Chronicle Editor
IN the Andean region of Bolivia in South America, there is a people known as the Kallawaya. In days gone by, they used to be hunter-gatherers with an expansive knowledge of their environment-both terrestrial and extra-territorial. There was one Pachamama the Holy Mother of space and time.
Among the Zulu and the Ndebele of Zimbabwe, the two concepts are referred to respectively as umkhathi and isikhathi. The Kallawayans had their lives ordered and arranged according to the natural rhythms and the cycles of the sun and the moon. The Kallawaya used to pay homage to Pachamama the Holy Mother.
Africans, like the Kallawaya, had their lives organised and ordered around the natural rhythms and the cycles of the sun and the moon. That takes us to our ongoing journey to the stars. Today we look at how the two cosmic bodies, namely the sun and the moon, influenced and informed cultural practices among the Ndebele people of Zimbabwe. As an African community, they too came under the influences of both the sun and the moon.
Not so long ago I witnessed the process of ritual beer brewing. There are certain taboos, observances and restrictions that always attend the process of brewing such beer that is intended to propitiate ancestral spirits. Some of the observances and restrictions flow out of the fact that ancestral spirits are recognised as more powerful than their living progeny. They are able to influence the lives of the mortal humans.
The beer brewing process commenced with heating water to boiling point. Malt, imithombo, from germinated white sorghum grain had been ground on a stone to produce some meal. That meal, together with maize meal, was added to very hot water and mixed briskly using a wooden stirring rod, ugwaqo. A thick paste was then covered up and stirred periodically to lower the temperature of the mixture.
At the same time, the three ingredients were mixed in smaller quantities and placed in a clay pot, inqayi. The temperature of this mixture was lower after adding some cold water. The reason behind cooling the mixture was to get it fermenting faster than the other mixture in bigger quantities. The mixture in a small clay pot is referred to as ivenge.
The woman brewer was ready to mix the two when she checked what time of day it was. It was almost 1.00 pm. They describe the time of day as “seligwaze umhlaba.” That is reference to the sun when it is perceived to be piercing the earth. Being a curious someone, I asked for some explanation and plausible interpretation of the phenomenon. There was none proffered. It is enough, they argue, to know that it is taboo.
However, I do know that behind every taboo there is some underlying reason that underpins and informs the taboo. Those who do not know the justification are quick to say there should be no questions asked when it comes to the bases for taboos. It is assumed the taboos should be self-explanatory.
In such situations, I try to offer some credible explanation and interpretation. I start with unpacking the resident symbology. Recourse to language sometimes comes to my rescue. Often, ukugwaza is a Ndebele word used in reference to the act of piercing using a sharp pointed object, usually a spear. Then I turned to the title of Albert Nyathi’s book, a sequel to “My Daughter,” where the male sex organ is figuratively referred to as a spear.
That takes me to sexual activity. I am aware of instances where before some rituals are performed sexual abstinence is encouraged and, where feasible, insisted upon. It is all about maintenance of spiritual cleanliness and purity that are perceived as conditions that are a sine qua non for the facilitation of a successful conduct of a ritual.
There are many instances when such status is a prerequisite for the fruitful performance of a ritual, for example, when ritual beer is destined for delivery to the Njelele Shrine or any traditional shrine for that matter. It was out of such a consideration that amawosana went to stay at the shrine for the duration of the beer-brewing period.
It was a measure that sought to eliminate the chances of engaging in sexual activity that was going to mar the purity of the ritual beer. Men going on a rain-inducing hunt were asked to stay clear of their wives for some nights prior to the hunt. It was, once again, a matter of achieving a state of spiritual purity. Sex spiritually defiles and negates efficacy intended to be achieved by a ritual being conducted. Within the African context, rituals are imbued with some spiritual aura, some vital energy around them. The Kallawaya call this energy ayayu and an individual may lose. It is the duty of the doctors to restore the lost ayayu.
How does the issue of sexuality manifest itself in the process of beer brewing for the Ndebele people that compels the women brewers to abandon the process when the clock strikes 1.00 o’clock, seligwaze umhlaba? As below, so above. This is an adage that I coined as a counterpart to the more familiar version, “as above, so below.” What people make of their surrounding and its phenomena, they thrust on to the heavens where similar interpretations are proffered. The terrestrial phenomena are named by the earthly humans and understood from their viewpoint.
Sexual differentiation as seen on earth is thrust onto cosmic bodies. In so doing, the sun is assigned a male status while the earth is allocated some feminine status. The earth is regarded in African terms as Mother Earth (female). When the sun, Father Sun (male), comes directly above Mother Earth, what does one with some rich and wild imagination see?
Cosmic bodies, given their statuses in relation to humans deserve respect from the fallible and mortal humans. When they engage in their amorous encounters, humans should back off. That is when the sun is piercing the earth, which is a depiction in figurative terms of some not so decorous act engaged in by powerful and spiritual bodies that bring the heaven and earth together.
Ritual beer brewing once commenced ought to be completed within the same lunar month. This is to say it must be presented to the intended recipients within the same lunar month. Once again, this demonstrates how cosmic bodies impinge upon cultural activities among humans on earth. This is particularly so where a ritual is of a spiritual dimension.
Once again, the explanation for the practice is never proffered, leaving the curious ones to have some field day. Some of us abhor the existence of vacuums when it comes to explanations and interpretations of cultural phenomena. We throw caution to the wind and tread where angels fear to do the same.
The moon is a marker of time, where the latter is broken down into smaller and manageable units. Each moon has its own characteristics and different ways through which it impacts upon events and activities on earth. It is as if each moon seen on the western sky is not the same old moon seen the previous lunar month. Indeed, beer brewers and the spiritual doctors are aware of this belief handed down the generations as a myth.
Indeed, there are communities that posit the existence of some pit where moons are gathered and when one dies, the next emerges, initially as a crescent that grows through waxing until it is a full moon. It begins waning until it dies. The ancestral spirits would not want to be caught in the storm of negative traits of a new moon. It could herald some misfortune that is best avoided. Avoidance is through ensuring the entire ritual from its commencement to its conclusion takes place within the same lunar month.
The woman brewer that I observed brewing told me how; when they walked to the Njelele Rain Shrine, they stopped and sat down when the sun pierced the earth. Attending to the spiritual needs of a community at the Njelele Fertility Shrine demanded respect and spiritual purity on the part of the supplicants. The time of 1.00 o’clock incapacitated the pilgrims bound for the shrine. Respect once again, I believe so.
Such trips to the sacred shrines, regardless of which ones they were, during a black moon, elimnyama. This is reference to the day when the moon is not visible in the sky, when it is figuratively dead. All the cited examples go to demonstrate how cultural activities on earth were influenced by the cycles of the sun and the moon.
It was true of the Andean Kallawaya as it was true among the African peoples as exemplified by the Ndebele people who share a common worldview, thought, philosophy, beliefs, values and perceptions with other African communities on Planet Earth.
Online Reporter