The Sunday News
Peter Matika, Senior Life Reporter
ONE of Zimbabwe’s iconic cultural, traditional and renowned historians Pathisa Nyathi may have challenged Western culture extremists in his latest feature on BBC TV’s popular documentaries — History of Africa Documentary with Zeinab Badawi, where he said the world was far too complex to believe that there was a culture superior to another.
It was during the programme where he was explaining various Zimbabwean cultural and traditional concepts; particularly the rain making dance — Hosana that he said there was no culture superior to the other.
A clip of the three-part documentary was shared on the Amagugu Heritage Centre Facebook page and has been viewed more than 100 000 times.
With dance playing an important role in many African cultures, Nyathi explored the rain dance with Badawi, where he told her that it was an important piece of culture that needed to be preserved.
“The first thing that we need to know is that music and dance are art forms and art is expressive . . . it’s a form of documentation Africa did not write but that is not to say that Africa did not document. Africa documented through visual art, performance arts, history, their values, perception and world views,” he said.
Nyathi told Badawi that the rain dance was essential and symbolical.
“. . . The colour black is a cloud pregnant with water. And then there were these leg rattles . . . and that is when it is raining. The drums, sound from the drum symbolise the sound of thunder. There you would have created the sound of rain and their movement, the choreography symbolises the twirling of the clouds,” said Nyathi.
It was at that interval that Badawi radically asked Nyathi: “Do you honestly believe that a dance can make the kind of formations that we need for rain?
“Yes, I will tell you one critical problem with this world. There are people who think that we can understand this world through the eyes of one culture.
I don’t believe that . . . this world is too complex to be understood and interpreted by one culture. But what has happened is that there are cultures that think they are superior to others and their view of this world is THE VIEW. This has been the problem,” said Nyathi before Badawi interjected.
“Which culture are you talking about there then?” questioned Badawi.
“It’s the Western culture obviously,” said Nyathi before the short clip of the three-part series, shared on the Amagugu Heritage Centre Facebook page ends.
