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Desire Ncube —
NOVEMBER is regarded as a sacred month in African traditional religion. Various rituals such as paying lobola, biras, tombstone unveilings, weddings and others are largely prohibited in November.
However, with the coming in of Christianity, a lot has changed as regards observance of November’s traditional sanctity. There are more cases of couples getting married in November while some churches are solemnising weddings during this sacred month.
Traditionalists say November is basically a month in which nothing happens on the cultural front. Many, including some Christians, believe that November weddings attract bad luck, hence people do not risk dabbling with taboos in a month when the spiritual realm is “resting”.
Chief Musarurwa, born Mr Enos Musarurwa, says although spirits will be resting, it did not mean that the spiritual realm ceased to exist in November.
“The month of November or its literal translation of “goat” from Shona is so sacred that all rituals and everything on the socio-cultural front come to a stand-still because the socio-economic aspects of everyone’s existence are believed to be linked to the spirit world.
“Partaking in any form of cultural ceremony such as roora, biras and kurova makuva are regarded as taboo in November,” he says.
He goes on, “It is a lunar month that does not fall entirely in November, but often starts during the last week of October until around November 24.”
Chitungwiza-based traditionalist Sekuru April Chisango concurs with Chief Musarurwa, saying ancestral spirits will be on “leave” during the sacred month.
“The major reason why we might be having problems in the country is that we are overlooking some important issues such as the sacredness of the month of November. We cannot dispute the fact that as Africans our blessing comes through our ancestors and if they give us a direction to follow we ought to do it religiously,” he says.
Zimbabwe National Practitioners Association president Sekuru Friday Chisanyu says Africans have a tendency of abandoning their own beliefs for foreign religions.
“As Africans, we are related to our dead relatives; there is a link between us. However, Western religions are diluting our own faith. We are embracing things that are not ours at the expense of our very own things and resultantly, we end up losing identity.”
He said those who marry in November are likely to have problems in marriage.
“If people decided to marry in November it’s fine but they should be ready to shoulder the consequences; they should know that their marriages have no blessings from the spiritual world. Such marriages do not last while other couples may fail to bear children,” he warns.
Bulawayo-based historian Mr Pathisa Nyathi has said the sacredness of November only applies locally to Shona tradition.
“For the Africans there is a thin line separating the sacred and the profane. Equally, there is a very thin line between the physical/material and the spiritual. Everything material has a spiritual dimension, which to the traditional African has a greater reality. When something goes wrong in the spiritual realm there are repercussions in the material domain,” he notes.
Mr Elijah Madamombe, a Christian says, “Spiritually, there is nothing wrong with marrying in November and may have no consequences, but from a cultural point of view, it is unacceptable.
“I would not accept a bride price for my children in November. It is culturally wrong. We need the ancestors to bless marriages, but if they are inactive during that period, then it means the marriage may never succeed.”
Celebration Church’s Pastor Winnie Kanoyangwa says for Christians, God is omnipresent and neither sleeps nor slumbers just because it is November.
“But because we are people of different backgrounds, we still find other members of our community holding on to their traditional and cultural values to the extent that in most churches there are no weddings in November.
“It is not because the church said so, but it’s the people who do not want to get married in November, as they are still entangled in the African traditions,” said Pr Kanoyangwa.
Online Reporter