Myths concerning the sun

Cultural Heritage with Phathisa Nyathi

ELDERS are no longer narrating fireside stories in most rural areas. In the days gone by, fireside stories were taken seriously, as they transmitted knowledge from the past to future generations. The curriculum was broad and the timing appropriate.

The young looked forward to story-telling sessions around the fireside. It was a form of entertainment after the villagers had had their supper.

Fires were lit in kitchen huts, imikulu, where cooking was undertaken by women and mature girls.

However, there are some communities, notably the Sotho and Babirwa of Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe whose architectural designs provided for short-walled forecourts.

A forecourt, lapa, was provided with a fireplace. During ideal times, food was prepared and consumed within this site of the homestead. The young, to whom the future belongs, always looked forward to these captivating and engrossing stories that had been handed down from time immemorial.

The relevance of these lay with the fact that cultural astronomy was taught to the young who constituted the necessary bridge between the past and the future.

Elderly women bore this onerous task responsibility of transmitting knowledge from the past to future generations. Story telling served as a medium for effortless transmission of knowledge and information from the past.

Story telling is an art form. It provides effortless learning. Knowledge came buoyed on the arts platform.
Children enjoyed immensely when elderly women dished out story after story.

There was much more than mere entertainment. It was a methodology applied in the transmission of knowledge, traditions, history and ethics within a given community. The children were being socialized into the communities where they will be assimilated into the adult world.

The dark night ensured no one ventured out. Fear of amazimu was cultivated and driven into the minds of the young. That, plus the captivating nature of storytelling, made sure the young remained glued to the fireside.

Further, storytelling added other elements in the various arts genres.
Grandmothers added requisite music in their stimulating presentations. There were narratives that were interspaced with elated singing. These mothers or grandmothers knew about the children’s limited span of attention.

Music killed monotony. Another strategy was to engage the young in the chanting of acknowledging or responding to the narrator. The regular chants ensured that the children were kept awake. The responses were repetitive. For example, among the BaKalanga there was the refrain of “Kolobeja,” while among the Shona it was “Dzepfunde.”

I remember well the time when the Czech Embassy in Harare requested me to document Ndebele folktales that were on the verge of becoming extinct. Indeed, I obliged and came up with two volumes.
Parents these days hardly have the time to get together with their children in order to narrate stories to them. In the urban centres, the situation is even worse.

Many parents are working and come back tired to engage their children. In some cases, the young parents no longer have stories to tell their children.
Narrators of storied had a bagful of strategies that they employed to capture the attention of the young audience. One such was to vary pitch. That ploy killed dreary and monotonous presentation. The young were expected to respond as the narrator went along.

Such a consideration was what prompted Engineer Alvord Mabena to approach me with a view to writing his own stories and those of his ancestors. He did say he hardly had time to narrate stories, as was the case during their own youthful days. Indeed, the result was the publication of a book titled, “Alvord Mabena: The Man and His Roots (2000)” At the time, he was the General Manager of the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ).”

In my case, the fervent storyteller was my own father. Some stories concerning his exploits when tikoloshes and wizards tried to enter the hut where he was staying. Sometimes, it was the hilarious stories about the goblins, ondofa challenging his maternal uncle to come for a fight. Then he would churn out story after story. The rural folk had to be innovative and creative at a time when their traditions, including storytelling.

Beyond the lapping crimson red flames lurked man-eaters, amazimu were eager to sample the fresh blood of the young. They never dare to venture far into the darkness. Beyond the fire, there was a thick veil of darkness. We were told beyond the light of the fire-lurked man-eaters, amazimu. For me, these fireside stories have remained an important source of stories that I tell through writing.

The essence of the stories was to ensure the young remained within the narrow and straight path. Certain social, political and economic values were taught and inculcated in the impressionable minds of the young. Social justice was emphasized. The hare was one notable villain who sought to cheat and manipulate other animals.

Besides, having characters of human beings and animals brought a welcome variety unfamiliar to the children. The evil were punished. The interaction was fascinating and proved effective as a strategy to lure the children who inadvertently acquired more knowledge from the past. Traditional values were recreated to ensure their continued life to future generations.

Communities recreate themselves.
Folktales were never narrated during the agricultural season. The young were told that they were going to develop horns if these stories were told at the wrong time and the wrong season. However, the reason was that parents were involved in agricultural activities. Summer months were thus avoided when it came to storytelling. Besides, these days the young have left their parental homes to join the Diaspora. Young parents take their children with them to the cities and towns. The grannies have no nieces and nephews to tell stories to.

Light from a fire does not dim stellar bodies. At night, the rural folk still gaze movements of the sun and the moon and, of course, other cosmic bodies. Astronomers these days speak of another moon circling both the earth and the sun. In the next article, we shall deal with the moon which is a companion of the earth.

It was for that reason that when I got to my rural home, I was reminiscing with the stars that we had been taught about. I could see the Milky Way, Umthala and i particular the dogs and pigs with the former chasing the latter I observe now that we were not given requisite myths relating to known origins of the more luminous stars and planets.

In several African communities there are myths relating to the sun. There are times when it rains and the sun is shining. In the Ndebele language, the idea is expressed as, “Lina libalele.” That was an unusual condition. In normal circumstances, rain clouds block sunlight when it rains. Such occurrences happened in the month of March especially when drizzly rain was common and was thought to ripen crops in the fields.

Back then, crops were harvested late in winter so that grains got a chance to be hardened. Weevils and other insects found it difficult to destroy such grain. In Nigeria there are people who believe that when it rains and sun is shining, the phenomenon signifies some lioness that is giving birth.

The same atmospheric conditions are explained, understood and interpreted differently. A case in point is one cited above where rain falls and meanwhile the sun is shining. Droplets of rain act as glass prisms. White light is split into its constituent parts. With one’s back towards the sun, it is possible to see a beautiful rainbow, umchilo wamakhosikazi. There are two rainbows-the larger and the smaller one.

I remember sour science teacher a Mr David Cotton who provided us with some memory cue pertaining to the order of the colours. Richard (R for red) Of (O for orange) Yorkshire (Y for yellow) Gained (G for green) Battles (B for blue) In (I for indigo) Vain (V for violet). Of course, he chose words and names from his own world. He was English and taught us Science at Mazowe Secondary School. The multicoloured rainbow took the shape of a bow that the San communities used during their hunting sessions.

There are communities that link this atmospheric phenomenon with the devil. It is said either the devil is getting married or he is beating up his wife. Some communities will find this rather farfetched. That should not be the case. Every community’s version should be respected. No myth can be said to be superior to others.

What we learn from myths is that all communities have designed myths in line with their historical traditions, their lived experiences, their worldview, and their cosmology. These are reflections and expressions of ethnic and societal diversity.

In Hawaii, the same phenomenon is explained and interpreted in terms of the existence of holes in the heavens. The light rain drizzle has earned the name, “orphans’ tears.” However, among some communities, good luck was thought to be following in the wake of the light rains falling in the presence of sunlight.

Of course, some myths serve the purpose of allowing residents of a particular geographical area who comprise a community, to live at peace when phenomena are explained and interpreted. In the end, these become meaningful. Equally important is the fact that newly acquired knowledge sits well with existing corpus of knowledge.

An unnamed world is an unknown world. Humans go out of their way to offer explanations to what they see above in the heavens and what surrounds them, and even what is within their bodies.