Cultural Heritage with Pathisa Nyath
APPLICATIONS of individual identities as explained earlier abound in the world of African cultural practices. As we come across these in future, we shall not hesitate to indicate them. We do so in order to see the science behind some African cultural practices, which may not seem to embody science. As intimated on several occasions, for Africans, the underlying scientific principles may not be that obvious. They will not bother to excavate them. To them, what works are successful applications.
We re-iterate this so that Africans are acknowledged and appreciated for their advanced notions pertaining to genetics that they will explain, not in words but applied scientific practices in accordance with their cultures and languages. It has to be appreciated that the word genetics is foreign to them. It is latent and applied in numerous cultural practices. When they seek to bewitch someone and it works successfully, well that is it, no further questions, elucidations nor engaging in efforts to distil theories and applicable laws, rituals and principles is totally uncalled for.
Let us go back to history and cite a case where applied genetics was put into a series of action applied by the Ndebele monarch’s traditional healer, one Dr Mphubane Mzizi. King Mzilikazi led his people from Ezinyosini on the Vaal River, uLikhwa, in 1827 and passed through the Tubatse (Endubazi/Steelpoort) where he met Ndebele people under King Magodonga kaMahlangu. Spirituality always plays some role in African military spheres. Even the more recent armed liberation struggles were not spared of spiritual content.
Apparently, Magodonga could dive into a pool of water holding a burning wooden brand. He would emerge the other side with the brand still burning. King Mzilikazi felt threatened and dwarfed. He tried the same feat but failed. Dr Mphubane thought of a plan. What he needed was some identity of King Magodonga that would be worked upon to diminish his power.
Intelligence officers were appointed to keep an eye on King Magodonga. They knew at some time he was going to defecate his excreta. A bit of the whole was as good as a whole.
A piece of King Magodonga’s excreta in the bush was all Dr Mphubane Mzizi needed to fix King Magodonga and have him subdued by King Mzilikazi. When that happened, they would collect King Magodonga’s faeces.
The king had the better of him. King Magodonga is said to have been captured and impaled on a sharpened spit where he met with a painful, miserable and excruciating death. With the image or identity of King Magodonga proceeded to cast a spell on him. When next he tried to outwit King Mzilikazi, he failed dismally.
Examples of parts of animals and birds were excavated at Old Bulawayo. It was clear that the said parts were the spiritual paraphernalia of the traditional healers who lived at Old Bulawayo. Their spiritual business was to attend to the King and no other person. Evidence for their roles was clear. Bones of vultures were unearthed and the doctors used these in the business of foretelling disasters that were likely to befall the king, his household and the nation at large.
Vultures are perceived to possess powers to see future events. This is some kind of precognition. That quality was exactly what the King required. Misfortunes that lay ahead require timeous detection so that ameliorative measures may be taken. A foreseen problem is one that is partly solved.
Python vertebrae were excavated through some thread which a traditional doctor wore over his shoulders’ the Royal Enclosure. Chances are that these were used by the traditional doctors. Vertebrae were strung through some thread that a traditional doctor wore over his shoulders. A python is regarded as a sacred and spiritual snake. Belief is strong that when dead, a python can resurrect through its spinal cord. There were land and water pythons. The latter in particular were associated with spiritual power. Traditional healers made use of python skins, fat, vertebrae and teeth, even the intestines. These python parts were worn when a traditional doctor attended to the king or was preparing some ritual formulation for the monarch.
Other findings within the Royal Enclosure, Isigodlo, seem to have been for royal use. Regal animals such as parts of a leopard and a lion were used. A leopard commanded a lot of dignity and respect. That was what a king needed to be respected, honoured and, at the same time, feared.
The beautiful skin was worn above the waist, especially over the shoulders and the chest. A lion was equally regal and dignified. Its skin provided a mat for a king but was never worn by a king. Its teeth, like those of a leopard, were worn around the neck of a King.
Pangolin bones were also excavated. A pangolin is associated with protection, defence and security. This comes from two of its attributes. Its hard and impregnable scales overlap neatly without leaving vulnerable spaces between. A weapon such as a spear would find it difficult to penetrate the body of a pangolin when it has coiled itself into a nice and firm ball.
