The Sunday News
COMMUNITIES seem to understand the world and its varied phenomena according to their thought, world-view, perceptions and philosophical grounding. Other impacting factors may include levels of education attained and the technology available to them. The total environment embraces both the terrestrial and the cosmic, and probably more. For some communities, the realm that matters the most and probably the only one that exists in concrete and real terms is the material or physical world.
This may not be the universal perception or understanding of all the world’s communities. For some, there is a whole world of things intangible, immaterial, incorporeal, ethereal and spiritual. Such fundamental differences are perceptible when it comes to explanations and interpretations of world phenomena and how they interlink with those in the other realms.
Presently, I am engaged in some research that seeks to investigate connections between spirituality and creativity. For quite a while, I have posited some link between spirituality and the gifts of creativity. Expressed differently, I see some relationship between expressions of spirituality and the arts in their various manifestations such as the visual arts, performances, the literary arts and graphic design, inter alia. Finally, I am at the stage where I am conducting oral researches on three women in the Matobo District.
Already, tentative research findings are pointing towards the link. Indeed, spirituality is interlinked with creativity. Creativity defines the arts. One person has even gone ahead to declare that spirituality and the arts are essentially one and the same — perhaps two sides of the same coin. I identified three women from the northern part of Matobo District. The choice of the three was informed by their successful participation in the project titled “My Beautiful Home (MBH)” which we instituted back in 2014.
The three women excelled in painting walls of their huts. They excelled in “Bhudaza” which is a project linked to MBH. Once again, the threesome were leading lights and displayed creativity of the highest order. In basketry, they equally outclassed many. What I needed to investigate was their spirituality that I did not know until 2022 within the context of Amagugu Inkelo Cultural Expo l that ran for two days at Amagugu International Heritage Centre on 23 and 24 September, 2022.
The other opportunity was provided by the video that we were shooting at the Njelele Shrine. I made several preliminary visits to the shrine custodian’s Esigodlweni and there I bumped into two of the artistic women and after observing their participation in the Njelele spiritual dances and rituals my curiosity was just ignited. Here was some excellent opportunity to investigate the link if any between spirituality and creativity.
The two women were refined dancers and singers who keenly took part in the fertility dances associated with the Njelele Fertility/Rain Shrine. That I observed both at Esigodlweni and during Amagagu Inkelo Cultural Expo. The third woman was the least known to me in terms of her spirituality. I suspected that if she excelled in Bhudaza, hut painting, and basketry, the chances were high that she was spiritually endowed. My suspicion was raised even more when I offered her a challenge. When Reverend Paul Bayethe Damasane and I visited his farm near the Gwayi River, beyond Lupane, I picked up some calabashes that had been lying abandoned in a crop field.
I had been, for several weeks driving to Amagugu to meet up with some community members to share with them my ideas regarding what they could do to go beyond the MBH Project. I showed them my book titled “Bhudaza” which offered some alternative ideas regarding the visual arts. One such idea in the book was what I chose to term “Calabash Art.”
While travelling by road through Kenya on my visit to Arusha in Tanzania to attend some conference on adult education, I came across artefacts among the Maasai communities. What used to be utility objects were turned into objects of beauty and aesthetics. One artefact that stole my heart was a painted gourd, inkezo/nkombe. I bought it and brought it back with me. During one of my visits to Amagugu I took it along with me and put it across to the women as a possibility of what they could engage in to increase their livelihoods.
The woman who took the seemingly dull calabashes turned them into objects of immense beauty. It was something beyond all expectation. Her pieces of art were on display during the Amagugu Inkelo Cultural Expo. Beside she had made some dolls that were multimedia. I was impressed and happy that what I had advised and suggested was taken on board. That is one of our aims at Amagugu — to improve the economic status of women, particularly through the arts, including calabash art.
Tentatively, I could see some link between their artistry and spiritual endowment. It was not so with the third woman. All that I could detect and had observed for 10 years was that she was a refined artist who had accumulated many prizes. Now, during the Amagugu Inkelo Cultural Expo, she had excelled in a new field that I could distantly sense some spirituality of the woman through the calabash art. Would I be too far off the mark if I presumed she had some spiritual dimension in her make-up?
I instituted oral researches. The aim was to unpack the depth and scope of the two women whom I had seen partake in the Njelele wosana singing and dancing. As indicated above, I had seen them at Esigodlweni once again taking part in the wosana spiritual dances. All that I required to do was go deep into their spiritual experiences.
My greatest challenge was the third woman who had not given any definitive inkling that she might be spiritual. Only her artistic exploits suggested she was. Going by what I had already experienced in relation to oral interviews, I posited some tentative presence of spiritual endowment in her. I needed to draw on my many years of conducting oral interviews. I carefully and meticulously traversed the sensitive and sometimes treacherous spiritual terrain.
I had to make clear what my book project was all about. Besides, spirituality is a very personal experience that some people will want closely guarded. I carefully wormed my way into the women’s spiritual lives, accessing their holy of holies. Being the artists who are an expressive lot, they quickly opened up, more so that we had already interacted during MBH and Bhudaza projects.
In the Zimbabwean context there are spiritual expressions that some people regard as inferior and associated with socially inferior people. On the other hand, there are loud-mouthed people who will talk non-stop about their religious exploits. Because of proximity to Western religiosity, they are proud to pronounce and shout their religions to the Heavens. So, one has to be circumspect when dealing with those whose spirituality is denigrated and despised. The interviewer’s approach and attitude are critical if the interview is to yield positive results. Fortunately, I was alert to the women’s sensibilities.
In the end, it was a resounding success. The qualitative results confirmed what I had posited. I learnt quite a lot from the interviews and was telling my photographer how research contributes immensely to acquisition of knowledge and wisdom.
I of course took the opportunity to provide some narrative about both the cultural and natural landscapes of the Matobo area. The purpose behind this article has been to assist readers to appreciate that when we interpret phenomena around, we rely on the knowledge at our disposal. This goes together with our perceptions, thought, world-view, among several other impinging factors.
We see the world through our own eyes — eyes cognitive, cultural and spiritual. This has been a way of preparing readers for Vusamazulu Credo Muthwa’s expose or narrative on crop circles, a narrative which is representative of that of the African ancients.
