In the far west of Zambia, near the town of Zambesi, the historic Likumbi Lya Mize ceremony of the Luvale people is perpetuated in August. It is the concluding part of the complex Mukanda initiation rite, a three-month training to adult life, of young adolescents who are also circumcised. The ceremony is accompanied by the coming out of a multitude of Makishi masks with their dances, declared Intangible World Heritage by UNESCO in 2008.

Mize is the name of the village that hosts the traditional Luvale court, not far from the town of Zambezi. The Makishi dancers and their beautiful, large masks impersonate the spirits of the ancestors who accompany each initiate in his or her training. At the beginning of the Mukanda, the young people are escorted by the masks and the women towards the river, symbolising the passage to the Hereafter, since they will die as children and resurrect after their training in a secret and isolated place, returning to the world of the living as adults, on the day of the Likumbi Lya Mize. The ceremony thus celebrates a kind of collective resurrection, in which hundreds of different Makishi masks/spirits accompany the young initiates towards the town of Zambezi and the court of Mize, shouting and making incomprehensible sounds, amidst dances and songs, colours and dazzling rhythms, welcomed by the community and festive mothers.