The Sunday News
Phathisa Nyathi
AT the Khami Monument there is some architectural structure which archaeologists think was the consultation room for the King who resided on the hill top. There was none higher than the King in terms of power, authority and status. He was perceived as a divine and sacred leader.
That political and socio-economic status was expressed symbolically through physical height or altitude.
Altitude expressed social, economic and political hierarchy. As we shall see below, there were non-physical beings who were above earthly rulers.
Consultation between the King and his subjects and visitors was an interesting encounter or interaction which in itself expressed importance of the King. Interaction between the Lozwi Mambo and the two Babirwa leaders in the first quarter of the nineteenth century reflects the said phenomenon.
When the cataclysmic Mfecane began driving some Nguni and Sotho groups out of Zululand, the Babirwa, then resident in present day Limpopo Province, where they had arrived earlier from Phalaborwa under Chief Tshukudu, felt the heat and voted with their feet. They responded by sending their two leaders Daueatsoala (or Taueatsoala) the elder brother and Makhura.
The land then belonged to the Lozwi Mambo who resided on Manyanga Hill (Intaba zikaMambo) north of Inyathi Mission. The two leaders wished to secure land to settle their followers, the Babirwa people.
Oral tradition has it that the two leaders and the King consulted in the private room, as expected.
However, what is important for this article is that the two parties faced away from each other during the conversation. Who were these lowly Babirwa seekers of land to look the mighty King in the eyes?
Remember, among the Nguni the King is symbolised as the sun, ilanga which shines brightly. No one dared gaze at the dazzling sun.
As to the outcome of the conversation undertaken while the two parties sat back to back, the book on the Babirwa tells the story (“The History and Culture of the Babirwa People of Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe,” Nyathi: 2014). If the King would not be gazed upon, it goes without saying that he would not be addressed by name though he had one. Names of elders and the socially lofty are never called out.
Instead, honorific praises are enthusiastically chanted. “Wena weNdlovu, Nkosi yamakhosi, Zulu, Ngangezwe!”
To further illustrate the point about names of socially high-ups and elders we cite some excerpt from a chapter contributed by Walter Mthimkhulu, in which Mzana Mthimkhulu made some comment. Mzana wrote, “One incident I recall about Walter’s mother (My mother in Ndebele or Mam’omdala/ Senior Mother). She was ill and I visited her at Bulawayo Central Hospital. The Sister asked me her first name.
“I don’t know,” I said.
“But you said she is your mother.”
“You know, we never use first names for elders and so I don’t know it.”
If fathers and mothers as elders in communities will not be called by their first names, does one think a chief or King would be exceptions? What mortal man or woman would dare challenge the heaves?
Greater honour and respect attend their persons. Their names never grace lips of lowly persons.
A story is told of a man from Lupane, one Mr Ndlovu who went to school with former President Robert Gabriel Mugabe. When the President visited Lupane to address a rally, Mr Ndlovu, in great jubilation positioned himself close to the President and shouted, “Hallo Robert!” The man certainly did not mean to belittle the person of President.
But some overzealous people who thought otherwise made sure the man paid for that. It was during the ‘‘time of madness,’’ as admitted and pronounced by the President himself years later when addressing a congregation at the Brethren-in-Christ Church in Bulawayo.
This takes us to the being who is considered above both Chief, King and Queen. It is God. We acknowledge that all African communities and peoples had ideas concerning God who they recognised. Ideas about God may have been borne out of a belief that the vast universe was created and that there was one who created it. The idea of a created universe was universal among Africans.
God, who generally was not called out or known by his name, had words that sprang from his attributes. The Creator was uMdali among the Nguni. He was Musiki and more specifically Musikavanhu among the Shona. He was the Creator of not only human beings but the entire universe. The idea and concept remain the same, there is some agency behind creation of so vast and boundless universe.
Human beings, acknowledging their weaknesses, failings and limitations envisaged some being greater than themselves. “As below, so above.” If in their smallness they could, at both cultural and natural levels engage in creativity, surely one much greater than them was capable of creating at higher levels.
Someone bigger than them was responsible for greater creation. It is he who created the heavens and the earth. Human language and thought limited humans within their thought and conceptual boundaries as designated by thought processes and language. They thus could not conceptualise outside of their conceptual precincts. Not surprisingly, God is conceptualised in superior and super human terms; but all the same in human-spiritual terms.
A being conceptualised in these terms is accordingly given descriptive names such as uNkulunkulu, the mighty or big one. Repetition of — nkulu derived from khulu, meaning big, emphasized the mightiness of God. In Namibia there is a community that refers to God as Mukuru, once again indicating or describing his might.
It may not be might in terms of physical magnitude but in terms of agency behind the phenomena that human beings have no control over such things as lightning, thunderstorms and similar environmental phenomena. The emphasis in describing God as uNkulunkulu lies in the simultaneous admission of man’s weakness and limited power in comparison to God the Mighty one.
It is God’s recognised might that led to his being called uSomandla. Literally the Father of Power in Nguni languages. His amandla, but not in physical terms as already indicated above. It was more to do his agency or causality in environmental phenomena including his ability to sustain that which he created.
It can only be one who is mighty and benevolent who can sustain his vast creation. Food that emanates from Mother Earth is said to come from God the Rain Giver. Indeed, pilgrims go annually to Njelele in the Matobo Hills where they intercede with Mwali in order for him to give his creation rain, the source of food that sustains life.
Thus personal attributes or traits or characteristics, both physical and non-physical, may be the source of names that are given to people, animals and places. Dauti S Mabusa, a cattle farmer close to Bulawayo has a cow named Giant. As the name suggests, the cow is massive and has produced many of his bulls. One day we shall visit his farm to get a better glimpse of how his cattle end up with names which he liberally dispenses.
