The Sunday News
Pathisa Nyathi
WE continue to subject H Vaughan Williams’ layout sketch of Umvutshwa to scrutiny especially to check whether the sketch tallies with our knowledge of the cultural practices and cosmology of the 19th Century Ndebele people. From last week’s account, especially in relation to the arrangement of the queens’ huts, it became apparent that there were some inaccuracies.
However, we did see some correct spatial and cosmological representation of the ways and beliefs of the Ndebele. This was particularly true of the layout of the wooden palisade.
Even where inaccuracies are observed we still learn something. The focus on certain aspects of the residents of Umvutshwa village allows us to investigate and interrogate those aspects. Inaccurate documentation is undoubtedly better than no documentation at all. We are at a loss as to who the queens at Umvutshwa were. This is so because their names do not appear in European records nor do their names survive in Ndebele oral traditions. At both Enyokeni/Entenjaneni and Esagogwaneni/Emahlabathini we know there was Queen Lozikeyi Dlodlo okaNgogo the elder brother to Tshotsha whose son was the better known Nhlanhla also known as Mazha (a Shona equivalent of Nhlanhla).
Vaughan Williams did not tell us who the chief at Umvutshwa was. At the royal towns the chiefs were known. Magwegwe Fuyana, umfokaNgazana kaMgitshima was chief at Kobulawayo. At King Mzilikazi’s capital town of Mhlahlandlela Gwabalanda Mathe was the chief with Qaqa Ndiweni, father to Manyewu, as chief at the sub-village, Kwesincinyane.
Apparently, we do not seem to have the names of the chiefs who were in charge at the royal satellite towns such as Umvutshwa, Emganwini and Amatsh’amhlophe. Queen Xhwalile Nxumalo is reported as having lived at Emganwini by one Doctor Crick who visited the satellite town after 1870.
Demarcations, as we saw in last week’s instalment, separated people of different social, political and economic status.
Palisades or walls equally separated areas associated with special economic activities and sacred rituals. While at Umvutshwa the demarcations were of wooden palisades other materials will achieve the same results. Vaughan Williams did indicate the different areas at Umvutshwa. Today we look at what he referred to as the witchdoctors’ enclosure. Vaughan Williams, like his fellow whites of his time, suffered from the disease of racial discrimination or what we may term the politics of exclusion.
They, (the whites) had medical doctors while those they considered inferior had witchdoctors. Whites lived in houses in towns while blacks lived in huts in kraals. Suffice it to say what he referred to as witchdoctors were doctors.
We did indicate the pervasiveness of African spirituality in everything the African did. The royal town had doctors in the form of herbal practitioners and spiritual diviners who attended to the needs of the king. The king had to be fortified through various means such as steaming, ukufutha, introduction of protective medicines through incisions made on strategic places on his body. His residence was the next that was fortified followed by the entire settlement and finally, the physical boundaries of the kingdom. Cattle pens, as important economic and spiritual sites, were fortified.
Some of the doctors attended to the queens some of whom were consulted by gynaecologists in order to conceive. We already know about Queen Lozikeyi Dlodlo’s inhlanzi, a surrogate wife to King Lobengula, was attended to by Sidambe Ncube hence the baby girl born to her was named after the gynaecologist in accordance with Ndebele customary practice. Another of king Lobengula’s queens had to have gynaecological intervention for her to conceive. Her name was Mbhida okaLodada Mkhwananzi. An inhlanzi in the name of Mfaziwamajaha was brought to the king by the Mkhwananzis. It turned out Mbhida conceived and her baby boy was appropriately named Nyamande after the gynaecologist from Gutu where the Nyamandes still live today.
For example the Khumalos known as Amanyangana were specialists in the business of protecting or fortifying royal towns.
These people also referred to as Ngwende, ababhoda umuzi wenkosi ngotsheko (they encircled the royal town with faecal material). This was not rendered in the literal sense; rather, it was a reference to the fact that witches, abathakathi attempting to get to the settlement would see piles and piles of faeces which would act as deterrents to their nefarious efforts to get inside and cause harm. The Khumalos in question belonged to the Mfulani (the father of Mlonyeni who in turn is the father of Mabhikwa in Lupane) house and Ntola Khumalo at Mzinyathini. The distinguished fighter Mkhaliphi Khumalo also belonged to this house of specialists in royal village fortification.
Those doctors who attended to the king were not allowed to also attend to the commoners. Some of these medical practitioners were war doctors. They doctored the soldiers going out on raids. They attended to the returning soldiers who brought booty in the form of cattle and captives. To ensure that such doctors were not tempted to attend to the commoners they lived within the royal satellite town. Indeed, research at Bulawayo (Enyokeni/ Entenjaneni) yielded several python vertebrae and bones from vultures. Doctors made use of python vertebrae which, once string was threaded through them, were worn over the doctors’ shoulders. A python was regarded as having regenerative powers which quality was sought after by the doctors who depended on diagnostic powers to ‘‘see’’ or diagnose the problem and come up with remedial intervention.
A vulture had its bones used in some symbolic function because to the Ndebele a vulture, ilinqe has powers to foresee the future. When a cow dies the vultures appear almost immediately. They will even appear before the cow has breathed its last. A doctor must be in a position to foresee or foretell looming danger or possible fate that might befall an impi out on a raid. The bones of a vulture were thus an integral part of a doctor’s paraphernalia. Excavation will probably yield evidence of the residence of doctors at the place indicated by Vaughan Williams in his sketch of Umvutshwa.
Spiritual work performed by the doctors was not only sacred but also secretive. All and sundry were not supposed to know what medicinal formulations were used on the person of king. The king had to have his own strengthening and healing formulations that other people did not have in their bodies. His power had always to be above that of other persons including his chiefs. The doctors had intelligence officers watching how they conducted themselves. Confidentiality was enforced to ensure the metaphysical security and safety of the king.
