Cultural Heritage with Pathisa Nyathi
GROWING up at Sankonjana in Kezi and neighbouring areas in the 1950s and early 60s was great fun for us the young ones.
The neighbouring areas included Kafusi, Manyane (Sihwaba, now Mtshumayeli) and Lubangwe. The latter is a corruption of Libankwe a name given in the Sebirwa language spoken in the area. The correct version should have been Libankwe, meaning lookout for a leopard. The Babirwa arrived at Sankonjana mostly in the 1940s from two directions, the north and the west.
Despite arriving in two different directions, they shared common origins in the southern part of Gwanda District where they had arrived in about 1825 from the Limpopo Province of South Africa.
They had travelled along the Tuli River and settled at places such as Maribeha, and Pindandangwa, not far from present-day Colleen Bawn and West Nicholson. The areas that they occupied were being taken over by white colonisers. Where Gwanda town is located was one of the areas from which they were vacated.
Mmbi, who was the reigning Chief Kgoatalala, tried to resist eviction and he and his people struck west until they reached Tshelanyemba where some of his followers still reside. Most of them are descendants of Deri who was a brother to Kgotalala. It was these people that travelled eastwards and settled at places such as Sankonjana, Lubangwe, Mareyi and parts of Kafusi.
Those who arrived later from the north were those who had relocated from Garanyemba/Zhomba areas close to the Tuli River to join the Ndebele people who had arrived after the Ngoni of King Zwangendaba.
On arrival of the Ngoni just before 1835, the Babirwa fled south and settled in Botswana mostly in the Tuli Block close to the Limpopo River. Their deserted homes were left under the care of one Gwazhala Tjilindamatongo Dube.
When the Ndebele under King Mzilikazi arrived later and tranquility was restored those that had escaped to Botswana returned to their former homelands. The returned Babirwa, as part of Iqamat, fled to the Matobo Hills at the commencement of Imfazo II in 1896. Following the end of Imfazo II, they moved along the Wovi (Gommfi) River and settled at Nkonyane, a place located at the junction of the Malunde and Wovi Rivers.
The Babirwa in the Nkonyane area left to settle at Sankonjana prior to the evictions of the early 1950s. There we were born at the time when the Salvation Army’s Semokwe Division set up schools such as Kafusi, Lubangwe and Manyane.
Most of their schools were located west of the perennial Shashane River where the Divisional Headquarters had relocated from the dry Mbembeswana River. In 1947 Sankonjana School opened its doors to the first intake of pupils.
That was the time when concerts were very popular. Neighbouring schools took turns to host the musical concerts where performance arenas were erected from cut tree branches. Other non-Salvation Army schools took part in the popular competitions. Some of these schools were Sinkhamaswe, Homestead, Makokwe and sometimes even Ratanyane.
For the young ones like me, the interest lay in commodities that were on sale. There were people who used to sell naartjies and I saw them for the first time. I fell in love with their aroma. With my eyes I consumed the exotic fruits. One uncle of mine had acquired the knowledge and skill to bake buns. These were not fried.
Fani made some underground oven where juicy buns were baked and taken for sale at some concert venue. His eldest son was named Mabhanzi though at school he registered as Edward. His father became SekaMabhanzi.
One could be wondering where the thematic Ancient African Science comes in in all this. I turn to an artist, Leroy also known as Spinx. He was training women from Ward 17 in Matobo District where Amagugu International Heritage Centre is located. He was training the women in reproducing the San rock art as part of the US Ambassador’s Preservation Project.
We had already completed the survey where we visited and documented rock art in Ward 17’s seven villages. Now, as part of preservation measures, an artist was engaged in training women in basic knowledge about colours.
I was there watching and learning. “Art is self-expression.” I liked that. Art is indeed self-expression with characteristic identities or the signature of an artist. At the same time, there are distinctive signatures of a community. At individual and community levels, artists, as integral components of a community, share and express the cultures of their communities.
This is true of various art genres, be they visual arts, or performing arts such as music and dance and sculpture. Through art, we document. I have argued that whatever is archived spiritually has to be retrieved spiritually. The essence here is that when spirituality is denigrated, despised, trashed and demonised, what we are losing is the ability and capacity to retrieve that which was archived by our ancestors a long time long ago. I will expand on this in future in relation to the project that we are currently undertaking.
Now we are back to the concerts at Sankonjana and neighbouring schools.
EKafusi angisalugxobi,
Kulemkhob’ egig’ amatshakada,
Ithi ntinini ntinini ntinini,
Ithi ntinin’ iqond’ emasimini.
I will not go to Kafusi,
There are goblins that pound maize,
And make samp out of it,
They run majestically as they approach crop fields,
They run majestically to crop fields.
