WHEN one journey ends, another one is set to begin.
The resulting cyclical expedition resembles Ourobos, the snake that bites its own tail.
This has been the case with my never-ending literary labours that span several decades.
It is fulfilling though, to know that it is labours that some people appreciate when their knowledge horizons expand.
The journey series started with “Journey to Great Zimbabwe.”
Great Zimbabwe
Then I sought to allow Zimbabwe’s iconic cultural landscape to present its own story with very little by way of human intervention and interference.
Architecture and other arts genres such as sculpture, architecture and design were given a chance to communicate messages from the past to our current generation.
Some entrenched narratives were challenged while some new ones were given as alternatives without suggesting that these should not be challenged, as they are not cast in stone.
Future researchers will build upon the new emerging narratives. In particular, the name of the monument was challenged.
Zimbabwe has been interpreted as a big house of stone Zi mba bwe or dzimba dzamabwe, houses of stones.
I am yet to see a big house of stone in other places. Instead, what we see are typical Shona and Kalanga huts with cone-on-cylinder huts.
The monument was a village, nzi as expressed in TjiKalanga. It is nzi wa mabwe, a village of stones.
The numerous megalithic walls were made from stones, as the name suggests, I look forward to seeing a big (Zi-) house (Mba) of stone (Bwe) or even the houses (Dzimba) of (Dze) stone (Mabwe) in other areas.
It was all about stonewalls and not houses! Luswingo/rusvingo, in the singular form and masvingo in the plural form get us nearer the interpretation of the name Zimbabwe. Indeed, there is a town deriving its name from the Village of Stones nearby.
I have seen stonewalls at several sites such as: Danangombe, Zinjanja, Manyanga, Thulamela, Domboshaba (in Botswana), inter alia.
Then came “Journey to Stonehenge, another iconic World Heritage Site (WHS) in England’s Salisbury Plain. This one was a journey in which I came face to face with the African mind.
The mind was resident in many respects from designs such as circularity, the presence of water in a circular ditch, the presence of human bones, the monitoring of movement of cosmic bodies, as building in stone to express the idea of eternity and perpetuity, among several other features that are intelligible from the perspective of African Thought and Worldview.
Spirituality as understood in Africa was evident. Traditional doctors’ tools of the trade were unearthed including such cultural features as smudging urns and sprinkling medicated water.
That journey convinced me that the ancients, regardless of wherever they were found, shared a common worldview that lay behind common cultural practices.
The most recent “Journey” was one that took me to Old Bulawayo, which in the 19th century, was King Lobengula’s capital town from 1870 to 1881.
Bulawayo
Some thorough research was carried out on the site where a built environment was created. The built environment expressed the mind or thought of the Ndebele people in the previous century.
My contribution here was adding something to the interpretation of the Ndebele mind through the structures that were created, built and used.
I hope that added some value to the understanding of the relationship among architecture, design, village layout and the thought processes of the community that built and used the cultural structures.
As is true of most, if not all journeys, this particular “Journey” ended and where it ended, another journey has begun.
Some few years ago, I intimated I was going to end up the series of “Journeys” with “The Journey to the Stars.” There were several reasons on the part of my decision to embark on the journey to the heavens.
I had realised that African Cultural Astronomy was on the decline. We knew very little in comparison to our ancestors. Living in bright cities, made the situation even worse.
The city lights brought the heavens down, heavens that did not add much knowledge and information to us.
We did not observe the movements of celestial bodies let alone appreciate their critical importance in the continued life on the planet we call home.
I read about rituals and related ceremonies and realised that the stars, planets and moons played a role in the timing of the holding of rituals.
The summer solstice, winter solstice and equinoxes were all important in telling time, navigation of featureless expanses of land such as deserts and huge water bodies, the vast seas and oceans.
I soon came to the realisation that in the absence of the sun and the energy it gives to the planets in particular our earth, there would be no life on our planet.
Movement and positions of stars in relation to our earth influenced events and conditions on our planet.
Would there be life if the sun did not rise each morning? Would there be life on earth if the sun did not set? My curiosity was fired and I began to seek answers to many questions.
For several decades, I had seen the moon and marvelled at its changing character, from a crescent moon emerging on the western sky to a full moon with an enchanting circular design.
I would later learn how, in its changing character, the moon attracted celebrated chants and incantations that marked the month of one’s birth.
It marked and expressed regeneration, rebirth and renewal. These were concepts that tickled my mind.
We could hardly disregard the moon in the African world.
What were the perceptions that people held regarding, not just the moon, but also indeed other cosmic bodies? Undoubtedly, this was waning knowledge on the part of Africans, particularly those living in urban centres, the cemeteries of our African cultures.
As we move further from Source, our knowledge relating to celestial bodies is on the wane. I therefore felt obliged to preserve some of the knowledge before we lose it completely.
That is our heritage that we can hardly afford to lose.
The journey is promising to be a long one, but one that is worth undertaking if our legacy is to be preserved and passed down to future generations.
Perhaps when this journey is completed, I would, as a parting shot, venture to seek a better understanding of what I term Ancient African Science (AAS) in which so-called witchcraft and African traditional spirituality are anchored.
If I am that lucky to see the completion of that journey, I may, without any sense of guilt, fly away to some star, in the literal and spiritual senses.