Some spiritual dimensions in food:Relating two worlds apart
Cultural Heritage
Pathisa Nyathi
AFRICANS posited that death is not an end but an important transitional phase and entry point to eternal life in another realm, the spiritual realm. This critical and defining moment is attended with elaborate rituals calculated to effect the transition of the spirit to another life. A closer scrutiny of the rituals will point to certain beliefs regarding perceptions of the two worlds.
The 12 Zodiac constellations are thought to separate the spiritual from the material and physical worlds. The two worlds are, however, interlinked and are in communication. The journeying spirit must be accompanied by material items of the physical world that the living person possessed and cherished. These are funerary items which may include utensils that the deceased used in life.
Life before death was effected through three components; body, soul (spirit) and mind. The three are important for communication with the outer world in its various manifestations. Body and spirit themselves must communicate and remain in close contact. The mind is that interface or plane that links the body to the spirit. The outer spiritual world cannot communicate with the material component of man. In other words, spirit communicates with spirit and material communicates with material.
Communication across different media thus requires a unique arrangement that relates to both. This is the function of the mind whose life depends on the continued existence of both components. The mind, of necessity, embraces characteristics of both the spiritual and the material for it to relate to both. The spiritual world accesses man through his spiritual component. The physical body alone will not receive signals from the world of spirits. Conversely, a wholly material body will not send signals to the spirit world.
The world of the African then is essentially vaster than that posited by westerners who are more into the material universe. These differing perceptions of the cosmos have manifested themselves in differences in built environment. The African, whose world is spiritual, is less inclined to build enormous material structures. Indeed, in Africa the pyramids in Egypt and Sudan and Zimbabwe type architectural structures in Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa and Mozambique were virtually all there was by way of colossal physical structures in Africa. In both cases, these structures provided a link between physical and spiritual realms. Both served as burial sites for divine rulers.
The 1972 Unesco Convention on the Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage seemed to favour places outside of Africa where there were massive physical structures. The Incas and Mayans also built massive structures connected with spirituality. This will be obvious where religious structures are concerned. The Apostolic and Zionist Christian churches did not build structures in which to worship. For the African, nature provided places of worship, where God met man. Mountain caves were such structures, Njelele Shrine being a case in point
This critical link is exhibited when food preferences are considered. Food provided sustenance and continued life. There were cultural preferences when it came to food. This was as a result of a people’s worldview, their food taboos, where applicable and historical interactions with the environment. As pointed out in earlier articles totemism will exclude meat from certain people’s diet. People who live close to the sea may show preference for seafoods and yet some people who live by the sea but having totemic links with sea animals will not consume meat from these animals. The Nguni people of South Africa are a case in point.
What may not be that apparent is the link between spiritual tastes and preferences and their impact on choice of food. One Nguni person, while on a visit to China, decided he was going to eat fish. The consequences on his health we dire. In the Western world this would be interpreted as some kind of allergy. Illnesses are both cultural and physical and may require a multipronged or holistic approach.
For an African, certain foods with their characteristic aromas may be spiritually unacceptable. Spirit may dictate choices and preferences when it comes to food. This is particularly so among spirit mediums, those persons with high content of spirituality. For some people, this all sounds like nonsensical mumbo jumble. It certainly will not make sense to materialists — those who exclude from their beliefs the existence of the spiritual realm including ancestral beings.
Ancestral beings who have taken possession of the living exert influence on them including their choice of colour of attire, for example. The same applies to food. A spirit once lived in a particular world with particular foods. Some of the foods present today were not in existence then. Quite often these foods are not preferred. Onion and spices in general may be such examples. Commercial cooking oils may be another example. A sick spirit causes sickness to its housing. A sick body imparts sickness to the spirit that inhabits it.
It is believed ancestral spirits do ‘‘consume’’ food. In the African spiritual world sacrifices to the living dead have included food. The different nature of the two, the living and the living dead, is expressed through what they eat. Let us refer to the Ndebele for some example. Gall, inyongo, is considered bitter and not consumed by ordinary people, the living.
The spirits, who are considered different, will however, consume it as they are different. Their taste is not our taste. Their preference is not our preference. Such different foods played a role in the propitiation of the ancestral spirits. For example, a bride who went to bid farewell to her relatives had a beast, goat or cow, slaughtered for her. Gall from such a beast was poured over her body joints. That was a way of communicating with the gods (ancestral spirits/ amadlozi) who lived in the same spiritual realm with God.
The bride was accompanied by an assistant around whose neck blown gall bladders were hung. This young girl was called usonyongwana. The bride was showered with gifts such as ilala baskets, izingcebethu and izitsha, sleeping and sitting mats, amacansi, and meal-mats, izithebe, among other artifacts. These gift items were not immediately taken to the groom’s village. Only after some time would the bride visit her former home, a journey called ukuphinda umkhondo.
Upon her arrival at the groom’s place some beast was slaughtered and its gall was poured in similar fashion as when she left her own relatives. This time inyongo was being used to introduce her to the spirits of the groom. The equation of life had to balance: what her people subtracted, through separation rites, had to be added by the groom’s people, through incorporation rites. Indeed, among the Ndebele people, she henceforth was counted in a spiritual sense among the groom’s people following this spiritual incorporation. Even her burial rites and related arrangements were those of her husband’s people. She no longer was allowed to be involved in the spiritual matters of her own people. In a spiritual sense, she could not belong to two worlds.
Her incorporation and integration were not complete until she had been introduced or allowed to partake of her in-laws’ food, notably curdled milk, amasi and given authority to prepare food for the new family. This was done by her mother-in-law, who like her, was incorporated and integrated much earlier. It was a case of a former stranger welcoming a new stranger.