Royalty requires that sort of defence and protection. Symbolically a pangolin expresses strength through the nature of its scales and its behaviour when it coils up. Pangolins are thus not to be possessed by ordinary people. Its scales are used for fortification through some symbolically manipulated characteristics. The King is the state and the state is the King. He must be protected and defended all the time. The pangolin.
It is clear, symbolism plays numerous roles in the African spiritual world.
Recently, someone being interviewed said they killed and fed on young children. Children’s flesh was either cooked or consumed raw. Meat consumption is a story for another day.
For transport, the three women who inherited the art and profession from their ambuya (grandmother)said they used a rusero, ukhomane (winnowing basket), the winnowing basket. They flew to the residences of their team where they knocked for a while. However, if their companion delayed coming out of her hut, she was left behind.
What was of particular interest to me were two aspects in their reported professional operations. The first related to how a buried child’s corpse rose from the bottom of a grave until it surfaced above the ground for them to have access to it. For movement to take place there has to be present energy in one form or another. Their spiritual endowment could be the source of needed energy to cause movement.
Energy is further needed to open up the grave for the corpse to exit the grave. That parting of the soil translates to there having been some energy. Parting soil has to move and movement will not take place in the absence of energy.
We could argue further and say the corpse if it is to rise to the top when the grave opens, requires energy.
The corpse will not move up against the force of gravity where there is no energy such as when it travels at the speed to escape gravity or carries momentum to facilitate its negation of energy.
The three women claimed to using a stirring rod, mugoti/uphini to strike a grave, which then opened up and the corpse rose to the surface, I began thinking hard!
The second aspect is related to the reversal of the soil during digging. It is the symbolism that is applied in this Principle of Reversal. I began wondering whether the three companions really understood what was happening. Was it not the case of practical execution without much by way of understanding underpinning scientific principles?
Perhaps the three women like others in the Matobo cultural resident landscape who paint the walls of their huts without clarity regarding the meanings of icons and symbols that they so expertly execute. My view is that these people are practitioners and do not operate at the level of theoretical formulation.
With the limited time at our disposal, we shall attempt reversal during grave digging. Once digging commences, the soil at the top is one to be removed and deposited in the beginning pile next to the emerging grave. Just try to visualise what happens with the aim of perceiving the process of reversal. The reversal ultimately will symbolically lead to the movement of a buried corpse. Africa madoda!
In the end, the topsoil ends up at the bottom of the pile. The last soil to get out of the grave will be the one at the top. I hope you see the reversal. What was at the bottom has now ended up at the top. The corpse is laid at the bottom of the grave where the soil that was there is now at the top. It has transitioned from the bottom to the top.
I do appreciate that this may not be very easy to grapple with. Sometimes repetition achieves understanding hence, teachers of children in lower grades will say, “Again!” In the end, the pupils will grasp the concepts.
The topsoil is one that will be removed first. Let us start with what I deduced from their modus operandi. I will call it the Principle of Reversal. I will relate this to the digging of the grave where a baby of tender meat was buried. When this process takes place, we observe some reversal. While the topsoil is the first to be placed
Now, let us turn to the grave opener, the stirring rod. It is assumed we all know how a stirring rod is used during cooking. It is, in essence, a mixer. Stirring up isitshwala/sadza in a cooking pot will get the thick porridge at the bottom and bring it up.
Simultaneously, the sadza that was at the top ends up at the bottom. Is this not what happens to digging the grave as described above? The person who is involved in the process of stirring provides energy. Reversal is easier to understand. Therefore, when we look at an innocent and simple artifact such as a stirring rod, we should see it beyond the mundane, the obvious and the pedestrian. Africans saw beyond the superficial role of a gadget such as a stirring rod.
For it to play these hidden and incomprehensible roles, certain inputs should be made. Certainly, one of them is the supply of energy or spiritual power that we have acknowledged in the past as two sides of the same coin.
Would it surprise us that a mere finger was used to open and close the heavy and colossal door to an Egyptian pyramid? It’s ancient African science that works differently from the science as we know it in the west today.