The Sunday News
Pathisa Nyathi Cultural Heritage
BELIEF in traditional doctors was pervasive among African societies in the days gone by before Christianity supplanted its own belief systems. Royal courts had sections reserved for the traditional doctors who attended to the health needs of the monarch but more importantly to provide fortification of the king and the country and his royal family. Fortification formulae were applied on his person, his residence and royal capital.
The practice was based on a conception of the world, that is much more than the mere physical or material but embraced the metaphysical or the non-material and supernatural. In their understanding of both nature and the metaphysical there was some interplay, interaction and mutual influence between the two elements. Their “science” worked on the basis of the metaphysical influencing the physical and vice-versa. There are vital life forces that can be harnessed to bring desired results at the material level.
Their “science” or “craft” recognised that “like produces like” and yet “like will fight like”. Unlike will also neutralise its opposite. The operative formula works on symbolic manipulation. As a result the traditional doctors, imbued with spiritual gifts, are able to manipulate nature and spirit to effect fortification, healing, prophecy and actions meant to counter “witchcraft”(‘science’ put to negative use).
Let us give one example from the Khami Monument. From the royal hilltop settlement was retrieved a zoomorphic (animal like) clay pot. One possible interpretation of the cultural artifact is that it was part of the fortification or metaphysical protection paraphernalia of the person of king and his residence. The question then is why a zoomorphic clay pot?
If we approach this phenomenon from an Afro-centric stand point it should not be too difficult to figure out. Fortification or fighting medicines are complemented by the vessel or container in which they are placed. It would be a serious contradiction for example to place protective or fortification medicines in a horn of a docile or pacific animal. The horn or bone should be of an animal that symbolically fights -that can thus protect the king and his premises. It would thus make sense to place the fortification medicines in a horn of ingugama which is a known fighter.
A clay pot is not a fighter. If anything it is the antithesis of aggressive defence or fortification. However, if it takes the shape of a fighting animal it acquires a new character, a new fighting spirit associated with the symbolised animal. One way of symbolising the chosen animal is to produce its likeness. In that vein to suggest the zoomorphic clay pot is an ox would miss the spiritual or metaphysical essence of African “science”. The possible animals from both the shape and expected function of the zoomorphic pot are either a bull or a ram. My own hunch is that it is a ram which the Africans believe is a fighter which can even fell a ferocious bull. Anyway, the bottom line is that our interpretation has to be Afro-centric in approach.
It was the manipulation of this understanding of nature and its relationship to the metaphysical that enabled the African traditional doctors to engage in rain-making which was inevitably a source of political and economic power. Whoever controlled rainmaking controlled political power. He controlled the source of sustenance. Water is life. It has been suggested that there came a time when rain-making, initially conducted far away from settlements, was appropriated and practised within settlements, especially in hill top settlements characterised by the presence of rock tanks of water, cupsules and sheer cliffs. Those who advocate this philosophy need to furnish us with the philosophical underpinning for each physical phenomenon. What is the rationale for cliffs, for example?
What we do know is that rain water comes from water. Where there are water reservoirs on mountains, in the form of pots, hali and hadlana (read cupsules) it should be possible to symbolically manipulate the elements and cause rain to fall.
The work of the traditional doctors has largely survived the colonial onslaught albeit wounded somewhat. Their services are sought after rather nicodemously by Africans who are ashamed of being seen to be associated with what has been labelled a pagan practice.
Queen Lozikeyi Dlodlo is known to have retained the services of traditional doctors in the post-colonial era. Thwalimbiza Ndlovu, Temasembudzi (black like a goat) and Mazibisa were some of the traditional doctors that were part of the Queen’s entourage.
The traditional doctors are here being mentioned because they played a role in doctoring cattle. We have seen the important role that cattle played in the Ndebele society.
We dealt with the various milk-based food dishes in addition to the meat and other products such as ox-hide shields, izihlangu, men’s leather loins, amadumbu, and women’s leather skirts, izidwaba.
Medicinal formulations were applied on the cattle for various reasons. The terms used for such formulations were umthuso or iziko. The latter term refers to a hearth in the kitchen where fire was made. Indeed, a potsherd of burning iziko or umthuso medicines was placed on the entrance to the cattle byre/pen, isibaya. Cattle were driven out of the cattle pen and as they did so they walked over the potsherd with medicines. The potsherd with burning medicines resembled the hearth, hence the name.
In the grazing lands cattle were exposed to the lions which were dangerous predators which wreaked havoc on the herds. Iziko medicines enabled the cattle to quickly detect the presence of these predators which took appropriate action. Having detected the lion scent, the cattle scampered to safety back home. We recall an interview way back in 1984 when Fiti Nare boasted that when he administered iziko medicines the lions would not be able to kill the cattle so doctored.
Some people, it was believed, carried medicines on their persons that were injurious to the cattle. When doctored cattle picked up the scent of such persons they charged menacingly at them, in the process bellowing like buffaloes or elands. Antony Magagula reports that a lot of people avoided getting anywhere near Siyatsha Fuyane’s cattle for fear of being gored.
Doctored cattle were able to go for long periods without watering. They endured long periods without drinking water. Similarly, they endured drought and hunger where other cattle easily succumbed to these adverse conditions. Thus the application of iziko was meant to save the herd which was an integral part of social life of the Ndebele people.
The other important role of iziko/umthuso was to ensure fertility of the cattle. In the royal palaces especially, cattle were slaughtered on a regular basis to feed the large numbers of people who lived there and the frequent streams of visitors. There had to be cattle all the time available for slaughter. Natural increase had to be facilitated and complemented with frequent raids on neighbouring groups. Twins were not uncommon where cows had been doctored.
Cattle so doctored had some ritual observances meant not to neutralise or negate the iziko/umthuso medicines. Women in particular were not to walk through the herd. It was believed that if they did so while menstruating they would be adversely affected by the iziko/umthuso medicines. When their periods resumed they did not stop as usual.
In order to remedy the condition they were doctored with milk mixed with iziko/umthuso medicines that led to their condition. Magagula tells of the harmful effects when milk was taken to Bulawayo for sale. The city was the citadel of cultural decadence and general disrespect of African customs, traditions and values. It was observed that Fuyane’s cattle were beginning to have calves that had slit eyes and were pinkish in colour.
It took the diagnostic wisdom of Temasembudzi to link the observed condition to the milk being sold in Bulawayo. The Bulawayo milk market was immediately abandoned.
