adminSOLDIERS within the Ndebele State had their own special diet. It was a diet informed by practical considerations in which they found themselves. Groups targeted for cattle and human raids were far flung, demanding that soldiers travel long distances. Meat on the hoof was ideal for the situation. Cattle were driven by younger men who accompanied elder men. Such cattle, izinkomo zomphako, were slaughtered during the long journeys.
A story is told of Chief Maqhekeni Sithole who was ordered by King Mzilikazi Khumalo to go and pierce the lower ear lobes (ukuklekla) of Tshibi’s (Chivi’s) people. Scared of contracting ingwendela/uzimu the Chief of Igabha came up with a plan that would justify his return home-mission unaccomplished. “I will tell my Lord and commander that I ran out of provisions,” he said. Ngizafika ngithi mina ngiphelelwe ngumphako. Indeed, he and his subordinates made a hasty retreat and reported as such to the king. The king was not amused and accused Igabha regimental commander of ethnic discrimination.
During such trips the usual clay cooking pots were not taken along. They would be an encumbrance to swift movement. Meat was thus not cooked in clay pots as would have been the case in normal circumstances. Instead, meat was roasted. Roasting took a shorter time to prepare meat. Isitshwala, the staple food prepared from sorghum meal, equally took long to prepare. In the circumstances, some food concentrate was used. Food concentrate, ikhotha or ugume, was prepared from salted and roasted sorghum grain. The grain was then ground into a meal.
In order to facilitate carriage, the meal was placed in a double-bellied gourd known as umkabo. The gourd container was then strapped with fibre so that it could be carried around easily. When a soldier got to some source of water, he poured some of the meal into his palm and leaked the meal. That was then followed by drinking of copious amounts of water. Ugume was a type of food concentrate that was filling.
Following a successful raid, more meat on the hoof became available. More were slaughtered to provide food for the returning army. However, it was not always guaranteed that raids would be successful. In such a situation, cattle on the hoof driven from home were resorted to. In order to counter Ndebele military might in the region, Boers in particular provided guns for use against Ndebele raiders. The BaTawana (abakoNdawana) and the BaMhari did repulse Ndebele raiders. Raid on the latter provided Lotshe Hlabangana, chief of Induba, with lessons that guns were superior over spears.
Armed with that knowledge, Commander Hlabangana advised King Lobengula Khumalo to sign the Rudd Concession in order to avert a disastrous confrontation with gun-carrying white colonists. The younger Ndebele soldiers, amajaha, who were spoiling for a fight against whites, were against Chief Lotshe Hlabangana’s advice to the monarch. They prevailed over the king who turned against his advisor and had him put to death. It was a move that King Lobengula Khumalo would remember with regret. “O yek’ uLotshe. Umuntu akafi aveze umunwe,” lamented the beleaguered Ndebele king when the white colonists were baying for his blood.
As pointed out above, soldiers lived in mortal fear of contracting ingwendela/uzimu when they killed some people that they fought against. There was a strong belief that some people applied medicinal formulations that turned against their killers.
Just the mere shedding of such people’s blood was enough to trigger the battery of antiballistic missiles.
When a man died a beast was slaughtered to provide meat for the mourners. The skin from the beast, a male for the man, had its skin used to wrap the body of the deceased (ukumanqalaza). The corpse was placed in a circular grave in a sitting position.
A soldier, so it was believed, perpetrated deeds that would pursue him to his grave and continue to haunt his progeny. It was thus important to prevent such a catastrophe when the soldier died.
The beast that was slaughtered had its meat (ingovu), consumed outside the man’s homestead. I remember some few years ago when my mentor Hudson Halimana Ndlovu gave instructions, both to this writer and his children to ensure no meat, ingovu, was brought into his homestead at Sizeze. The meat that was not consumed was hung from trees to await mourners arriving late to express their condolences. They partook of the meat after roasting it. The meat was never cooked.
It is important that we appreciate the reasoning behind these actions. There was what might be termed entry into the homestead of symbolic actions with catastrophic consequences, usually in the form of death of some of the homestead residents. Perhaps we need to give an example of such worldview. Residents of a village or homestead were not allowed to bring into the homestead or village a burning firebrand. It was believed its entry symbolised and paved way for catastrophic acts or curses to enter the homestead.
Village residents had been ritually prepared in order not to be attacked by fortification batteries arrayed within the home. It was such residents that brought the curse into the home without their being harmed by the homestead defences. It was not so for strangers who would face the wrath of the home defence systems. It was for this reason that all relatives and neighbours were not allowed to take ingovu meat into the homestead.
We could link this phenomenon with taboos and observances relating to those who died violently: these days through traffic accidents, suicidal deaths or dying in battle. Violent death could bring to the family the spirit of death, or inclinations of residents towards meeting with similar deaths. The bodies of those who died under violent circumstances were not taken into their homesteads. This was true of those who fell in battle. Their spirits were not brought back home for the purpose of looking after their progeny. The thinking behind the observance and taboo was the same. The cultural practice and its cosmological basis live to this day.
This goes to show that food was not just about sustenance through its nutritional value. Food is consumed within a broader cultural context, particularly in relation to the cosmological underpinnings. Within the realm of food, we find expressions of worldviews that we come across in other cultural spheres. Worldviews are found reinforced in several cultural spheres.
We have said it time and again that cultural practices rest on the stout pillars of belief and philosophy. In other words, seminal or fundamental culture relates to the worldviews and cosmologies of a people, black people in particular. Cultural behaviours or practices are informed and sustained by this fundamental culture. Destroying the support pillars inevitably leads to the change in a community’s culture. This is how Africa’s cultures were destroyed, continue to be destroyed and will face similar destruction in future.
Bongani Ndlovu