adminPathisa Nyathi
LAST week’s article seems to have solicited more lively and animated comments than any other that I have penned this far.
My column, ‘‘Cultural Heritage’’, commenced in 1993 as part of measures put in place to commemorate 100 years since the demise of the erstwhile Ndebele State. Every week, for the past 24 years, the Sunday News has carried my articles, making the column ‘‘Cultural Heritage’’, arguably the longest surviving column in any newspaper in Zimbabwe.
The suggestion of establishing an “Academy of Witchcraft” captured many readers’ attention. Believers in the ages old African craft did indeed think the idea was noble and its operationalisation long overdue. The example cited, of a man who suffered sustained penal erection, drove the point home with sympathetic hilariousness. For some, it was the naivety and incredulity of fellow Africans to deny the existence of the phenomenon that tickled them.
There was one interesting comment from one reader in particular. He sought to clarify who the witch was. The transgressor, he said, was the witch. The man who fenced his wife was not a witch, rather the man who violated his wife was. He further pointed out that when witchcraft is researched and its principles isolated and tested, it would be catastrophic to have, for example, the lightning formula being accessed by all and sundry.
There are some people who would be firing ballistic missiles each time they suspected a man smiling at their wife deserved a thousand-volt strike. It is just as well that not everyone has knowledge of crafting lightning and sending it to targeted individuals. Spiritual possession was a form of patenting indigenous African knowledge systems. Some people, without interrogating why there was secrecy in such matters, fail to view such restrictions as a form of patenting, not as a way of protecting one’s investment in research and development of medicinal formulae, but to safeguard abuse with its concomitant threat to human life.
The same man had ideas, or is it knowledge, concerning the mobility of the nocturnal African scientists who cover long distances at night. It is all spiritual, he says. The fellows do not travel in a physical sense. For me it was time to reflect on stories that my father used to tell us. Years ago, when we were still young, he visited a homestead at Enqameni in Gwanda.
While he slumbered he saw an old woman and a young boy moving into the hut where he was sleeping. When the little boy entered, my father welcomed him with a vice grip on his wrist.
“Speak, who you are?” remonstrated my father as he ratcheted the grip around the boy’s wrist.
Feeling some excruciating pain the hapless boy shouted out his name. After a long while my father let go the boy’s hand. No sooner had the boy exited the hut than he heard the little boy being harangued by his grandmother who was anxiously waiting outside.
“You little brat, have I not told you before that when caught you do not reveal your identity: HM, how many times must I tell you?”
In the morning an embarrassed old pair of eyes greeted my father who then knew the young boy was being recruited and was still green behind the ear.
Hardly did I receive comments to the effect that the idea was pagan or primitive or both. Rather, it was regret emanating from delayed action to unravel a science and craft that would make the Africans a force to reckon with. All that we may say is that it is better late than never. Some institute of higher learning somewhere in Africa will heed our call and establish a research institute specifically to unravel the science and craft so as to develop its principles and theories and thus domesticate it for positive use application and technologies.
Before we leave the topic we feel the obligation to point out that science is science and cannot be judged as good or bad. It is man who makes the choice as to whether to use it to destroy life, as happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki or preserve life as happens in medical technology. The witch who was attached to the craft is an indicator of a craft that was put to evil use.
In any case, the IsiNdebele equivalent of witch may be umthakathi. This is a concept that some people do not fully comprehend. Umthakathi as a concept does not carry evil connotations. In our language we can refer to a mechanic as ‘‘umthakathi kamakanika’’, ‘‘umthakathi wenyanga’’, ‘‘umthakathi womlobi’’. The term merely describes one who is liberally endowed with rare ability, proficiency and skill. However, many of us confuse the term umthakathi with umkhunkuli, the witch or wizard who is one who too is well endowed with craft knowledge but is driven by malice or inherited inclination and uses his knowledge to harm other people.
Well, enough concerning the concept that has been abused and battered with disastrous consequences, including its marginalisation when it comes to academic inquiry. Last week at Oxford I presented a paper on food as a cultural expression.
The paper was the culmination of 30 articles that I have penned on the subject.
The one concept that I gave emphasis on is that of domestication, be it domestication of food or something else, ends up entering the cosmological architecture of a community. Where food has been domesticated fully it finds its way into a people’s language. Proverbs are coined which transmit critical values of the community. “Inyama iphekwa ngomhluzi wenye.” This is quite a familiar proverb inspired by food — meat in this case.
In the heyday of the Ndebele State a beast was slaughtered as soon as the last one was about to get finished. Its gravy, umhluzi was use to prepare meat from the next beast to be slaughtered. This is an example of how food traversed a community’s landscape of cosmology till it was used in one or more proverbs. Another one is, “Ingulube izikhanzinga ngamafutha ayo.” A pig fries itself in its own fat. We are here not concerned that much with the meaning of the proverb but that it is a proverb derived from food.
Here are a few more examples: “Kambe udlani ebabayo, ngaphandle kwebilebile azipha lona?” ”Kufe igula lamasi.” “Ukhomba ngophakathi.” In this particular proverb it is implied that the person is holding some big chunk of meat and is thus prevented from pointing with the index finger, but instead is doing so with a middle finger. We need not belabour the point, suffice it to say food-derived proverbs are numerous and point to the effective domestication of food.
When a man was informed that his daughter had reached puberty he exclaimed, “Izinkomo sezilunguzile’’. The man was thinking in terms of cattle that he would soon take delivery of. His daughter had reached marriageable age. Soon she would get married and amalobolo paid in the form of cattle. To him, cattle were literally peering. It was a great promise of impending exchange, daughter for cattle.
Food, we have been emphasising, goes beyond the mundane idea of providing nutrition. It is a cultural construct which becomes an integral part of a people’s worldview. It finds its way into people’s totems, symbolism, metaphor, folktales or folklore in general. At this stage, food is domesticated and becomes part of a people’s culture, identity and traditions.
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