IN Africa, there are communities that still connect to the sky. According to their worldview, what takes place in the cosmos or heavens has a bearing in the world of their residence. This is another way of saying the stars, planets and moons in the firmament do influence and impact upon what happens on Earth. As a result, there are cultural practices that seek positive benefits from cosmic bodies, in particular their movements.
In Zimbabwe, there are numerous shrines where rituals are conducted to create conditions that induce rains to fall. It is acknowledged that the land has to be cleansed or purified if the rains are to fall. Otherwise, when the environment is defiled, the rains shy away. The timing of rituals is tied to the movement of both the sun and the moon, in addition to other stars such as Orion, Osiris, Sirius and Isis, inter alia. Movement of celestial bodies results in the creation of seasons that dictate the times of rainfall and the resulting planting of crops.
In southern Africa, the rain season commences in September when the sun has migrated to the south. In the past, there were elaborate rituals that accompanied the onset of the life-giving rains. Communities looked for signs that marked the changing positions of stars in the heavens. Out of stellar observations, they gleaned hints relating to the advent of the rain season. The celestial bodies marked time and experience taught the various communities which heavenly bodies, on the bases of their positions in the firmament, pointed to the coming of the rains and indeed related cultural and spiritual activities such as rituals and ceremonies.
African Traditional Religion
In one of his books, Chinua Achebe writes about a character, Ezeulu who waits for the emergence of a crescent moon in the western sky. “Welcoming such an astronomical event is crucial in planning economic tasks, scheduling seasonal festivals and organising market days.”
Regarding, “the presence or absence of the moon, in the night sky is part of a matrix that connects people, communities, nature, the heavens and God,” writes Chinua Achebe, Africa’s celebrated writer. What he writes about in the Nigerian context is equally applicable in Zimbabwe.
My first visit to the Njelele Fertility Shrine was to observe the goings on following the reported impending visit by the Lozwi King, Mike Moyo. I was quite alert to and conversant with the squabbles going on relating to the custodianship of the shrine. Solifa Ncube who for quite long was the caretaker spiritual custodian left in September 2021 and has not returned to this day. Ncube was holding fort for the Ndlovus, his maternal uncles who were in charge from the first ancestor Nsuvu to Ncube’s own mother.
This article is not about the social or spiritual history of the Njelele Fertility Shrine. Our thrust here is on the link between the rain shrine and the celestial bodies. As indicated in the last article, I prematurely left the Nyamatsatse Festival to attend the rituals taking place at Zimbabwe’s pre-eminent fertility shrine.
My earlier visit was when it was reported that the king of the Lozwi was going to pay a visit to the shrine. For quite some time I was following the history of the shrine. Prior to the visit by Mambo, a big chunk of rock hived off and rolled down a mountain close to the Njelele rain shrine.
However, the movement of celestial bodies and the timing of rain rituals that precede the onset of the rains in the New Year, which, as shown above, started in September. The sun sets the tone, which occasioned my visit this time. In September, about 22/23, there is the summer solstice.
In terms of the celestial calendar, there appears the “ploughing stars,” “the Seven Sisters,” or the Pleiades, known in IsiNdebele as Isilimela. That is what used to alert communities from their winter slumber. Meanwhile, the sun will be continuing in its journey to the south. In July the rain shrine, in readiness for the onset of the rains, is cleansed, known as ukuthanyela in IsiNdebele.
Before video filming, I visited the new young custodian Brighton Ndlovu who is descended from Nsuvu and is being supported and groomed by the more elderly and seasoned Mr Mlotshwa. I needed to know the key elements in each stage so that my knowledge would inform the filming process.
As to the processes of cleansing, that detail will be attended to later, suffice to say the activities revolved around regeneration, renewal and renovation. New debarked wooden poles of umangwe/mususu trees were gathered and used to replace the old ones. Umthala grass used in re-roofing the numerous accesses to the cave. The grass is obtained from nearby rivers, Matanda and Malunde.
I could not help seeing some link between Stone Age cultural practices and those that were applied during the cleansing ceremonies. The type of music that was played (woso/amabhiza) pointed to the original ownership of the rain shrine — the San people. These were in charge just as they still are at Tsodilo Hills west of Maun in Botswana.
After the cleansing ceremony, the next stage involved, in the main, the role of amawosana/manyusa from various parts of the country but mostly from Matabeleland South. The Malaba/St Joseph’s community seemed the most active in terms of participating and observing related observances and taboos. We interviewed some at Esigodlweni, where the custodian and his assistant are consulted. This is a village set aside for the spiritual purposes such as brewing of spiritual beer that is taken up the hill and used as libation to Mwali. The custodian’s home is a few metres from Isigodlo as they term it.
In deciding when the rain-inducing rituals were to be held, the moon was observed, in terms of its position in the night sky. Lunar movement varies the potency of the moon and hence when rituals will be held. A crescent moon marks diminished energy and potency and hence the time for holding rituals which should be conducted at maximum potency and energy.
I remained in touch with the shrine custodian so that I would not miss the key and central rain-inducing rituals. As no news came regarding when rituals were due, I accepted the invitation to present a paper, or rather some talk at the Nyamatsatse Festival in Harare. Then the news came. The night of 15/16 August was the night when rituals were going to be held. That meant I had to leave Harare and get back to Bulawayo in time to be at the shrine in the evening of August 15.
At the shrine cave, no filming is allowed. In fact, there are many prohibitions such as pre- and post-ritual sexual abstinence, wearing of perfumes, expecting and lactating mothers, no shoes, jewellery, and more. “For the next three days, no encounters of a sexual nature,” booms the young custodian. Amawosana bring gourd cups, inkezo/nkombe from their communities with which they symbolically fetch water from this environment of surplus water to their own areas of water deficiency.
For our purposes, the aspects of the rain shrine relate to the links with the heavens in terms of timing the holding of the rituals and ceremonies that precede the coming of the rains. Though the stars and moon are far away from earth, communities believe their influence is felt all the same.