Chronicle Editor
I WAS driving due west. The sun was just about to perform its daily ritual of bidding us farewell in pomp and ceremony. Almost without fail, the sun hides beyond the horizon. It never forgets to take its warmth and light to its hideout. You are certainly forgiven when you think the sun is not very far. An aircraft may fly fast and once again see the sun that had set.
The sun is a tantalising crimson red disc. I am reminded of my younger days when I delightfully sampled the setting sun over the waters of the mighty Kasambabezi River in Binga. I would wax lyrical and from my rich store of descriptive words retrieve many that lucidly and vividly recall how I described the sun that set the western landscape alight, not bequeathed with glorious lapping crimson red flames, but a surging glow of the same colour.
Then I revelled on the lit-up western horizon. Soon the sun and the horizon were set for some erotic embrace witnessed by the pitch-dark blanket that covered both-giving them the much-needed secrecy of great lovers. That I enjoyed immensely, back then. The eyes that I used to gaze the setting sum were not the same as these that I use now. The old eyes did see, but did not perceive. Eyes of the flesh.
Now I gaze with the assistance of a different set of eyes. Eyes of the inquisitive mind. These eyes traverse the horizon, capture, and sample the Blue Mountains yonder. They pierce thick objects, Gamma-Rays style. The past, the present and the future, it seems, undergo temporal fusion, simultaneously coming together. The power of perception and vision is manifested through pre-cognition, divination and insight.
Questions sharp and incisive arrive in my mind at the speed of light. The sun is enthralling. It is engrossing, absorbing, captivating, gripping, riveting and indeed, spellbinding. Objects this aesthetic have the power to propel an individual’s mind into the world of ecstasy, delight and immense exhilaration. Eyes that perceive attract several questions. The youthful mind through which I sampled the beauty of the setting sun in Binga, now my mind has mellowed like Scottish whiskey. It has matured and poses numerous questions whose answers push back the horizons knowledge.
I see the ubiquitous presence energy. I see some connection between things material or tangible and things non-material and intangible. I see the unity between the heavens or the cosmos and earth. I no longer see separated worlds. I see a universe where others may be seeing a multi-verse. Through energy transfer, transmission and storage, I see the link that exists for our benefit as citizens on Planet Earth.
Perhaps it is years of interrogating nature that have yielded more knowledge. I ask the sun and get back responses in the form of reflections of answers. Today more questions have emerged. It is the language relating to astronomy.
About twelve hours ago, the sun rose on the eastern horizon. Africa has ideas relating to the rising and setting sun. The same is true of a new moon rising on the western horizon. Several rituals, ceremonies, chants and incantations attend to the journey of the moon in the firmament. We have, in the several articles in this column, furnished our readers with ideas, perceptions and beliefs attending the moon and its journey through the heavens.
Our task now is to unpack ideas regarding the sun. As stated earlier, we promised to investigate ideas pertaining to the Ndebele people of Zimbabwe. This we have started already. The journey is likely to be long. While African communities share quite a lot in common, we shall refer to the language spoken by the Ndebele people to fathom and understand ideas about the sun. After that, we shall seek to furnish ideas and mythologies applicable in other African communities.
What I seek to unpack today relates to what I see as some discrepancy between the rising sun and the setting sun. More importantly, I seek some explanations and interpretations. All this will come from the language, isiNdebele. The assumption is that Ndebele ideas, perceptions and beliefs about the cosmos are archived in their language as a repository of knowledge, ideas and information. At the same time, language has the capacity to transmit the contents of what lies archived in the language to future generations.
Here and there, I shall introduce into emerging scenarios as an individual who is able to fly out of the ideological cocoon of the Ndebele people and proffer my own ideas gleaned from many decades of interrogating the cosmos. I believe I may be possessing abilities to explain and interpret what a language expresses, this despite the fact that at secondary school I did not do isiNdebele. This is a question for another day. This takes me to the question about language. Is it a series of symbolic words arranged in a particular order and the words are vocalised? Could language be something more subtle and comprising a state of mind? Is it possible to ask a question and respond to it without vocalized words and responses? Let us begin with sunrise, ukuphuma kwelanga.
What do I understand by ukuphuma? I understand the presence of two adjoining spaces. An object moves, or it is moved, from one defined space to another. Cattle are returning from outside space, egangeni. They enter a cattle pen through an entrance. That is ukungena. The same cattle will get out of the space where they were penned, using the same or a different entrance. That is ukuphuma. I understand what the sun does in that context. Exit and entrance may refer to the same space that connects two separate spaces. This could be some bit of semantics.
My observation, which is also a Ndebele observation, is that the rising sun is not accompanied by many descriptive words, as is the case with its setting. My inquisitive mind asks why? Perhaps this is not clear to some people. I shall elaborate. If it were a baby emerging out of its mother’s womb, the term used would undergo modification.
Essentially what I am saying here is that descriptive words used in describing the sun are numerous. Terms used with reference to morning are very few. There is empondozankomo. This is certainly, before the sun has risen, kalikaphumi. The con-cordial agreement “li-” sheds light that what is being referred to is the sun or some object in the same noun class, hence kalikaphumi. Kakaphumi may refer to a baby who has not yet emerged out of its mother’s womb.
For our purposes, what we really wish to appreciate is that there are few descriptive words that accompany sunrise. Words that are used in relation to the sun, beautiful as it might be, are comparatively fewer. Emathathakusa describes the time of morning before the emergence of the sun. It refers to dawn. When we consider sunset a different scenario emerges. Why? Numerous words of a descriptive nature attend the sun before it sets. Selibantu bahle. Selimathunzi. Selithambeme. Selingomtsha wendoda. Selikhotheme.
Selitshonile indicates that the sun has set. It is now below the horizon. It is the opposite of seliphumile. Let us start with the rising sun to see if we can discern differences in perceptions and symbolic applications. We shall refer to a line in King Mzilikazi’s praises:
“Ilanga eliphume endlebeni yendlovu. Liphum amakhwez’ abikelana.
Here what is being emphasised is the emergence of Mzilikazi as king, from the status of being some ordinary man. It is not about his literal birth. He is moving from one state and status to another, from an ordinary man to a king. It is all about transition as happens during the rites of passage when boys leave behind, /batshiye the state of childhood, esimeni sobuntwana.
Reference to ndlovu was briefly referred to when one Ndlovu lineage is praised as “uboya benyathi.” This is a long story that we may deal with in another article. From the above expose, the rising sun gives promise of continuing, resumed, or repeated life. It is the positive part of an unending cycle. What are here represented, are concepts of renewal, regeneration and rebirth. This is something positive. However, why then is such a positive event not attended by expressions of joy, excitement and jubilation? Was it an oversight on the developers of their language or a deliberate and conscious effort?
Probably, life has its own challenges that humans anticipate in the ensuing stage of life. However, my own view is that renewal is symbolised through birth and rebirth. It is a stage with nothing to celebrate. The opposite of the concept, sunset marks the impending doom. Sunset is death. It is the end of life. But, wait, is it how Africans view and perceive death?
I will argue that death is an entry qualification into another realm of life. That realm is a spiritual realm where a real people, comprising souls or spirits, transform and transit into another form at anther realm. Unless one dies, they will not enter Heaven, which is not the abode of people of flesh, blood and bones. It is the realm that is the abode of spirits, the unending and undying components of human beings. Death is the door to the spiritual realm. For those who posit a physical body being the end of everything, that marks the end of hope
Therefore, sunset, being death is viewed in two ways. On the one hand, it is a sad end to life. That life refers to the material component of the body, but living in the company of the soul/spirit. At the same time, the sad ending of the physical body marks the beginning of eternal life. The spirit leaves its host/hostess, assumes, and resumes a new stage in the unending cycle of spiritual life.
Death is sad or good depending on one’s philosophy of life.
Where death is posited as the end, there is nothing to look forward to. It is all gloom, pessimism, despair and fatalism. However, those who look forward to death and see it as the single and sole condition that releases the spirit to commence a journey to eternal life in the spiritual realm, then death is seen as offering hope, anticipation and eagerness.
The sunset of life, is the sunrise of one’s spirit.
Online Reporter