Chronicle Editor
Cultural Heritage with Pathisa Nyathi
BEFORE commencing the current series of articles, I had some fear regarding where I was going to get the requisite information. I realised that the requisite information regarding the subject was spoken about in hushed tones. This was so because part of the broad field encompassed the much-maligned field of witchcraft. Would there be interviewees knowledgeable enough and willing to share such information?
The field of witchcraft, a sub-sector of Ancient African Science (AAS), belongs under the carpet. It is spoken about in muted tones. People are scared of it though their understanding of it is limited. The dark hours of day are preferred. Purveyors go about their business in the nude. It is all clandestine and shrouded in the most mysterious of mysteries. All the same, that does not take away the fact that it is a science and a craft.
Trepidation engulfed my mind. How was I to get the requisite information to sustain a series of articles in a field that is characterised by a veil of secrecy? Besides, the field enjoys layers of insulation from the colonial days through the Suppression of Witchcraft Act. Poor colonists, the phenomenon is very complex and as strangers to African Spirituality, they were ill equipped intellectually to unravel and unpack so complex a science. If anything, they protected witchcraft unwittingly.
Lo and behold, information is coming fast and thick. It is just about who you are and your status in the spirit field. In just over a few weeks the data that I have accumulated is unbelievable. Bagfuls of gold! How right I was that this is a field replete with complicated scientific and manipulative processes. Cloning, genetics, optical illusion, symbolism, rules, principles and laws all come together to present a field that is most complex to understand, let alone practice it in the absence of guiding spiritual beings with knowledge and skills from ancient times.
Before I present information that I have gathered to date, I still have to demarcate and meticulously define the field that I have ventured to unpack. Though complex and vexatious, we have to perform the task at hand as it is our heritage that may be sought after in future in a world that is increasingly seeking alternative forms of energy to power modern technology, commerce and industry.
As I will indicate in future articles, optical illusion is an important component of this science and craft. A story is told that one Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt to the promised land of Canaan. Moses had some staff with which he struck the ground and his staff turned into a snake. It is difficult to fully appreciate what exactly was happening, from a dead piece of wood to a seething and wriggling snake. However, when you read and research deeper into Ancient African Science, you understand that it was not an isolated incident nor one that was out of place and time.
Similar incidents used to happen back then. It so happens that in Africa such seemingly weird, strange and bizarre incidents are still in vogue and are associated with demonism, paganism, and Satanism that are perpetrated by communities associated with low levels of civilisation. In science, we refer to such occurrences as optical illusions. These events are still prevalent in Africa where AAS is very much alive. The day shall come when the world will seek to understand this hidden African knowledge, at a time when Africa is seeking to dissociate herself from her ancient heritage with a promise for the future.
Not so long ago I received a story emanating from Chireya in Gokwe. Several curious onlookers swamped a man with their smart phones clicking furiously. The man was walking ahead of a woman who had delivered a soft spell on the man. The woman of science and craft was seen delivering the man to a police station. The source of curiosity was the swarm of bees around the culprit’s wrists that were lifted high.
We shall furnish several applications of optical illusions that are made use of in different circumstances. Optical illusions are better understood in science where a rod immersed at an angle in water appears bent. In reality, the rod is still straight. The bending that we see is a play on our eyes. It is an optical illusion in nature. AAS has the capacity to play on these seemingly convincing optical illusions.
You see a snake. You see things that are no more than mere optical illusions. These have a social role to play. They induce social compliance and effect social justice where there has been injustice. As I have said before, Africa did not operate a prison system as we know and understand it from the western world. Africa applied social and spiritual strategies and measures to ensure community members kept within the small and straight paths. These will be discussed later.
The phenomenon seems to work on the ideas of presence and absence. Let us give an example. There have been reported cases of men who seek the services of commercial sex workers. After the services have been duly rendered, the men relent on payment. As a result, the defaulting men have found their machine guns missing. Totally absent! This is an example of an optical illusion. A man’s organ seems to be missing and the man gets worried, makes amends and pays up to regain his lost manhood.
So, it was with the staff that Moses used. If we take the matter literally and outside of the scope of AAS, we may not appreciate the phenomenon. It was all about an optical illusion calculated to achieve a specific purpose. The people that Moses led needed to be convinced with his leadership The Israelites were prepared to be led through a desert and across waters of the Red Sea. The optical illusion that he performed was one such confidence-inspiring act. There are several of such in the world of African spirituality.
The choice of Moses as an example is part of efforts to show that AAS applied in the Biblical world. Spirit was at work in that world as it still is in Africa. When we render AAS, we include the events and acts that we read about in the Bible. In addition to that world, we also embrace the African world.
The African world, just like the Biblical world posited two aspects in terms of dichotomies. There were negative and positive elements. Cold and hot are such an example. Day and night also, point to the same phenomenon. Good and bad are thus seen in the same light as far as purposes are concerned. The two are opposites and the world seems arranged and organized in terms of these opposites and contradictions. This is the Law of Opposites and is what keeps the world and its systems intact
Friction opposes, negates or slows down movement and yet makes it possible. Just imagine there was no friction at all. How feasible would it be to move? Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion shed some light on these matters. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. As we shall see, these physical laws are applied in AAS. It is not about belief or faith. It is recognisable cosmic laws at work. Sadly, everything African is despised usually on racial grounds. Even their knowledge is termed indigenous knowledge systems (IKS). Just alternative knowledge, but not the core.
In the case of the African world, these opposites are represented by witchcraft by witchcraft that is negative and seeks to achieve negative goals. On the other hand, the positive side is traditional healing. Of course, the term is an inadequate description. There is more than healing that goes on in that field. Some spiritists do not do any healing at all.
In the field of AAS, the positive and the negative are operative. The law of Opposites is applicable. This is not true in Africa alone. The Law of Opposites is universal. We cannot overemphasise this point as we seek to show that what we term witchcraft and traditional healing both tap into the same science and craft. Even early in the research on this field it is becoming very clear that there is no way witchcraft may be dealt with definitively outside of the broader field of AAS.
Similarly, there is no way one can definitively unpack and appreciate African healers’ work outside of what the witches do. Both tap into the same science and craft. In fact, there is a term, inyangamthakathi that seems to point to this phenomenon. A traditional doctor will simultaneously also practice witchcraft.
I have to acknowledge that a few years ago I almost made a mistake of seeking to write about witchcraft. It was going to be a false start as the underpinning science is the same in terms of applicable laws, rules, and principles. The difference is in intentions and what drives the person or the spirit in the person.
We are in the habit of failing to differentiate between the host/medium and the spirit in the host. The essential bewitching component is the spirit in the person. A spirit is the one equipped with knowledge and skills to effect the desired ends and outcomes. However, that spirit, just like energy demands that there be a material/physical medium.
When a witch is brought down by overflying a protected or fortified (dewitched) zone, what observers see is the material component, the human being and not the spirit that is invisible just like energy. The two sides complement each other. Without a physical body, spirit will not function. Equally, a body minus the spirit cannot engage in witchcraft or healing. There is complementarity in the opposites. Later we shall be dealing with the mundane and mechanical issues. These will be meaningful when the broader philosophical issues have been laid bare. The nature and scope of AAS demand unpacking so that theory informs practice.
Bongani Ndlovu