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Phathisa Nyathi
FOR every object and creature to have a name must have been in recognition of the importance of names and the role they play in societies and communities. Indeed, names sometimes succinctly capture the behaviour or characteristics of an object or creature. In many instances people have birth names, meaning they have names that they were given at birth. At the time their behaviour is not explicit.
However, with time individuals begin to exhibit behaviour which leads to their being named accordingly.
Such behaviour-derived names become individuals’ identity tags as they describe a person’s behaviour.
Sometimes names point out or reveal one’s mannerisms, idiosyncrasies, the manner of their gesticulation, the speed at which they speak and sometimes the way they are economical with the truth.
Somangase is one such person who is a stranger to the truth. Malandisa is a chatterbox.
For the purposes of this article we shall confine ourselves to cosmic bodies as they too have not been spared when it comes to allocation of appropriate names. Names point to some behaviour or role played by a particular cosmic body, be it a star, planet or moon. What we however, ought to acknowledge and appreciate is that Africans have, as they embrace modernity, retrogressed in their knowledge of Astronomy. Without doubt heavenly bodies were named in accordance with their behaviour.
The difference between stars and planets may now be blurred. A shining planet in the eastern morning sky may be taken for a star when it is a planet that reflects light from the sun. Be that as it may, heavenly bodies are important markers of time.
As all of them are in constant motion, their movements create units of time and sometimes their movements define times of work and times of sleep. The centrality of the sun is clear and is captured in its name, ilanga. Ilanga has been used in powerful imagery and metaphor. Among the Nguni a King is symbolised as a sun.
Ilanga, the King gives social warmth and unites a people. The solar system has the sun as its centre around which planets revolve. It has some magnetic attraction which keeps the planets in orbit without going off at a tangent. In order to maintain balance and equilibrium, it will either repel or attract a planet orbiting around it. It is this cosmic reality that is symbolised at the cultural level. “As above, so below.”
A King and his subjects have a similar or comparable relationship. A King, like the sun, maintains social cohesion and his subjects recognise his useful centrality. His subjects will say, “Bayotha,” meaning they warm themselves, or bask in the warmth of the sun. A chief would say, “Ngisayakotha koMkhulu.” In figurative terms he is visiting the monarch to express loyalty.
However, in literal terms, he is going to warm himself by the royal fire. Fire gives out heat which warms our bodies. In the absence of heat we feel cold. Similarly, when a King has died, the nation is said to have been left in the cold. In fact, the common expression is, “Ilanga selitshonile.” “The sun has set,” some euphemism used to say the King has died.
The name ilanga thus expresses, in cultural terms, what it does in cosmic terms. The name is thus appropriate in terms of its role in nature, a role or behaviour that has been expressed in a cultural or social context. The sun gives light in addition to heat needed for warmth. Here ilanga becomes a marker of an important unit of time, a day in English and ilanga in IsiNdebele.
“Ulamalanga amangaki ehambile?” How many days has he been away? When the sun rises in the east, we observe its advance with the emergence of light — insaba zelanga. Darkness, which in essence is absence of light with no independent existence of its own, disappears ahead of the advancing sun. It is the light that has independent reality and existence. In its absence there is darkness.
Emergence of light, at dawn and its disappearance at dusk, defines the day, a very important marker of time and determiner of human activities. Day-night is an important rhythm which controls human activities. In simple societies where there is no electric light, most activities are confined to the day. For example, there is hardly any agricultural activity which goes on in the absence of the sun, in the absence of its light which makes us see.
Ilanga as the name of the central star in the solar system denotes both light and heat. However, the two must be given in moderation. Too much light will destroy our eyes and lead to blindness. Similarly, too much heat is equally injurious to our bodies. We need it in moderation. As the symbol of the sun, a King needs to moderate his rule lest he becomes a scorching dictator or blinding authoritarian. An effective leader is one who guides and dispenses authority in moderation.
We have said the sun, ilanga is a marker of time, or reader and determiner or teller of time. However, some people will reckon time on the basis of absence of the sun. Here they will refer to usuku which denotes a unit of time when the sun and its light are absent. Usuku is derived from darkness, ubusuku.
Izinsuku is the plural. It is thus a measure of absence, a measure by default.
The sun is not the only measure of time. It however, marks the smallest practical unit of time. Anything in between is imprecise and very vague. Usually a hand is used to indicate the position of the sun in the sky. “Ngizakuza ilanga selilapha.” I will come when the sun is there. The person will be indicating by means of a finger or fingers. Ilanga, day, on the other hand is precise as light is a reliable guide and indicator.
Several days, amalanga constitute inyanga the Ndebele name for the moon. Arguably inyanga used to play a bigger role in the lives of African people beyond its being a marker of time. It was appropriately named on the basis of its behaviour in the sky and came to influence cultural behaviour in several ways.
The name inyanga has to be appreciated by observing where it is applied beyond the moon we see in the dark sky at night.
Inyanga is a herbalist, one that has knowledge of medicinal formulations. Possession of that knowledge may be spiritually inherited or may be learnt in the same fashion as do western medical doctors, going to a formal medical school. What matters though is that a herbalist heals the sick. There are many commonalities between the two izinyanga. The one commonality is with regard to healing. A herbalist heals as already pointed out. The same goes for inyanga the moon.
When a new moon emerges on the western sky, it was accompanied by a chant, “Kholiwe hamba lomkhuhlane!” I am not sure what Kholiwe refers to or means. However, the essence of the chant lies in requesting the moon, inyanga to take away disease, umkhuhlane. By so doing, the moon takes away illness. It has some healing potency which it shares in common with a human herbalist.
The chant “Kholiwe hamba lomkhuhlane,” is more emphatic and extended among the BaKalanga. When the new moon appears on the western sky, the long chant starts as follows “Howa mwedzi wagala, Wagala panahhuntuntule . . .” The chant essentially refers to the receding darkness when the moon appears.
The moon casts light on the ground hornbill which is symbolic of darkness as the bird is pitch black in colour. The night is dark and is the lair for witches who cause illness or diseases. Thus both the Ndebele and Kalanga chants point to the same meaning. The moon, like a herbalist, has the capacity to remove diseases.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter