The Sunday News
Phathisa Nyathi
IDEAS, perceptions and beliefs pertaining the moon seem more than we originally had bargained for. Language, it can be confirmed, is an important repository of a community’s beliefs, perceptions and knowledge. Words, proverbs and names, inter alia, are important archival tools that future generations ought to turn to in order to unravel their past and understand it better. For this reason the death of a language leaves the world’s community all the more poorer. It is not a matter of how many people speak the language, but rather one of that language’s contribution to the knowledge available to humanity.
Only last week I found myself asking a colleague the question, “Inyanga ithini lamhla?” Literally, that translates as follows, “What is the moon saying today?” All that I was enquiring about was the date. The moon is an important heavenly body when it comes to dating, from the birth of a baby to the progression of the lunar month. Thus the moon is relevant not only when healing is considered and its potency transferred to traditional doctors. A year, umnyaka, was reckoned in terms of numbers of lunar months.
However, it is ideas relating to regeneration, rebirth and regrowth that we turn to now. One observation relates to the part of a tree trunk where medicinal bark is extracted. Those extracting some bark looked at the sun’s route in the sky. They sought to identify the east-west orientation. The same was true of the route that the moon followed. Orientation was important as it was believed medicinal power resident in a bark depended on which side of the tree trunk it was obtained and the relationship between its position on the tree trunk and the path of either the sun or moon. This consideration equally applied to roots being excavated.
Whereas the two celestial bodies emerge from different directions, they trend in the same general direction; east-west. The new moon emerges in the western sky while the sun rises in the eastern sky. It is observed that the two traverse the sky in the same east-west orientation. The axis that the two follow was important to ancient Africans. The east, as a cardinal point, is associated with regeneration, rebirth and regrowth whereas the west is the opposite. Egyptian pyramids which were associated with death were located west of the Nile River, towards the setting sun. Sunset is perceived as the death of the sun and at the cultural level symbolised that of a Pharaoh, the Egyptian ruler. Each morning the sun rises in the eastern sky and, in the process, symbolises regeneration.
The moon is even more symbolic when it comes to the execution of the idea of regeneration. While it will appear every day save for one day in a lunar month, it’s more important trait is its appearance every 28 or so days in the western sky. That rebirth follows its death, the day when it is not visible in the sky. It waxes till it attains full moon status. After that it wanes to its death. Ideas displayed by both bodies encapsulate rebirth which translates to a new life, a life that has been resuscitated and reinvigorated. Apparently, that is precisely what a sick person is looking for. His/ her lost state of good health requires restoration. That translates to being born again, being regenerated and reinvigorated and restored to good health.
What a traditional healer then does is to marry the potency of a tree bark with the reinvigorating potency of the two bodies. He/ she relies on the observed trail or axis of the two bodies in the sky; the east-west orientation. Debarking thus occurs not just anywhere on the tree trunk but on the east-west sides of the tree, the axis that is congruent with the movement of the two powerful bodies in the sky. To some extent, even today a scrutiny of debarked medicinal trees such as morula, umganu, reveals this phenomenon.
What is important in medicinal application is to restore life to its fullness. The idea of fullness is encompassed within the movements of the two heavenly bodies, movements that translate to regeneration or restorative healing. Ultimately, it is life that is restored. Timing is of the essence here too. Full moon is when there is maximum potency. Waxing builds up to a full moon, at its maximum potency. Waning on the other hand marks the decline in potency culminating in zero potency on the day the moon is not visible in the sky. Traditional doctors keep track of lunar movement and align chosen sides for extraction with maximum lunar potency.
The sun on the other hand shows maximum disrespect when it is vertical and at or nearing its hottest worst. It is what the Ndebele people will refer to as “Seligwaze umhlaba!” The sun is stabbing the earth which is perceived as symbolising a woman. The sexual insinuation therefore is just too vulgar. Burials are never conducted when the sun is engaged in some pornographic act. Even the traditional healers stop their healing activities when the sun is “stabbing the earth.” Sex is perceived as defiling and hence traditional doctors try, as far as practically feasible, to abstain from sexual activity. Those going to the Njelele Rain Shrine maintain sexual purity.
There is an expression among the Ndebele, “Weqiwe yinyanga’’. This would be in reference to a girl or woman who has missed her menstrual periods. Literally, they are saying the moon has “jumped over” her. “Mens” in Latin refers to the moon. Africans were thus not the only ones to see some link between the moon and menstruation. The menstrual cycle is of the same rhythm as the lunar cycle. Uterine tissues prepare for possible conception. A lot of blood capillaries develop so that there is adequate supply of blood. Indeed, when the moon “jumps over a woman” the blood-rich tissues develop into a placenta. The one who has had the moon “jump over” her is saved from period pains. The jumping moon has a healing effect.
Let us now turn to King Mzilikazi’s royal praises that relate to the moon:
Inyang’ abath’ ifil’ uZulu,
Kant’ ithwase ngoNyokana kaMpeyana.
King Tshaka and his nation thought they had routed the Ndebele. They thought Mzilikazi, then not elevated to the status of King, and his fledgling nation had been destroyed, nay killed. But lo and behold, his nation was alive and kicking as testified to by Chief Mpeyana that he had destroyed. The dead moon, symbolising the king and his nation had resurrected. Indeed, that is the character of the moon, through its cycle it dies and resurrects. A defeated people are like a sick people and in the case of King Mzilikazi and his people they regained life, they were regenerated like a moon.
Many a poet has read the second line as “NgoNyakana kaMpeyana”. Here the meaning is totally lost and this happens because the history that the line refers to has been lost. When the Ndebele survived battering by King Tshaka’s forces, they pushed ahead and decimated two chiefs east of the Drakensberg Mountains. These were Chief Sambane referred to in Mncumbatha Khumalo’s praises. The other was Chief Mpeyana and both seem to have been Nguni-ised Sothos.
