adminPhathisa Nyathi
“AS above, so below,” is a term that we have used to explain a lot of African cultural and cosmological phenomena. It is an adage that may be used to explain African art and its expressions and manifestations. It equally explains and interprets African architecture. Essentially, the term interprets and gives emphasis to the fact that Africans always sought to reproduce or replicate the heavens on earth.
The heavens or the cosmos was a source of inspiration for creative endeavours. Beauty and aesthetics were viewed against the backdrop of the heavens. A close scrutiny of the heavens reveals the circular design which dominated the African cultural sphere. The circular design was interpreted as expressing critical cosmological meanings, notably expressions of eternity, continuity, endlessness, immortality and perpetuity.
In geometrical terms, the design translated into the circular form or design and its numerous manifestations including the chevron, chessboard, herringbone and dentelle which all lend emphasis to an ordered and patterned cosmos sometimes as expressed through Islam. The order is then reflected on surfaces of material objects as embellishments to allow beauty to express critical messages effortlessly. The said objects include items made out of wood, clay, ivory, gourd, bone and horn, inter alia.
However, we ought to observe that replication of heavenly phenomena was not restricted in one direction, heaven on earth. Equally, African ideas and beliefs were infused in the heavens. This becomes apparent when heavenly bodies were named. Stars, to be more precise, were seen through African cultural spectacles. “As below, so above,” could be said to apply. We shall demonstrate this idea with reference to naming of one star, icelankobe.
At the level of naming the stars there are comparisons among different ethnic groups. This is particularly so among the Ndebele and the BaKalanga of Zimbabwe. The star that is referred to as icelankobe appears in the evening sky as soon as it gets dark enough. The star dominates the western sky in the evening. Inkobe is a word that refers to a certain food dish. The word icelankobe literally means to beg for inkobe. People are normally at work during the day. In the late afternoon they return home and womenfolk start preparing the evening meal which may be inkobe prepared from maize or sorghum grain, peanuts, roundnuts or a mixture of some of these.
Such a dish is then consumed in the evening under the full glare of icelankobe whose brightness dwarfs that of other visible stars at that time of night. When Africans are partaking of the sumptuous dish the star grows green with envy and begs for the same dish to also partake as humans are doing. The star goes to cela, that is to beg, hence its name, icelankobe, the star that begs for inkobe. Inkobe and its preparation belongs to the cultural front and is then transferred and applied to the cosmic level.
Naming of stars points to the same historical origins of Africans. There is some shared culture and cosmology. Among the BaKalanga icelankobe is known as galilangoti. The underlying meaning behind the name is the same. I remember very well as naughty children singing, “Wozogalila, wozogalila, wozogalila, galila, wozogalila.” We uttered the words when we saw some old person enter our homestead. We took it that the visitor was coming for food at our home.
In our home area the Ndebele we spoke embraced several Kalanga words inherited from our grandmothers who, in the main, spoke TjiJawunda dialect of TjiKalanga. We were thus taunting the visitor who we thought was coming to galila food at our place. The second part of the word ngoti is plural for the word lugoti, meaning uphini, the stirring rod used by womenfolk when preparing hadza, isitshwala.
Once again, the same star is named in TjiKalanga for similar reasons. It is asking for food which families are preparing or consuming as evening meal. This serves as a pointer to common cosmological application born of common historical origins translating to comparable naming traditions. African communities named the heavens. They applied common cultural traditions gleaned from lived experiences to name the cosmos, an important component of their world.
The heavens are named and the given names are derived from a people’s culture. Food is one such field that has been used to name cosmic bodies thus fulfilling the adage, “As below, so above.” By studying the names of heavenly bodies we get to know a lot about the community that named those cosmic bodies. A people’s culture is expressed on more fronts than one. While it will reside in their art, architecture and other creative genres, it is equally expressed at the level of the cosmos. Thus to glean the heavens, in particular their cultural dimensions, we fathom a community’s culture and the level to which its culture was replicated in the cosmos.
We have in the past lamented the loss of knowledge relating to Astronomy by Africans. Now it will be appreciated that the loss is much more than meets the eye. It, in practical terms, relates to loss of cultural knowledge and related common cultural traits gleaned over centuries. The heavens are a chalkboard where communities execute their cultural imprints. The heavens are thus an important teaching aid that plays an important role in the very vital intergenerational transmission of knowledge in order to avoid having to reinvent the wheel at each generational level.
Galilangoti, icelankobe are names that are rooted in the infusion of cultural perceptions, ideas and beliefs on celestial bodies. They are names that transcend seeming cultural barriers to point at the commonalities shared by black Africans and, in particular, the Bantu of central and southern Africa.
Online Reporter