SOME ZAMBIANS ARE KILLING OWN TRADITIONS
It has been said over and over again that a nation without culture is a dead one but some Zambians are in the frontline spearing, catapulting and stoning down their own traditional practices with the same enthusiasm they fought colonialism.
Look, if you were a male visiting a home of Zambian relatives, chances were that you would be hugged by teenage nieces as a way of greeting. This practice is common in most Zambian homes.
Obviously this is not the Zambian way of life. It has been copied from some other lands and pasted on this bean-shaped Zambia territory and it is holding!
It is not Zambian for a niece to hug an uncle because the man is a father and the girl a daughter but this affection is allowed to go on in the name of modernity.
The end result of this is that the hug could send the guest into hatching some ideas.
As if this was not enough, a conversation between the visitor and the much younger relatives may not go well especially if Zambian languages were the medium of communication.
This is so because the young ones speak English only at home with their father, mother and older siblings. Chances were that indigenous Zambian languages which form part of the traditional practices were not encouraged to be spoken in some Zambian homesteads.
The end result of this is the killing, slaying and murdering of Zambian languages by the Zambians.
Further, a young Zambian on a bus would not give up a seat for a much older Zambian because doing so could be deemed to be child abuse similar to the former exploitation of a black man by a white man.
A short while ago, it was common in both village huts and town homes for families to conduct what they called “cleansing ceremonies” for men and women whose spouses had died. But the main ingredient of this traditional practice has been cut-off in the name of retrogression.
Reasons advanced for this highly enjoyable ceremony, especially to the participating man, is that of preventing the spread of HIV which causes AIDS. This is a lame ground and advocates of such thinking should look beyond the Limpopo River.
A former President of South Africa is known to have bedded an HIV positive woman who, at the time of the act in 2005, was AIDS activist. But Jacob Zuma is still alive, kicking and jiving to the sinjonjo tunes of that Rainbow country.
The man is said to have taken a shower soon after the encounter. The shower, whether it was cold or hot or both cold and hot, is also said to have killed the virus and pushed it down the drain – smart Jacob.
Therefore, to remove the main component from the cleansing ceremony of people whose spouses had died is retrogressive to say the least. Culture is dynamic and what should have been done was instead to alter the old practice a bit by providing a bucket full of water for use by the pair soon after, the Zuma way.
Sadly, Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo better known as Khwezi by her admirers was the woman involved with Zuma. She went to be with the Lord in 2016 at the age of 41 years. May Her Soul Rest in Eternal Peace.
You might say that many people have succumbed to the HIV virus and mention high profile individuals such as Fela Anikulapo Kuti, that Nigerian musical revolutionary and political activist.
But Fela Kuti did not apply the “Zuma-Special” and he died of the virus in 1997. Had he gone the Zuma way, perhaps he would have been alive by now and belting out new songs to the delight of many of you.
He believed in traditional African culture, which included having many wives and married 27 women at the same time in 1977. Do not ask me whether his widows were cleansed fully components.
Nevertheless, the Nigerian Afrobeat musician was naughty too. Taking advantage of his two brothers who studied medicine and worked as medical doctors, he convinced his middle class parents to send him to London to study medicine.
Upon arrival in the United Kingdom in 1958, Fela Kuti instead enrolled at The Trinity College of Music.
Sorry for veering from the subject matter but one more piece of information about Fela Kuti. Some of his Afrobeat songs did not go well with the ruling military and he was arrested 200 times.
Look, not long ago and per traditional custom, women were told not to eat eggs because if they did, they would court abortion each time they fell pregnant. This practice has now been axed and the end result is that few eggs hatch because many are eaten up by women.
This was exactly what the “egg and women” custom was all about, to ensure the breeding of chickens undisturbed but the tradition has been done away with resulting in dwindling chicken population.
By the way, it has just come to my knowledge that the current dry spell would soon come to an end and heavy rains will pour down when all the Mukanda Ceremonies along with their Mukanda Camps close down.
The Mukanda elders are said to have tied the skies so that it does not rain and disturb their programme. The skies would only be set free after the Mukanda Camps close down. Only then will the clouds gather and the rain pour down on dogs and cats.
The Mukanda is an initiation ritual for boys, which is practiced by the Mbunda people of North- Western Province. Usually, young boys live for three to six months in isolation at a bush camp away from their villages and are circumcised as the custom demands.
The lads are also taught practical survival-skills as well as knowledge about nature, religion, social practices and values during their stay in the camp.
I thought I should tell you so you can stop worrying about the prolonged dry spell.
However, this ceremony too has undergone alteration. In town, for instance, any boy or man straying near the Mukanda bush camp was captured regardless of the non- circumcision region the captive hailed from.
And, if found to be uncircumcised upon inspection, of course in the nude, the “prisoner” was forced to go under the blade like the rest of the other inmates but this seems to be no more.
As Christians living in this Christian nation of Zambia, the Biblical teaching against adding or subtracting anything from the scriptures should be adhered to. When a Bible verse says that Jesus Christ turned water into wine and served multitudes of people, it is just that.
No one should add anything to this scripture and say that Jesus made beer. Likewise, traditional practices should remain intact without any alteration, including the cleansing of widows and widowers.
With zeal, Zambians fought British colonialism culminating in independence in 1964. With similar enthusiasm, they are now spearing, catapulting and stoning their own traditional culture.
Let us do something and let God help us keep our traditional customs intact.