The Sunday News
Cultural Heritage with Pathisa Nyathi
TODAY we focus the spotlight on the documentation of Umvutshwa left behind by H. Vaughan Williams who spent some quality time at the royal satellite town.
The first observation we make relates to the circular wooden palisade. We can safely say he portrayed reality on the ground and reality in the Ndebele mind. The Ndebele, like other African peoples, used the circular design whenever they built, carved or made any artifact. Their huts were circular.
Their baskets and ceramics were equally circular in design. In fact, everything they ever made assumed a circular design. The right angle never featured in anything they made.
The palisade marked territory. More importantly, it defined certain activities that went on inside the homestead and those carried outside within the palisade. To the archaeologists, the midden marked an area where ash and other home debris were deposited just beyond the palisade. In the absence of evidence marking the position of the palisade, identification of the midden is an indicator that the area in question is outside the homestead but very close to it indeed. Home debris including ash collected from kitchen huts is never deposited within the homestead boundary-marking palisade.
In general, access to the middens was through the small entrance, intuba. There might be two or so of these which are used by the residents of the homestead. Visitors never used these but instead used the main entrance known as isango where they announced their arrival and intention. “Ekuhle!” they would shout so that the inmates immediately knew they meant no harm.” Eh, it is well!” The one who intended to attack the village did not announce his peaceful intentions. We have in the past explained the message embraced by the circular design — the circle has neither beginning nor end. It thus symbolises continuity, infinity, immortality, unity, movement, equilibrium/balance, regularity, rhythm and periodicity, among several others. In terms of African aesthetics it encapsulates beauty on account of it possessing some of the traits of African aesthetics enumerated above. The African has always been in the solid grip of cosmic reality which he is an integral part of.
We have said before our African-ness does not lie in our black hue. Instead, it lies in the commonly shared worldview. Are we able to discern commonality between Umvutshwa palisade and the stone walls, Masvingo at Great Zimbabwe? Materials chosen to mark territory depend on a number of factors such as availability of material, skills possessed by some members of the community and historical traditions. In both instances we should be able to identify something shared in common if the Africans that we know were responsible for the design. Wood and stone do not bring out the identity of the builders. Rather, it is how wood or stone have been arranged: the circular design. This, as we have said before, is what expresses Pan-Africanism.
Whether reeds, wooden poles, stones, clay, thorn branches, fired/unfired bricks are used, it is their arrangement that matters.
One of the indentifying African marks lies in the circular design.
The next section that Vaughan-Williams identifies is the cattle kraal. More significantly, the cattle byre/pen/kraal is facing west which is the direction that the queens’ huts are also facing. Here we can only conclude that Vaughn Williams was right.
He is right not because the cattle pen is facing west. Apparently, this is the general direction which is faced by Ndebele villages today. The reason is to do with the direction of prevailing winds. It was not so at Old Bulawayo where the huts faced east.
What had been clear to the archaeologists was that the cattle byre was to the east and constituted part of the palisade. This was some migration of the cattle byre from its previous central location (Central Cattle Pattern, CCP) in earlier days. As a result of improved security, the cattle byre in King Lobengula’s time shifted to the peripheral palisade. Later still, the cattle byre was completely detached from the homestead. There was total security and hence no need to locate the cattle byre in the centre of the village as used to be the case in the early insecure days.
Security or insecurity one thing remained constant. The cattle byre lay in front of the village. The huts and the main entrance marked the front of the village. The cattle byre lay in front, meaning its position was always in relation to the main entrance and the direction faced by the huts. Lo and behold, at Old Bulawayo this was initially ignored. The position of the cattle byre was clearly indicated by the soil type and the vegetation. The phosphate-rich soil is lighter and did mark the position of the cattle byre. Knowing the habits and worldview of the Ndebele, the huts and entrance would not have faced away from the cattle byre. When the cattle come home from pastures the village head, invariably a man wants to see his wealth, the herd of cattle. The remnants of the huts also indicated the position of the entrance which was in sync with the village entrance and the position of the cattle byre. Contemporary practices dictated otherwise and misled the archaeologists. The error was subsequently rectified.
The cattle byre was an important component, neigh an imperative landmark within a village. Wealth was found within the cattle byre. Spirituality was also expressed within the same place. In Ndebele society characterised by patriarchy the men monopolised both wealth and spirituality. As a result the cattle byre was out of boundary to women and girls. A girl getting married was allowed entry to announce her departure to her in-laws and also to purify her and make her shine among fellow wives of the husband — ukuphehlelwa isithundu. We need not get into the uses of cattle in an Ndebele homestead. That would constitute a doctoral thesis. Suffice it to say it played a significant social, economic and spiritual role. Hudson Halimana used to say, “Inkomo ngameva okuzibangula!”
Partitions within a homestead separated people on the basis of socio-economic and political status. The king had his private quarters. Vaughan-Williams referred to such an exclusive area for the king as the king’s sanctuary. Livestock was also separated by walls, be they wood or stone. The queens’ quarters, isigodlo, were separated from those of other people. In addition to these there were certain economic activities that were secluded. In the next article we shall look at some of these, in particular the section where there were forges for making iron implements.
Matters spiritual were separated from prying eyes. Wallings or palisades were used to demarcate such sacred activities.
Different categories of people and different human activities were demarcated in accordance to the worldview of the builders and settlers. Next week we shall look at the different categories or demarcations captured by H Vaughan-Williams and see whether these were in accordance with the cosmology or worldview of the Ndebele.
