The Sunday News
IN the last article, we gave emphasis to one research methodology that is applied in archaeology, namely the geophysical survey.
We did point out that it is more environmentally friendly in comparison with excavation.
However, this is not to say excavation is about to exit the research scene.
It has its own advantages that add to the overall research effort on a given cultural landscape.
As already pointed out, the other two methodologies that had been suggested in the project design was history and ethnographic survey.
Archaeology is an exact science and in terms of accuracy, it is dependable.
This is not to say it is wholly effective when it comes to interpretation.
I realised this when I was working on the Stonehenge, a Unesco World Heritage Site (WHS) in England.
The finds were quite clear resulting from the various surveys beyond the geophysical ones and excavations.
Where researchers’ cultural lenses differ markedly from those of the creators, builders and users of a cultural landscape, interpretive challenges are accentuated.
The greater the cultural gulf between researchers and the culture of creators represented on the landscape, the more monumental the challenges of seeking to interpret such a cultural landscape.
Ethnography embraces cultural studies, in particular those relating to thought, worldview, beliefs, cosmology and philosophy.
I have in the past emphasised that a given community builds, as it believes.
A given cultural landscape is a mirror of the minds (cosmology, worldview, beliefs, philosophy, technology, available resources, skills, et cetera) of creators, builders and users of structures within a cultural landscape.
It becomes difficult even where many finds have been retrieved when the relevance of these is not known.
The three methods that had been suggested work in a complementary way to give an objective and comprehensive interpretation.
Some examples may demonstrate what we are trying to drive home.
It was visually clear that there was some discrepancy between levels of deterioration of a hut floor between the smaller rear and the larger section.
The rear, umsamo, was more deteriorated in comparison with the rest of the floor.
Visual inspection demonstrated that and the geophysical survey corroborated that observation.
Presumed knowledge is that the rear section was a sacred or holy section within a hut and was not used to sit on just any time by anybody.
Ritual items were placed there with the ritual leader, (umaphatha inkezo) locating himself there to communicate with the astral ancestors on behalf of the family members.
People sitting on the general section of the floor compacted the floor through constant sitting on that particular section.
Further, the centrally located fireplace, iziko, was where fire was made for either cooking or warming individuals, if the hut was a kitchen.
If it was a bedroom hut, fire was introduced as hot embers, amalahle, in a potsherd, udengezi/udengele, to warm the air inside the bedroom, ukufudumeza.
Within a kitchen hut there was also, in addition to differentials resulting from compacting through sitting, the heat that made the section close to the fireplace harder, and a hardness that translated to differing magnetic resistivity.
The geophysical survey would pick this up but would not come up with an effective and convincing interpretation.
Ethnography stands a better chance of interpreting differences in the floor durability.
Where bones of a python were detected in a particular section of the Royal Enclosure, as indeed was the case, ethnography comes handy to interpret the phenomenon.
Just where within the Royal Enclosure were the python bones picked up?
Was there evidence of a floor nearby?
What was the relative position of the floor, representing a hut, to the hut or house(s) of the King?
How was the King’s hut identified?
What were the community’s beliefs regarding a python?
What could have been the use of the bones within the context of the Royal Enclosure where the King lived?
Would there have been some spiritual specialist who used the bones?
How and why did they use the bones?
Was it a he or a she who used the bones and why?
To one familiar with the cultural beliefs of the Ndebele the answers are quite easy to figure out.
Topographical surveys conducted by Ivan Murambiwa clearly identified the floor of a hut that belonged to King Lobengula.
It stood on the highest ground within the Royal Enclosure. Indeed, the highest ground in the entire settlement.
Further, the Western type brick houses were the next closest and occupying the next highest grounds.
All that pointed to the site where the King lived.
Presumed knowledge is that the King was socially, politically, economically administratively and spiritually the highest individual within social structure.
That complex of seniority translated into physical height.
This was true not just in relation to the Ndebele people.
It was also true of other African societies.
Physical height translated to height is other aspects of society.
The Royal Hut, the largest beehive structure on site, was the most extensive in physical measurements and the Western type royal houses were the ones closet to it.
The Western type houses displayed adoption of new architectural designs and building materials that were not traditional to the Ndebele people then.
Innovations, in terms of building structures and artefacts, including exotic beverages such as Brandy, were availed to the King ahead of other people.
This is important to take note of, that Old Bulawayo of the time.
Change in the material aspects was effected more on this site.
There were structural adaptations in line with several consideration such as physical and spiritual security and protection, population size, social and political status, and economic activities taking place there, inter alia.
Pythons are associated with traditional healers.
There is a strong belief that a python is characterised by rebirth, revival and renewal.
These are traits that traditional doctors made use of in their divination, fortification and healing work.
Such spiritual gifts of the traditional doctors are needed to secure, protect and fortify a royal residence, the person of King together with his houses, cattle byres and all.
This was the work of the traditional doctors who would have lived within the Royal Enclosure, preferably closer to the entrance to the Royal Enclosure.
During the tenure of King Lobengula at Old Bulawayo (1870-1881), it is known that Gulukudwana Zondo was one such traditional doctor who attended to the spiritual needs of the King.
As part of his multi-faceted spiritual regalia, he would have used a string (umgaxo) of python bones.
There were times when some of the items he used got lost or broken within his operational zone.
Research picked up the python bones within the entrance to the Royal Enclosure.
The King himself did not use python bones.
This takes us to a very broad area that we shall deal with more exhaustively later.
The said bones were burnt.
There were insinuations from some quarters that why rebuild Old Bulawayo, a town that the King himself had ordered burnt by his Chief of Chiefs, Magwegwe Fuyana in 1881 when the town relocated to eMahlabathini/eSagogwaneni near the present Bulawayo.
Quite clearly, this was coming from people who were deficient in terms of knowledge regarding Ndebele beliefs, worldview and cosmology.
That was precisely what motivated me to assist in such grey areas of Ideology, Spirituality, Worldview and Cosmology, which inform and underpin cultural practices.
