The Sunday News
Phathisa Nyathi
“I THINK, therefore I am,” said one philosopher. If we think we are more advanced than other animal species, it is because we are endowed with the mind which we use to extend the frontiers of knowledge. That knowledge derives from lived experiences both in the present and in the past. Different communities and societies access past knowledge in numerous and diverse ways. Storytelling, legends, myths, art, research, writing, historical narratives, dreams and revelations are some of the ways through which past knowledge is transmitted down the generations. Sometimes racial and ethnic arrogance get the better of us and think other people’s epistemologies and knowledge count for naught.
What is named has passed through some rational thought process. Thus by investigating the names available within a community, we are in a position to appreciate ideas, values, ideals, histories, perceptions, beliefs and indeed, knowledge of that given community. In last week’s edition of the Sunday News Dr Mandla Nyathi correctly observed that the name Dumiso is prevalent among the Ndebele people. He made mention of the fact following the demise of Dr Dumiso Dabengwa, the man behind the naming of many children born in particular, in the 1960s.
I can count no less than three Dumisos that I know of. Misheck Ntundu Velaphi had a son named Dumiso born in the 1960s. The son was born after the father had been incarcerated at Khami Prison and only saw his son after release, albeit a temporary reprieve. Velaphi passed in April 2019 and was declared a national hero. My “small (young) father” Paul Themba Nyathi also has a son of the same name. I do know too that Jeremy Brickhill, who served under Dabengwa in the National Security Organisation(NSO), has a son of the same name and both, I am told, attended Dabengwa’s funeral at Ntabazinduna two weeks ago. All the three gentlemen in question were political animals who were active at the time when Dabengwa himself was involved in the liberation struggle.
What we can surmise from such naming is that the character whose name was given to babies born during his time possessed positive and admirable attributes almost approximating hero worshipping. By so doing, the said fathers immortalised the name of Dumiso given to a baby boy born 79 years ago to parents who had different reasons for so naming him. The parents may have been praying that the son become, when grown up, one who would be attended by fame. Alternatively, the parents may have been expressing gratitude for the precious gift of a child, siyadumisa. As it turned out, the son, on account of his role in Zapu/ZPRA’s armed liberation struggle and beyond independence, fulfilled the parents’ desires. In the process he courted the admiration of many men of similar political persuasion.
However, naming within a cultural realm will be dealt with later. For now we are bringing to a close naming in the natural realm, starting initially with the cosmic bodies and phenomena in the cosmic sphere. We then investigated naming within the terrestrial realm, focusing in particular, on the natural realm. We observed that the terrestrial realm, as the abode of humankind, is more intensively named. This is also to say it is a realm that is more intimately known. Humankind interacts more closely with the immediate environment. Technological advances push back the frontiers of the named and known world. We have observed too that Africans have lost considerable knowledge following colonisation when what they had hitherto considered knowledge was trashed, denigrated and demonised to a point where many of them no longer believe their ancestors ever possessed meaningful knowledge which has contributed to the stock of world knowledge over the ages. This is evident when it comes to astronomy and related ecoliteracy.
The British Council-sponsored podcast titled cultural expressions has sought to throw the spotlight on some of this knowledge that has been covered under immensely thick layers of ignorance, prejudice and racial bigotry. Most of that knowledge now exists as myths, harmful cultural practices, all totally devoid of cosmological underpinnings and even passed over as superstition. This is the tragedy of cultural imperialism which is very much alive in our world today.
The natural terrestrial realm as named reality depicts and expresses ideas, knowledge and perceptions of those who have made that part of the environment their habitat. Man’s environment is named and perceived in terms of its capacity or lack of same to nourish humankind in a sustainable manner. Nature is conserved for preservation, all with the intention of deriving maximum benefit from that environment on a sustainable basis. Africans perceived the world and indeed the cosmos, as characterised by continuity, eternity, endlessness and perpetuity. With that in mind, the environment, as the source of human survival through a supportive ecosystem, was conserved. In all that effort Africans placed themselves at the centre of an interacting, inter-related and interlinked environment with a scintillatingly integrated life of its own.
That reality was captured in a community’s language. Last week I had the privilege to attend, at the Hilton Hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg, the Africa Summit and Leaders’ Conference 2019 organised by the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) in conjunction with Inkululeko Yesizwe Association (IYA). Several serving and past Prime Ministers, Presidents and Heads of State were in attendance. Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa was represented by Josiah Hungwe. Former Presidents Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria and Mahamane Ousemane attended the meeting whose theme was, “Building a Peaceful and Prosperous Africa Centred on Universal Values.” Also present was Dr Pecioza Naigaga Wandira Kazibwe who has served as Uganda’s Executive Vice-President who, in her speech, gave emphasis to the need to educate people on their history, culture and language. “To know who and where we are, we need to know who and where we were.” For that, she argued, language is critically important. People need to locate themselves in the current cultural and political contexts.
Where a given environment was perceived as critical to human sustenance, measures were instituted to conserve it. Such measures were, in some instances, infused with spiritual sacredness. In that regard, they were viewed with respect, awe, reverence and veneration. These were culturally infused attributes whose effects translated to environment conservation for preservation. Taboos were sometimes visited upon such environments which were linked to human sustenance. Taboos were never challenged and were thus obeyed without question, because they were taken as the truth or advice from the wise sages of the community. In most cases the real material meaning was thinly veiled when in essence preservation was the ultimate intended goal. The wished-for preservation was targeted at individuals or the environment, or both. All environmental entities were regarded as having a life of their own. None were regarded as inanimate. A stone possessed a life of its own, so did all other items on the terrestrial and extra-terrestrial items. Respect was attended to these objects hence their conservation out of, in the first instance respect and, in the final analysis, their importance in guaranteeing human sustenance.
Environments were not equally endowed with resources and naming brought out that idea. Inkangala depicts desert conditions characterised by marginality. Water, the epitome and substance of life, is scarce. Trees, grass and other forms of life are equally scarce. The environment’s capacity to sustain life is constrained and inhibited. As a result, human habitation is either limited or totally absent where there is, to all intents and purposes, no scope for the sustenance of human life and life of other species.
Igusu refers to a thickly wooded environment such as one found in Nkayi and Lupane, “Emaguswini amnyama.” The name carries certain environmental perceptions. The Ndebele were, after defeat by the British colonists, pushed to the dark forests which did not represent their idea of a habitable and friendly environment. The dark forests, “Komnyam’ ubambile,” were the lair of lions and other carnivorous animals that preyed on livestock. The plant called umkhawuzane, when ingested by cattle, proved fatal. It was no wonder therefore, that political influences crept into the areas where, as brought out in last week’s story of John Maluzo Ndlovu, the area turned into a ripe forum for political agitation where the likes of Ronald Isaac Mswelaboya Sibanda, Welshman Hadane Mabhena and Lakatshona Ndebele, inter alia, became leading nationalists who stood head and shoulder against oppression and repression of Africans.
