adminSaul Gwakuba Ndlovu
*Continued from Last Sunday
The reader will notice that the prayer is more laudatory than gratitudinous, that is comprises more praises than thanks, and that most of the words used are of Venda and not of TjiKalanga – TjiNyayi etymological origin.
The literal translation of the praises follows:
He, Mwali is great!
Of the ole whose strength is not for sewing blankets (karosses) but is strong to sew the flat rock,
Your Highness, respectable Mbedzi!
You who climb a tree back-to-front, while ears are firmly holding.
You who holds the spear by its sharp end and hit a person with the handle.
You, the mukwakwa tree that never dries up,
That is eaten by children in summer.
You, Mwali is great,
Guardian of widows and orphans!
Of the Lubimbi,
Of the mupani tree without a hole, That went to the rescue of a
squirrel when it was tired.
The piercer of the boulder
Be greeted your Highness
Be greeted Maseka,
The respected Mbedzi!
Mwali has one breast
That is suckled by all nations!
Mwali is great!
The respected Mbedzi is great
Your Highness!
Be greeted your Highness.
The (core) of Maseka.
My little knobkerrie,
That is thrown afar.
It sees even that which is at Tawana.
The collector from afar,
That comes when children are longing.
Be greeted Your Highness
You whose leg is rain
When you stretch your legs it rains continuously.
The above is literal translation of the prayer, some may prefer to call it praises, of Mwali. We should indicate, however, that there is no version of thanking or of begging Mwali that this author is aware of although intercessors who approached a shrine with particular requests must have presented the matters in appropriate words, quite different from those of the above praises.
There is much talk about Mwali’s voice having gone silent after the arrival of colonial settlers in this country, and there are three explanations about how and why Mwali went quiet at all the shrines.
One explanation is that Mwali advised the people to accept the Bible “and eat what is in it because it has life”.
Mwali referred to the bible as “gwamba”.
This explanation is usually, if not always, given by those who have embraced the Christian religion to the exclusion of traditional mode of worship, and it is taken with a grain of salt by most religious traditionalists who say it is false propaganda.
The second explanation is that Mwali went silent to save His (black) people from being massacred by Rhodes’s colonial forces.
That followed the shooting to death of seven young men of Chief Bango’s area at the Njelele Shrine’s entrance at the height of the Ndebele uprising in 1896.
The white settlers who carried out the massacre were led by a Mr Armstrong, an American (US) national who was at that time the Mangwe Camp-based administrator of the area that is called by that name, Mangwe.
Unauthenticated information says Armstrong used to boast that he was the only survivor of the Major Allan Wilson-led patrol that was to put the spear to a man by the heroic King Lobhengula’s rear-guard commanded by the gallant Mtshana Khumalo, great grandfather of Chief Mtshana Khumalo of the Inyathi sector of the Bubi District in Matabeleland North.
Oral tradition has it that Mwali decided to go into hiding and not communicate audibly with His people for fear that the colonial settlers would demand to be shown the source of the voice or else the bullet or the noose would be ruthlessly put to use against the traditional worshippers.
The third explanation cannot be taken seriously by any serious-minded person as it really reduces Mwali to the level of a craven coward who migrated aboard a thunderous cloud to the eastern region’s Chimanimani highlands, never to be heard of again.
However, in 1950 we know for certain that Joshua Nkomo, Grey Mabhalane Bango, William Sivako Nleya, Knight Thobani Khupe, Jason “Ziyapapa” Moyo, Sikhwili Khohli Moyo were told by Mwali’s voice at the Dula Shrine that the country would be liberated after 30 years.
That came to pass on 18 April 1980 when Zimbabwe was declared an independent state after a bitter protracted armed struggle by Zipra forces of PF-Zapu and, Zanla forces of Zanu-PF. But by the time the country became independent, Mwali’s voice at the Dula Shrine was silent!
It is a matter of much curiosity that Mwali’s shrines are rocky places, like those of Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, and that He communicated with the people vocally, he Himself being invisible, just like the Hebraic Jehovah as experienced by Moses.
In the New Testament (Matthew Ch 21 verse 9, 15 et cetera) we come across the word “Hosanna,” a word that is shouted by Jews and Christians in adoration, but whose origin is the Hebrew word “hosi’a-nna” which means “save now.”
In the Mwali culture, “hosanna” are Mwali’s servants the most important part of whose services is to dance at sacred Mwali ceremonies.
It appears as if it is a matter of more than academic interest for the same word to occur in religions of two racially different people living in regions thousands of kilometres apart.
In addition to those two rather curious facts, Mwali worshippers are monotheistic, so are those of Yahweh, unlike the Greek and the Romans who had many gods, a god for every human passion or activity, even for getting drunk!
A most likely and plausible explanation was that offered by the founder of Dombodema Mission, the Rev. George Cullen Harvey Reed of the London Missionary Society(LMS), now the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa (UCCSA).
Referring to Mbengwa Tjabulula Nleya, a prominent Mwali hosanna, popularly called “Njenjema”, Rev. Reed said: “Njenjema is as much of a prophet as any biblical prophet. The only difference between him and those of the Bible is that his god is called by a different name.”
Rev. Reed had much respect for Njenjema. That was why he intervened on his behalf when Njenjema was detained by the colonial authorities in 1896 on suspicions of being an active supporter of the Ndebele rebellion.
Rev. Reed was misunderstood by his senior officials in London on that issue, and was abandoned more or less to his own fate.
He died in Caprivi Strip in 1917, a committed God’s voice among the Subiya people. Meanwhile, is Mwali the same as Yahweh as Rev. Reed believed, or His junior as some Christians would like us to believe, or is He a completely different god?.
Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu is a retired, Bulawayo-based journalist. He can be contacted on cell 0734 328 136 or through email. [email protected]
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