The Sunday News
THE colour of those who hold power does not matter. King Lobengula possessed power and the white hangers on tumbled over each other to win royal favour. From a distance they coughed his praises till they got to the entrance of the royal town. They were even prepared to crawl on all fours to gain access to his royal palace. Crawling disempowered would-be assassins. The existence of parallel stone walls at Great Zimbabwe served the same purpose.
The same disempowering architecture existed at Khami where those walking to the royal hill summit were forced to do so in a single file — and with a roof above their heads.
It was no easy task to get to the royal town. The periphery of the state had special villages known as izihlabamkhosi or izikhuza which sent word to the king about visitors that intended to enter the kingdom. The visitors were not allowed to proceed till word of approval had been dispatched by the king. In some instances the visitors were accompanied by the soldiers sent by the king. This must not be interpreted as some sort of red carpet treatment for the visitors. Rather, it was to spy on them and make sure they did not see beyond what was royally sanctioned. Of course there were cases where such soldiers did help provide draught power for the ox wagons where the oxen had been killed by lions.
A network of spies lived in these outlying villages to gather intelligence on the movements of potential enemies. Some semi-independent chiefs within the tributary state also served as intelligence officers with Chief Kgoatalala of the Babirwa as a good example. King Mzilikazi appointed him to keep watch over the southern border in case the Boers made yet another foray into his kingdom as they had done in 1847 under Andries Hendriek Potgieter, uNdaleka. Some or all of the whites living at the White Man’s Camp did pass through this routine border protocol.
Once they were within the White Man’s Camp the beautiful Ndebele maidens attended to their needs — cooking for them and generally entertaining them. More importantly, the maidens were serving in the royal intelligence service.
Marieke Clarke, Paul Hubbard and I are now where many such whites lived before the fall of the Ndebele State. Hubbard the archaeologist tells us about the status of the forest on the eve of conquest. He is quick to tell us the place was devoid of thick forests. This is not difficult to understand. Each time an impi was to be sent out on a raid it had to report at the royal seat of power — in this case KoBulawayo. The soldiers did not enter the royal town. Instead, they camped outside where they built temporary shelters, amadlangala. For that they made use of trees — for their shelter and firewood. The soldiers drove large herds of cattle as their provisions on the hoof for the outward journey. Even on the return journey they still made use of the cattle initially brought out of Matabeleland.
That was done in fear of eating meat from undoctored cattle for fear of contracting some diseases. Booty in the form of young children and cattle was doctored before being taken into the royal town for distribution. War doctors such as Sobukhazi Masuku were called upon to attend to what later generally came to be known as intundu kaSobukhazi.
Upon return the soldiers camped outside the royal town, once again depleting the forests around the royal town.
During certain national ceremonies such as Inxwala, Umthontiso, Umhlanga and Umkhehlo men camped outside the royal town. The large numbers translated to heightened depletion of the forests, water resources and grass. For each occasion large herds were brought to feed the large crowds. The king himself kept large herds which were slaughtered to feed the visitors and other persons calling upon the king including the leading chiefs that from time to time called upon the king to endear themselves to him, ukuzakotha and generally report to the king on the state of affairs in their areas of jurisdiction. Given such depletion of resources around the royal town it is not surprising that royal Ndebele towns were shifted from one place to the other over time.
It does not come as a surprise that there was general denudation of the environment. However Hubbard is quick to identify those trees that survived at the Missionaries Tree. He classifies the trees as those that produced edible fruits.
Such trees served some nuitritional needs of the local community. As a result such trees were spared. The next class of trees that Hubbard identified as having been spared was medicinal trees. Before colonisation and the advent of Christianity the Ndebele pinned a lot of hope on the efficacy of medicinal concoctions. Spirituality, sometimes translating itself into medicinal applications, pervaded all spheres of life. From prior to the birth of an individual to post-death medicines were applied on individuals, their homesteads and their domesticated animals.
One of the reasons why soldiers came to the royal town before and after a raid was to apply some charms to help them avoid injury and dispel bad luck generally. Intelezi medicines were applied and a spirit of comradeship and togetherness, esprit de corps, was inculcated. Upon return, bad luck and any possible bad spells were cast out through medicinal cleansing, ukuphunga. There was thus a general respect for trees that provided medicines for various purposes. This was a case of spirituality assisting in the preservation of forests.
The last class of trees that survived the onslaught was that which Hubbard referred to as being saved by taboo. Tapu is a Polynesian term which has had universal application among anthropologists. What is taboo is revered, neither killed nor eaten and generally preserved. There are several such trees that would owe their continued existence to Ndebele cosmology and general spiritual beliefs. Hubbard himself pointed out ichithamuzi. As the name says it, when ichithamuzi is burned within a homestead it will cause conflict among the residents of the homestead.
A tree called umbola is not collected for firewood. Ukubola means to rot. Perhaps when such a tree is burnt in a home it has the effect of causing the protective charms used in the homestead to rot or lose their power and efficacy. Each home used to be fortified with medicines, ukubethela izikhonkwane. Umphafa and isihlangu trees are both used to cover graves after burial. Both are never harvested for firewood. However, some trees were taboo at clan or tribal level. For example, the Babirwa did not collect umtewa for firewood. The Babirwa used this particular plant to concoct some ibaso/umthuso for their cattle.
As Hubbard pointed out the three categories of surviving trees that had my mind racing back to the days when we grew up at Sankonjana. We were introduced to several species of trees that were not to be used as firewood. Though firewood collection was the preserve of our mothers and sisters, we as boys were equally alerted to the trees that were taboo. As boys we killed some animals in the bush and proceeded to make a fire to roast our kill. Even in the bush those taboo trees were not to be used as smoke issuing from their burning would get into our nostrils and cause harm to us. So, Hubbard was right to explain the preservation of some trees through spirituality as in the cases of medicinal uses, avoidance through taboo and their providing edible fruits. There is still a lot to survey and consume here at the Missionaries Tree and that we shall deal with next week.
