The Sunday News
Phathisa Nyathi
A MAN staggers on his way home from a beer drinking binge. Alcohol seems to have powers to unlock in a drunk man some artistic talent. He/she sings a song which brings forth Ndebele ideas regarding stars in the cosmos. He sings a song:
Inkwenkwez’ angisayiboni phezulu,
Jaha labamb’ umbane wezulu.
Songs and music are part of a broad repertoire of cultural expressions. A people’s past, knowledge regarding astronomy, climate, the environment, indeed their way of life, are encapsulated and expressed through art in its various manifestations.
“As above, so below.” We have often stated that Africans sought, on many fronts, to replicate the heavens on earth. Not so long ago we engaged in comparisons between the moon, inyanga and the traditional healer, also going by the same name, inyanga. Such observed replication was not confined to the moon in heaven and its earthly counterpart.
Back to the inebriated man’s musical rendition. He is saying he can’t see a heavenly star called inkwenkwezi. The second line expresses heroic exploits of rare kind by a young unmarried man, ijaha who is reputed with catching lightning. The two lines end with a rhyme and they have the same rhythm. That imparts art and beauty to the two lines. Both inkwenkwezi, a star and umbane, lightning, are found and occur high in the sky.
The drunk man, as a result of his state of inebriation, is visually impaired to a point where he cannot see inkwenkwezi. This is despite his extraordinary skill in catching lightning. This may be a pointer to the man’s degree of drunkenness. Normally, he would have seen the moon, as easily as he would catch lightning in the sky.
Alternatively the man can no longer see the star because the star is seasonal. There are times when, at night it is not visible. There are stars that are visible only during certain seasons. Isilimela is a cluster of stars that is said to emerge only during a certain season in the year. It thus becomes a marker that heralds commencement of certain rituals. The term ukuthwasa applies to the emergence of isilimela.
It thus seems the heavens controlled cultural and natural activities on earth. Heavenly cycles that are a depiction of revolution and rotation of these bodies inform the natural events and cultural practices on our planet. In southern Africa the onset of rains is from about October or November each year. When the rainy season is ushered in, cropping starts. In the veld grass sprouts, and the trees start flowering. It is time for regeneration.
Movement of the same heavenly bodies ushers the onset of winter, the time of rest when trees lose their leaves and some animals go into hibernation. Metabolic processes are at their lowest, just at levels to ensure life processes are maintained. Some cultures begin a period of celebration after harvest. Beer is brewed and revelling ensues. The Mbakumba Dance is one such form of celebration that was performed by the Karanga people of Masvingo (see Zimbabwe’s Traditional Dances: 5 Mbakumba by Chikomo and Nyathi: 2019).
In forthcoming articles we shall see some link between umthala, a portion of a cow’s stomach and umthala, a cluster of stars in the heavens. Celestial names find expression on earth. This follows some observed similarities, the replication of heaven on earth.
There is a star named ikhwezi and its counterpart on earth is a bird of the same name. Indeed, some of these stars provide metaphors that are applied in human relations. For example, a king may be praised as follows:
Ilanga elaphum’ endlebeni yendlovu,
Laphum’ amakhwez’ abikelana.
The king is likened to the bright and blinding sun whose emergence on the eastern sky was accompanied by chirping of birds, amakhwezi, that informed each other about the spectacular event. Imagery in the first line is much broader than may be assumed at first value. Birth is here being referred to. Female genitals are the subject of the imagery.
We shall, in the few coming articles, dwell on stars and what the Ndebele people knew about them. More important for us will be to bring out some links between names and the behaviour of stars. Naming was sometimes a result of observed behaviour, not just of cattle and humans on earth, but also of stars in the heavens. Where names for heavenly bodies were observed to derive from observable behaviour, when that same behaviour was observed on earthly phenomena, the same names were given.
The inkanyezi that we shall deal with today is indonsakusa. Literally, the name means to “pull dawn.” It is a heavenly body that emerges in the eastern sky every morning. It heralds dawn. We have referred to it as inkanyezi for a reason. In the IsiNdebele language there is imprecision, where both stars and planets are referred to as izinkanyezi. The morning star, it seems is Planet Venus whose brightness derives from the sun’s reflected light. What matters though is that it is bright and emerges every morning ahead of the sun.
A short while after the emergence of indonsakusa, rays of light begin to show. The night is over and a new day beckons. The eastern sky brightens up. It is a transitional time commonly referred to as emathathakusa or empondozankomo or emadabukakusa. Both indonsakusa and emathathakusa seem to share something in common. Ukusa, dawn, seems like a condition that is pulled, or summoned. This implies some causal action. Dawn is summoned. Dawn is taken. Dawn is pulled. Indonsakusa is the heavenly body responsible for the advent of dawn. The Kalanga name for the same heavenly body suggests the same ideas.
Culturally, dawn was regarded as bearing a lot of significance. For the Ndebele armies, it was time to launch attacks on targeted groups while they were in deep sleep. Fighting in the Pupu Battle across the Shangani River pitting the Ndebele versus the British took place at dawn. For one undertaking a journey it was time to initiate the journey. Temperatures are cool and vision has improved, thus enabling the traveller to identify the way. It is time for regeneration, a time that is welcomed and celebrated. It signifies rebirth in that the sun which gives life is about to emerge. Plants make food during the day when the process of photosynthesis takes place, resulting in their making food in the form of starch. If the sun failed to rise, that would, without doubt, mark the beginning of the end.
There were cultural rituals that were performed to mark arrival of the cycle of life. Many human activities are controlled by this daily cycle. Day is life; night is death.
