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Pathisa Nyathi
THE Reverend Dr Robert Moffat reported, in his approach to the new Ndebele capital town, crossing rivers whose names he rendered in Setswana, the language he was familiar with.
The rivers were Garikatotse, Mohutse and Enchametse. This is the challenge that we face, exactly what names is he referring to?
We do know that the capital town which at the time of his visit in 1854 was still under construction was on the northern side of some known rivers.
The two rivers that we know for certain were crossed by one heading towards the royal town of Amahlokohloko were Umguza River, named after a shrub of the same name which abounded in the vicinity. Umguza was one of the shrubs that women used as a perfume alongside similar plants such as ubande, imadlana and inkiza. The latter is found in the Matobo Hills. Women used the plants as talc after crushing and drying the leaves and grinding them into a fine powder. In the case of ubande, the dry block of wood was scraped and ground and then used in a similar manner.
Alternatively, the powder from the three plants was mixed with fat, iphehla, and then applied on the body. The aim was to eliminate strong odours.
The use of such perfume was known as ukuqhola. Inkiza, in particular, fought off strong odours. It was used when the corpse of King Mzilikazi kaMatshobana was kept in a hut at his last capital town of Mhlahlandlela.
The king had breathed his last at Enqameni Village under Dliso Mathema and his corpse was brought to the royal town where it lay in state for almost two months.
As we often say, behind a cultural practice there is some underpinning world-view or belief. In this case the person of king had several medicinal formulations administered on his body soon after coronation as a way of fortifying him against the machinations of malevolent wizards and witches.
The king was attended to by doctors who attended to him only. In essence, therefore, the body of a king possessed medicines that other people’s bodies did not possess.
It was considered very important that when the king died his flesh was not accessed by malevolent persons. If they did, the new king would have to be administered with medicines that included all those used on the old king plus the new ones to counter what was already in possession of the malevolent individuals.
The royal corpse thus was guarded over a long period of time till all the flesh had decomposed.
The aim was to bury the bones and not the flesh that contained the fortifying medicines. Royal queens, some of them at least, kept watch over the decomposing corpse which was accompanied by a heavy stench that the queens had to fight back.
That they did by plugging their nostrils with the leaves of inkiza which did effectively counter the oppressive odour.
The king’s bones were interred in a cave on Entumbane Hill just off the Bulawayo-(Old) Gwanda Road. His ox-wagon was broken to pieces and interred in some adjacent cave.
The enduring spirit of the king had to be accompanied by his precious possessions during his life on the earth plane. There was a lapse of approximately two months from the time of his demise and the time of interment of his bones.
We are certain that Reverend Dr Robert Moffat did cross the Koce River in his approach to the royal town. Koce flows towards Umguza River and, without doubt, the London Missionary Society (LMS) missionary’s entourage did cross it. Koce is a name that refers to the vast herds of Ndebele cattle that drank the waters of the river, leaving it dry.
Could Koce River be the one Reverend Dr Robert Moffat referred to as Enchametse, loosely translating to Intshamanzi? Perhaps yes, as the missionary, equipped with Setswana language without the clicks, could not cope with the Nguni/Ndebele clicks.
If the Scottish missionary rendered the names in the order in which he and his entourage crossed them, Gakikalitotse would be crossed before Umguza, his Mohutse.
There is thus the possibility that Enchametse is, indeed, Koce as it is crossed last as one moves in a northerly direction. We are all the poorer in terms of geography of the area just because Reverend Dr Robert Moffat was not au fait with IsiNdebele.
On his journey to the north the Reverend Dr Robert Moffat reports on trade that was going on in the peripheral areas of the Ndebele State.
There is a tendency by those who reported on internal trade to downplay trade in slaves. Perhaps it was a feeling of shame that persuaded them to report selectively on this very important trade that went on in Africa for several centuries.
I have often said man does not kill man. In similar vein, man does not enslave man. An enslaver, like a killer, has to grapple with his guilty conscience whenever he carries out the nefarious act.
As a result, dehumanising has to precede the despicable act. Such a process of dehumanising soothes one’s conscience. After all, one has enslaved a dog or similar sub-human creature. The slave trade was peddled in the context of dehumanisation; as did both colonisation and imperialism.
Child trafficking in its current manifestations goes on under similar ploys, with colour being used to justify dehumanisation. The black man has, in all cases, been on the receiving end.
However, the Reverend Dr Robert Moffat did report on the reprehensible activity.
On this particular journey into the deep interior, he reported on the activities of one Boer, a certain Mr Swartz who hailed from Caledon who, in the company of Viljoen, was on an elephant hunting expedition. Mr Swartz brought 40 head of cattle, brass wire and glass beads to exchange for ivory.
Among the Ndebele brass wire played an important role not only in body adornment but also in the manufacture of spears. Brass wire was used to secure the wooden shaft to the iron blade.
Where the two parts are joined is called indlondla or insalati. Alternatively, insalati was made from a wet sox kin which was used to join the two. Upon drying, the skin made a tight grip which was relatively permanent.
Attire is one of several cultural expressions for a community.
The way people dress tells a story about them: how gender differentiation is manifested, including attributes of age, social, economic and political status. There is thus diversity in attire which is conditioned by several factors such as tradition, available raw materials, available technology, ideas about fashion and exposure to other cultures, inter alia.
Reverend Dr Robert Moffat did make some observations and comments on Ndebele dress he encountered during his third trip to Matabeleland.
Men are good looking, “ . . . but the women are sorry objects. If fat and plumpness constitute African beauties, as I have heard, then they may come in for a share , but most of the women, lintompis, large fat women with large hanging dairies (breasts), and a mere shadow of a covering about their loins, looked disgusting in the extreme.”
There goes the Christian missionary! He uses yardsticks from his cultural background to measure the attire of a people culturally different from his own. As expected, his standards are considered superior over those of the Ndebele. It all smacks of cultural imperialism that one does not expect from a Christian.
Bongani Ndlovu