The Sunday News
Phathisa Nyathi
BEFORE we take a look at the naming of rivers let’s give a parting shot to mountains.
A few weeks ago we indicated that it was common among the BaNyubi people in the Matobo Hills to allocate mountains to particular individuals.
All this was done as a measure to conserve resources and the environment for posterity.
Taking charge of a particular mountain included taking care of all the resources found on the mountain.
Needless to say, there were other species of both flora and fauna which benefited in terms of conservation.
We are revisiting the idea of allocating mountains to individuals in order to bring out one aspect that accompanied ownership and the concomitant idea of territoriality.
The mountain owner needed to enforce ownership in such a manner as to keep out potential trespassers.
What becomes clear when we look at this subject is that there has been considerable decline in knowledge of medicine that people know. It was some of these herbal formulations that kept trespassers at bay and the people in general on the narrow and straight.
Here there is medicine for healing the sick. At the same time there are medicines that enforce territoriality, be it at the level of a country or one’s homestead.
The sense of territoriality seems universal, however, there is no universality when it comes to measures to enforce it.
Some measures are material or physical. Others are metaphysical and intangible.
Declaring a territory that one cannot protect is a waste of time.
Territorial integrity will be flouted left, right and centre.
When people know that when they trespass nothing happens to them, they will disregard the set boundaries.
The sense of territoriality should, at all times, be accompanied by the reality of enforceability.
Africa had its own ways of enforcing the sense of territoriality beyond the physical and the material.
Physical defence of territory demands physical presence of guards, soldiers and other forms such as those espoused by USA President Donald Trump between his country and Mexico.
Africa knew of other forms of defending territory without recourse to physical interventions.
National territory was fortified by placing medicinal formulations, izikhonkwane, on the borders.
Homesteads and individual houses were equally fortified.
An example is that of the Khumalos who belonged to the Amanyangana (or Ngwende) section such as Mabhikwa Khumalo in Lupane and the Khumalos at Mzinyathini who, in the past, led UMzinyathi after the Gwebus had been dislodged.
They were referred to as “Ababiyela umuzi wenkosi ngotsheko’’.
That was in reference to their accomplished skill in protecting royal towns.
Their particular way of doing it was such that when witches approached the royal town they saw heaps and heaps of human excreta.
A formulation was used which denied witches access into the royal town.
The king had to be protected by both physical and metaphysical means.
Different formulations produced different effects on potential trespassers.
Indeed, one can still see many planted shrubs at entrances to homes in the city of Bulawayo.
The fear of witches is much alive today as it was a century ago.
In extreme cases a witch may be found in the nude the following day roaming around aimlessly.
He/she would have been disoriented as a result of the effect of the fortifying herbal formulations applied.
There were some people who protected fruit trees such as uxakuxaku in their crop fields.
If some trespassing individual tried to get some fruits from the tree they met with a fierce hissing snake.
They would run for dear life, never to go back again.
The traditional doctors then possessed medicine that protected property.
On the mountains allocated to individuals there could be found some beehive for example.
When strangers, after scaling the mountain tried to extract honey, bees went on the attack.
A case is reported where children that ventured onto a protected mountain had their heads turn white following bites by the bees.
Ultimately, the children died. Fear worked and discouraged would-be trespassers. Word spread around that such and such a person had dangerous medicines.
Another story is told of allocated mountains. Dassies, imbila, were commonly hunted for meat on the mountains.
One day a hunter and dogs went up a mountain belonging to some known person.
As soon as they got up the mountain, a dangerous mamba emerged and bit all the dogs to death.
The hunter found himself face to face with the snake.
He ran for dear life and never went up the mountain where he had lost all his dogs.
This metaphysical fencing applied to wives too.
Even these days this is a common phenomenon that some men use to drive fear into philandering men. Different fencing medicines work in different ways.
In some instances the culprit’s stomach swells up as if it is being pumped.
In others, the two get locked up, never to separate until the wife’s husband unlocks them. A
knife may have been used to cause the locking.
A button may also be used to button up, ukukopela, the two errant persons.
These are methods that were not labour intensive.
Morals were enforced. Africa did not have prisons.
Knowledge of medicines was enough to keep one within the narrow and straight. Alternative knowledge has emerged which tends to downplay use of medicines to enforce morality.
People steal and nothing happens to them unless they got caught.
As long as they kept out of sight, they were safe.
Intergenerational transmission of knowledge of medicine has led to increased immorality, theft and criminal activities.
People may venture into one’s crop field and help themselves to watermelons and sweet reeds.
Not all the medicines depended on secular acquisition of the dangerous medicinal formulation.
Spirituality was at work. African spirituality has been on the receiving end. The result has been its decline.
The decline has led to declining use of medicine to protect property.
However, the decline has introduced some imbalances. The kind of spirituality that has been on the decline is one that is plied in the public domain.
Witchcraft, which is plied in the private domain at night is not similarly affected. It is nurtured by the very nature of its practice, away from public glare.
Just how many today will protect their shops by these metaphysical means?
Hardly any in the age when closed circuit television (cctv) is used. It is the age of omantshingelane, the night guards employed by owners of business.
Where are the universities to research on these user friendly methods and cut down on costs, or is it loss of employment?
Prevention is better that cure.
Pre-emptive methods may be better than arrest.
Such fortified mountains may derive their names, Intabakayikhonjwa, may be so named on account of its power to harm those that dare point at it.
There are mountains that may not be scaled. If you try to go up such mountains you get disoriented and cannot find your way down.
Some people have gone up some mountains and disappeared for good.
