Chronicle Editor
IT is important that at the very outset we spell out the scope and parameters of the field of study that we are embarking upon. There are people who may see it more as some maligned field associated with paganism and the supernatural world.
The fact that it is a field that is hardly in the public domain, its secretive nature has not helped it either. Further, an Act of Parliament still exists in Zimbabwe’s statute books from long ago when colonialists sought to fight what they perceived as ancient African science but choosing to refer to it as witchcraft.
Surely as an African myself who has, for decades, been delving into African spiritual phenomena, I ought to present a more informed and objective rendition, not of witchcraft but what I have termed Ancient African Science (AAS). For quite a while I had already seen that I was dealing with a science and a craft not some mysterious, demonic and pagan African practice.
I knew that African cultural practices are informed and underpinned by African thought, world view and cosmology. We may also use the terms beliefs and philosophy.
The articles that follow will not deal exclusively with so-called witchcraft. Instead, they will deal with a broader and deeper field of least understood and maligned science and craft. We are going to deal with African spirituality, a field that centres spirit both in definition and operation.
Without spirit, without energy and without appropriate techniques, the field would not exist. Looking back now, I appreciate that even back then I had a more informed and more objective understanding of the term ancient African science.
I almost made a false start when I thought I was going to unpack witchcraft, to the total exclusion of the much broader and elaborate science and craft that embrace other fields that belong together with witchcraft. I was of a mistaken view that witchcraft, in isolation, could be tackled without relevant principles and laws that govern its theory and practice. Sooner, I would have learnt that we practice, as we believe. To seek better understanding of a shadow is to seek an illusion, disillusion and misconception.
However, I was not too far off the mark as I maintained that some rudimentary understanding of, in particular, Physics was a sine qua non for dealing more definitively with the field. The one challenge that we have to acknowledge at the very outset is language. The phenomenon that we are dealing with was, once upon a time universal. It probably still is.
When, as a Ndebele-speaking person, with a strong Ndebele cultural and philosophical background, I have to deal with related or similar issues across linguistic boundaries, conceptualizations becomes problematic. Its manifestations are contextual. For example, there is attire that is part of numerous fields that are encompassed by the field of ancient African science.
Thus before going any further, it is imperative to demonstrate the challenges that I am alluding to. I came across several ideas relating to the concept and practice of witchcraft. The subject is an ancient magical art of manipulating magical energy. In the field of witchcraft, it is of utmost importance to be able to harness energy, and derive power and force to achieve intended results.
In fact, in all spells and rituals there is dependence on the capability of a witch to harness this sacred energy. By learning to manipulate energy and employ powerful techniques to direct them to your will, can create changes in the fabric of the universe and make your ultimate will manifest upon all the realms, visible and invisible. This is what Tania Jensen writes in several books she has penned on witchcraft.
I cannot agree more with her when she asserts the centrality of spirit in witchcraft. Indeed, in the centre of the field is spirit. This is easy for Africans who posit Duality of Being. This is some theoretical grounding that asserts the existence of two components in a human being. There is the material and physical component that is ephemeral and transient. Then there is the spirit that is characterised by continuity, perpetuity, eternity and unendingness. This eternal component is involved in the harnessing and manipulation of energy. Like energy, it is eternal and indestructible.
However, once energy has been harnessed, it has, through numerous and diverse techniques, to be utilized and intended. It must be put into use. There is no use for it to be harnessed and then have the process end there. It has to be put to use. A spell must be cast on and targeted on an individual as per the whims of the evil spirit. The techniques have to be guided and revealed to the medium or host; the one possessed by a witching spirit.
Actually, it is a misnomer to say someone is a witch or wizard. The person that we know and live with is no more than a medium or host. It is that which possesses or inhabits her/his body that possesses manipulative knowledge and techniques to direct and target identified individuals.
Perhaps let me turn to the Ndebele language and indicate how witchcraft is understood. The term used is not appropriate. The Ndebele use the term umthakathi when they mean something else. Umthakathi is used in the Ndebele language more generically. The noun is derived from a verb, thaka, meaning adding together, mixing reagents, combining herbal formulations, identical repetitive chants, and invoking the master crafter, the spirit in a host or medium.
So used, the term embraces or encompasses both witches/wizards and traditional doctors/healers. Both terms are inappropriately used. A traditional doctor or healer works with spirit. It is central to her /his operations. This is where there is the crux in the definition and practice. A Western-trained medical practitioner does not work with spirit. He/she was trained and there was nothing inherited from her/his ancestors. A traditional doctor is an umthakathi. A witch too is umthakathi and by that is meant one who is a cut above the rest in terms of whatever she/he does.
A writer may be described as an umthakathi. Equally, a motor mechanic may be described as an umthakathi. It is a term that acknowledges giftedness beyond the average. This is more relevant where there is mixing-ukuthaka as done by wizards and traditional healers. Therefore, the Ndebele people use the term umthakathi when they are specifically referring to umkhunkuli.
Therefore, what are the fields where ancient African Science applied? Traditional healing has been intimated and so has witchcraft. What is that is seemingly being left out.
Bongani Ndlovu