The Sunday News
Cultural Heritage with Pathisa Nyathi
PERCEPTIONS of stone among the ancients seem to be closely associated. Stones have languages, languages that vary depending on type of rock, position of rock and its size. Rock is imbued with cultural meaning, a meaning that seems familiar to a lot of ancient people. Today we focus on African ideas and applications of stone and proceed in later articles to compare with perceptions of stone and its applications at Stonehenge.
Last week we referred to the stone pyramids in Egypt, which pyramids originated in Sudan before perfection in Egypt where their magnitude was amplified. However, what came out quite clearly was the link between rock, grave, eternity and spirit. Was this the case throughout the rest of Africa? As we seek interpretation of Stonehenge, we shall investigate the presence of African ideas, perceptions and applications of stone.
The starting point are graves, their association with stone which expresses eternity, and spirituality, one of whose characteristics is eternity. Stone is forever. Spirit is forever. There is thus some link in which we can view stone as hardware while the spirit is software. Among the Ndebele the Kings’ remains were interred in rock. A close look at the rock arrangements will reveal the presence of vertical stone walls which are more prominent that the horizontal stones both at the rock floor and rock roof.
We are really back to the language of stone which is dictated by the position of stone slabs which are upstanding and erect. The language of vertically standing or erect stones is universal among the ancients. It is a language that expresses the idea or concept of continuity, eternity, endlessness and perpetuity. We shall, once again, pose the question we posed in an earlier article.
What eternity, whose eternity is being expressed by eternal stone? What common theme is being expressed? For the Ndebele and indeed other African people the answer is easy. It is easy when we consider ideas regarding the concept of Duality of Being. Material body is transient or ephemeral, but spirit, like rock, is eternal.
Let us now refer to graves of ordinary people. Essentially, the graves are mounds of earth that cover a pit bearing the corpse. In the past the design of grave was circular. On the mound stones were placed after women collected them from the surrounding area.
The headstone was however placed in an upright position. So was the footstone which too was upright or erect. Notably, the headstone was longer than the footstone. We shall see how this arrangement compares with a typical ancient grave in Wales where stone circles were built several centuries before Stonehenge came into being.
A grave, regarding the manner of its construction, reflects the underpinning belief systems of a community. As ideas change over time, grave designs also change in tandem. For the graves in this part of the world, form more than size, is what matters. Stones are associated with graves. Stones and their solidity express the idea or concept of eternity.
As in cases cited above the stones, in addition to their solidity, are placed upright or erect. Actually, this is complementarity of images. Stone, whether lying flat on the ground or standing, expresses eternity and continuity on the basis of its solidity. On the other hand, position complements the same idea albeit in a different way. Upstanding or erect stone expresses sexuality as explained in previous articles. The message or language is expressed through erect stone in a hole in Mother Earth, a female.
Once again, what exactly is being associated with eternity in a grave? The body is no more, in particular the flesh, blood and other tissues. The bones endure and remain in some link with the eternal spirits. The place of burial thus becomes a site that is associated with the eternal spirit. This is so among a people who acknowledge the Duality of Being where it is posited that a human being comprises material body that is transient and spirit which is characterized by eternity.
Spirit and rock are closely associated on the basis of a shared concept of eternity. Thus far, we see a link between rock and grave from the Egyptian pyramids to smaller scale graves among Zimbabweans. The royal grave of King Mzilikazi likewise exhibits the same link between eternity of rock and eternity of spirit.
Many years ago, I still remember my grandfather, actually the surviving younger brother of my late paternal grandfather conducting some ancestral ritual. My brother Johnson and I had been called to take part or rather witness the ritual which involved communicating with our ancestors. My father Menyezwa was there so was his younger brother Lot. I suppose our invitation was to acquaint us with the conduct of matters spiritual.
What I do remember even now is that there was some rock at the centre of the homestead. Beer had been brewed and we sat in a circle around the rock. There was a gourd cup, inkezo which was being used to collect beer from a vessel and pour it on the rock. “Thela Menyezwa,” I remember Khulu Masole (Mabende) give instruction to my father. Indeed, my father poured the libation on rock. I never got to know what the matter was all about in the supplication.
Among the BaKalanga there also exists some rock feature similar to the one described above. The site was close to the entrance into the homestead. There was some hard black stone(dolerite?) which was the size of a football. High above it was a wooden platform provided with a roof above it. That stone, like our stone, was approached whenever there was need to communicate with ancestral spirits. This was yet another link or association between rock and the spirits.
For the purposes of this article what is important was the link between the rock as the site where our ancestors were approached. Thus, two concepts were interlinked. There were no graves nearby as these Nyathis had relocated from Nkonyane at the confluence of Wovi and Maleme rivers. Stone, eternal stone, was where spirits of our ancestors were addressed. The spirits being addressed, like stone were eternal. Rock and spirit, in the absence of graves will still suffice when it comes to the conduct of spiritual rituals.
Rain shrines are another feature that links spirits and rock. Towards the end of last year, teams visited several rain shrines such as Njelele, Manyangwa, Dula, Mambo Hills, iNtab’emnyama, Great Zimbabwe and Nebana. Save for the Nebana Shrine which I do not know, the rest are caves in mountains of rock. These places are regarded as the abode of rain-giving spirits. Once again, we see association between graves, stones, spirits and spirituality.
