud brick walls, low ceiling made of thatch, mud benches built into the walls. A few poles down the center to hold up the roof. There is a low mud wall separating the building into two rooms. The whole structure is also overrun with termites. Their tell-tale clay-mud trails snaking up the walls and poles. The floor is compacted dirt.

Our building is right next to the market. Apparently, our building sits right between the market stalls and the slaughtering place. Imagine emerging from a relatively cool, shady hut into the bright sunshine and glancing right to see a fully skinned goat hanging by its neck by a rope suspended by a pole. Its a pathetically small goat. Its head is mockingly furred and normal looking. This actually does not phase me at all, happens all the time. I note there is a pig tied to a pole by its back leg...as soon as the butchers finish cleaning out the goat intestine I know its about to be slaughtered, im not dense. This does not phase me either.
I turn and comment casually to a few of my neighbors, “Pigs are the worst to slaughter, they make so much noise.” Then I proceed to do a very good imitation of a pig being slaughtered. This evokes laughter and agreement in my comrades. Im sure my animated face alone is enough to elicit laughter in y neighbors. We all mill around a bit longer. Some people trail off down different paths. I watched the butchers drag the pig, who at first attempted quite spiritedly to hp away on three legs even though the other was tethered and in a butchers hand. They dragged the pig to the kill site.

I had just set up a meeting with two women who weave banana mats( this happened mainly through hand gestures and me grasping a word or two of chilambia.) Then I was waiting for Johnathan to finish his business with the villagers handling our local savings and loans. This is actually what attracted me to the group n the first place. Their ability to handle, save and recoup money. Malawians are notoriously bad at saving money. In fact I had just had to bail Johnathan out of a four thousand kwacha loan he was about to default on and loose his goats. This is the only time I have loaned out money, and yes, I got it back. Of course this prompted a rather stern and long lecture about good business practices and saving money.

Anyway, back to the story. I happened to glance back at the slaughter area and saw one man standing over the pig, arm raised high, cudgel poised in his hand. Before I can even think to look away, plugging my ears, or really understanding whats happening, the man brings the cudgel down hard, striking the pig on the head. The impact makes an oddly hollow, resonating thwump. The pig immediately goes rigid and falls to the side, stunned. Now im too thunderstruck to turn away. I had never seen the stunning of an animal before. In retrospect it seems a bit more human that merely holding it down and sawing through its throat. In the case of pigs however, I think they just do it to silence the squeals. As soon as the pig is hit the man drops the cudgel and straddles its back, squatting down so its kneeling on all fours and yanks up the head for a better access to the neck. He quickly begins to saw its throat. The pig, clearly stunned, retains the repulsively pathetic impulse to escape and starts t bounce up and down. The man cutting was oblivious, continuing to cut the throat. Grotesquely he looked like he was on one of those childrens animal rides you see on playgrounds, the ones on springs. The second man finally straddles the pigs hindquarters and sits, holding it down and minimizing the bouncing.

I shake my head and pull my eyes from the scene I had inadvertently witnessed. There are three things, many months later I cannot get out of my head when I think of that now, the thwump sound, the bouncing desperate escape reflex, and the immediate stiffening of the pig...woo, just gave myself the willies.