The Sunday News
COMMUNITY stories regarding the moon are many and varied. They point to the different experiences that communities have gone through. That which has been formulated and developed enters the world of knowledge and information that is then passed down to future generations as heritage and worldviews and cosmologies gleaned through lived experiences. Each community comes up with experiences that are different and unique. Consequently, there emerge different heritages thought and cosmologies that inform and underpin a community’s cultural practices. What communities see in the same object or event is different from what others have experienced.
It is the lived experiences that generate knowledge and ultimately in the formulation of theories about life. At that stage, the packages of knowledge and information constitute a community’s worldview, their cosmology, belief systems, and perceptions of the world and philosophies of life.
Such interactions are not restricted to the terrestrial realm. The night sky and its illuminating lights, the stars, planets and moons equally inspire observers who soon will learn about the links between stars, their movements and events and occurrences on Planet Earth. Related communities that not so long ago would have constituted a single community tend to develop the same ideas about the world and the cosmos. Over a long period, they may develop different ideas resulting from varied and unique interactions with terrestrial and cosmic environments.
The perpetual process of learning results in different heritages at the thought level and lead to different cultural practices. The different communities seek explanations and interpretations of events and occurrences around them. The issue is not about universal truth. Truth is about what they have formulated through the ages. Different communities may view the ways as mysterious, mystical and even frivolous. This is where racial and ethnic arrogance may come in when some communities begin to think their ways are the real ways as if God ever appointed them to such lofty positions and egotism.
The bottom line is that different communities will look at the same object and proffer different narratives about its origin myths, its constitution and interpretations of its observable traits. This is where difference may emerge. The captivating and sometimes ludicrous origin myths are real to the believers. The way they have seen the moon is different from those of other people who have inherited different thought, different cosmologies and different perceptions of the environment including the moon itself.
Inevitably, there will be some overlaps in perceptions and knowledge following concrete lived experiences. That the moon rises in the western sky is a universal observation. That it begins its journey as a crescent object is equally seen in the same manner.
That it grows to fullness will also be the same. Largely, these transformations have been explained in the same manner as symbolising the development of pregnancies in women.
As a result, the moon was seen as a feminine phenomenon characterised by transformation and change over the lunar cycle of 28 days. It is these mythological narratives that we are capturing and documenting for posterity. The moon is one, but the stories about the moon are many. Stories are created and consumed by different communities. There never shall be one narrative in this world about the same objects or phenomena.
What we may have is a situation where some communities push their arrogant agendas that it is their ideas and perceptions that are credible and constitute the truth. The rest is rubbished and trashed as superstitious, pagan and primitive. This explains why there is so much tension, disagreements and misunderstandings in the world, in addition to selfishness. Sometimes the results are costly wars of supremacy and hegemony.
Having provided this background and cautioned against self-seeking posturing, let us get to the lunar narratives from the varied communities with a particular slant towards African communities. So important and fascinating are the narratives that some will go to the extent of declaring that without the moon there would be no life.
In the planting season, some communities begin watching the moon very closely just as they watch the months before giving birth to a child. Among the Ngas of Nigeria there comes a time when they hold the annual festival of Mos Tar, the bear of the moon when “young sons of the moon” are painted white like the moon, and with drawn crescents and circles suggesting lunar phases. The Ngas narrative was captured by John A Kwashi. Like other African communities, the Ngas pin hope on the development of the moon. From humble crescent beginnings, the moon progressively transforms and changes towards fullness and indeed, finally becomes a full moon. Such observations define perceptions of development, that it is progressive and incremental, beginning from the basic and humble beginnings towards full development that translates to full potency when rituals are conducted and the chances of success enhanced. It is all about the presence of facilitating energy. For the community the result is fulfillment and joy in attaining and confirming the stage when success is made possible. The ways of the community are confirmed and validated. Their ways are legitimated and justified. Rootedness is facilitated.
There is a community, the Baule in Cote d’Ivoir who carve human features and a border of chevron designs plus solid zigzag (chevron) motifs. There is a rounded shape and these together evoke the form of radiating light of the full moon. These meaning-filled masks are used during entertainment and festivals before the appearance of more important masks.
The feminine and fertility themes stand out quite clearly. The representation of the moon itself is one link with fertility as already indicated above. The moon grows in the same manner that a baby grows in the womb. The moon, the womb and clay pot are tied in a maze of perpetuating the human species. My forthcoming book features the links between fertility and African pottery. The circle is understood as having no beginning and no end. That translates to eternity and endlessness that are facilitated through sexuality and menstruation is already brought into the formula.
The chevron design, we have always argued, is a fertility symbol that is repeated (the up-facing open Vs or triangles). Repetition is an important element in African aesthetics. More importantly all the elements revolve around life fertility and continuity of the human species.
