Minimising reduction of crop yields: recourse to indigenous technologies

Cultural Heritage

Pathisa Nyathi

GIVEN our tropical climate, food production is precluded during winter months when temperatures are low with no rain. Rain-fed agriculture is thus limited to the summer months following the start of the New Year. The African New Year in the southern hemisphere commenced in September when the overhead sun was on the Tropic of Capricorn, the Spring Equinox. The New Year was marked by trees developing new leaf buds ( ukununkula). This was the time when rain rituals were held in the numerous sites called madaka in TjiKalanga, such as Njelele in the Matobo Hills.

The African Lunar Year was computed by the Zodiac. The Lunar Year was divided into three seasons of four months each. The seasons are the initiation season ( Shemu), ploughing ( Akhet) and harvest ( Faro). What is important to observe here is that major cultural events or festivals and rituals, be they social, economic, cultural or political, were controlled by the movement of heavenly or cosmic bodies.

In September the Pleiades ( isilimela/khelemela), appears and marks the beginning of the rain season. The appearance of the Pleiades serves as reminder to the traditional leaders and health practitioners to start cleansing the land in preparation for the onset of the New Year and the rain-making season. This is the time seed is consecrated and sown. For the African, the season was seen as linking the cosmos and the gods and God. Africa did not posit a God that works alone, but one who worked with lesser gods, the ancestral spirits. The seven Pleiades stars symbolise the seven astral ancestors of humanity who serve as Messengers of the Son (Charaoh) or Word (Hamptar) of God.

The arrival of the New Year was welcomed by the royal families who ordered their subjects to gather firewood which was piled up into a pyramid-like structure. The structure was then set alight, thus creating a bonfire which gave both warmth and light which signified the end of the period of rest, cold and darkness, the winter season. The fire marked the start of the New Year.

For an agricultural people rain was important. Accordingly, the month of October was dedicated to the Virgin of the World (Mara), the Rain Goddess. Sacred rulers had their communities hold communal rain-making ceremonies to request the royal ancestors to thank the Rain Goddess and the Gods for the rain and fertility of the earth. Elements of the Rain Queen (Queen Modjadji) still persist among the BaLobedu of the Limpopo Province in South Africa. The month of November was devoted to conservation and environment protection. It was time for the renewal of nature. Cutting down of trees was prohibited, as was the killing of pregnant female animals.

Then came the First Fruits festivals. Divine rulers were the first to partake of the first fruits (crops) and the ceremonies were held early in the month of January. By and large, the ceremonies and festivals were held during or soon after full moon. When the crops in the fields ripened, it was harvest time. Harvest was celebrated in May. The celebration was double barreled in that it was also the celebration of the rebirth of the Sun God.

Harvest time was a time for thanksgiving. In Zimbabwe it was time for the rain adepts, amawosana to revisit Njelele to make offerings. Elsewhere, a black bull was sacrificed. The festival ended towards the end of April and the astronomers made sure the festival was held after the full moon following the autumn Equinox. Astrology, astronomy and alchemy were important features of ancient African societies — particularly when they were still in Ethiopia (in Nubia, Habesch (Abyssinia), Darfur and Naphta (now Kordofan in Sudan)).

The seasonal cycles were regulated and governed by the movement of celestial bodies. For the Africans, it was a cycle that was observable in human development. Soon after birth both mother and baby were confined in a hut where she had delivered. The two were perceived as having impurities which required purification, hence the seclusion.

When the new moon appeared on the western horizon, the newly born baby was taken outside and thrown up three times and then shown the new moon. The baby’s birth was reckoned in terms of the month-kind of a birth certificate indicating when the baby was born. “Nanguya umnakwenu,” shouted the Ndebele pointing at the new moon

However, the thrust of this article is on food preservation. Though food is produced during the summer months, consumption must take place throughout the year. Humans, being mammals, are not like reptiles that go into hibernation, a period during which they do not feed. For the domestic and wild animals, grass is available throughout the year, albeit no longer green.

For the human beings, it is incumbent upon them to devise ways of preserving or storing food for consumption in the winter months. In this endeavour, their greatest challenge is presented by moisture, animals (both domestic and wild), birds and insects. In order to deal with the problem of moisture, a condition that leads to grain spoiling, crops were allowed to dry prior to harvesting. When rains persisted after the crops had ripened, measures were taken to remove the crops from the fields. Grain could spoil or germinate. Groundnuts and roundnuts too risked germinating when rains persisted beyond their ripening. Such threatened crops were placed in a hut where they were free from rain.

What becomes clear from these measures is that germination and spoiling were obviated. If that did not happen, yields might be reduced or completely wiped out, thus posing the specter of hunger and starvation. Where threat of moisture was taken care of, the next challenge was presented by birds, insects and animals

In some instances the area where crops grew were fenced off using tree branches. In other instances animals were herded by boys who ensured they did not get anywhere near crop fields. Wild animals such as warthogs, porcupines, impala and kudus presented their own threats. To deal with the smaller animals, deep pits were dug around the crop fields. These were made wide enough to prevent the animals from jumping across.

The bigger animals jumped over the fences. One way of dealing with them was to use big sharpened wooden spikes. These were stuck into the ground with their sharpened ends pointing outwards. The distance from the fence was carefully calculated in such a way that the jumping animal got impaled. Snares from tree bark fibre, amagoda, were used where the fence was deemed easily breacheable. There were animals that detected the presence of such snares. Africans in the know, used some medicines to prevent animals from detecting the presence of a snare. This was called ukuphephetha.

Birds were another headache. The greatest threat came from those birds that flew in large numbers such as the quelea birds. Swarms of locusts were equally a threat. Africans knew how to deal with these threats. In both cases swarms needed to land on the crops. African indigenous knowledge, actually medical technology, prevented the swarms from landing. The swarms hovered over a crop field but simply failed to land.

The same principle was used to prevent hawks from capturing chickens. Their talons failed to open up. In like manner, lions and leopards were defeated. Their paw nails failed to open up and have then insert them into the body of the animal. This was African technology at its best. All this has been lost following contact with foreigners whose technologies are deemed superior.