The choirmaster and his charges showed their skills in dancing and singing. That was an art form. School choirs were products of their communities. They expressed their ideas relating to what they knew as taking place in communities. One who is not properly schooled in the arts may have perceived the song as provocative and insulting. That was not the case. Schools took turns to sing songs that took a dig into schools from other communities. It was all part of hilarious provocation with no intended harm.
From the song, we may surmise that goblins were an integral part of communities. In fact, those who were known to possess them were an envied class of professionals who possessed power to harness energy and complement it with ancestral spiritual power to subdue, debilitate and emasculate other people.
Communities feared these people. Belied in their mystical powers was strong in those days. Christianity was slowly penetrating remote communities and traditional beliefs still held sway. After all, wizards and witches were at liberty to attend Christian church services. Nothing stopped them from attending. In any case, churches were not equipped with the power to detect witches and wizards. Even where, at individual level, a church member could see someone who was a peddler of the nocturnal profession the Suppression of Witchcraft Act protected and galvanized them from pointing fingers.
Goblins, we could surmise, were mobile and travelled to the crop fields. Chances were that the miniature human being could do some work within crop fields. Surely, if goblins had no roles to play, it was not worth the effort and technology to clone some. As pointed out in an earlier article, goblins were products of cloning where critical biological parts were extracted and mystically manipulated after adding some plant extracts to create a miniature being to perform designated chores within the homestead and also in the crop fields.
Outside of concerts, other songs were sung and bore some bearing on ancient African science. At Sankonjana, we grew up with our cousin Gideon Mankani (uSeka Lindiwe) who was much older than we were. He introduced us to the world through music and dance. His mother, one Gwabangani had died when our cousin was very young. He thus joined our father’s family. He had several songs that he taught us although I never saw him dance.
Bantu balapha,
Kalilunganga,
Libulel’ umama,
Lami selizangibulala,
Lami selizangibulala,
You people of this place,
You are no good at all,
You killed my mother,
Soon you will also kill me.
We danced to his singing barefoot. We had no appreciation of the full import of the song. Of course, the champion in such songs was our father. He had several stories that he told us about his experiences growing up as a young man before we were born. Singing for him was part of storytelling.
Thabane,
Thath’umkhonto sizekhulumisana.
Thabane,
Come out with your spear,
Let us get involved in a duel.
The song was being sung by some goblin from outside Thabane’s homestead. The goblin was challenging Thabane to come for a fight using a spear. I am not sure how Thabane and my father were related. All that I knew was that our maternal grandmother was the common denominator.
Stories good and bad were told in relation to goblins who were part of the entourage that wizards and witches used in their nocturnal errands. The fact that they were cloned from body parts of human beings meant they were high up in the hierarchy of creation. Human beings sit at the pinnacle of creation. Animals such as chimpanzees, gorillas and baboons feature closely to humans.
The hierarchy of creation is at the same time one that relates to power. Human power invested in goblins translates to fertility or sustainability. In order to enhance that power, parts of plants and trees are incorporated in order to clone powerful creatures endowed with both physical and spiritual power. Given that power, they are used to tame or harness other animals that are needed as familiars with roles and that complement those of wizards and witches.
In view of this new understanding of cloning the primary creatures whose makeup includes human parts, in particular those that are associated with fertility and sustainability that business entrepreneurs seek. Ritual killing essentially is about extracting those human body parts that are critical to fertility, creativity, eternity, perpetuity, endlessness and continuity.
Weird stories abound where bodies of ritually killed persons. Have been found with missing parts. Almost in all instances, the missing parts are those that are critical in effecting fertility and continuity.
The possession of goblins goes together with rules that owners must follow and obey. Some of these relate to sexual abstinence. Some of these people who get to possess goblins are not necessarily witches or wizards. Some are business tycoons and have to follow laid down guidelines if their businesses are to flourish.
There are numerous conditionalities that have to be met. Sometimes such stipulations may relate to attendant sexual abstentions. Disasters and calamities have been reported where buildings have gone up in smoke because the owners have flouted set conditions.
In this regard, there are positives that accrue from the possession and use of goblins. It is argued further that these creatures have the capacity to access money from banks. This goes to explain how some people may possess large sums of money whose acquisition is not clear. Some people sweat to access wealth. Others hardly lose an iota of sweat but their wealth is beyond explanation. Goblins are said to assist them acquire wealth through means fair and foul.
Think of some conversation starters. Often, the hardest part of talking to someone new is getting started. Think of conversation openers, like introducing yourself (“Hi, I’m Natasha, how was the History lesson today?”), giving a compliment (“That satchel looks great on you”), or asking a question (“Do you know when our homework is due?”). Being ready with a conversation starter (or a few) makes it easier to approach someone.
