Domesticating the new: The use of language to render meaningful the new ideas
Cultural Heritage
Pathisa Nyathi
FOOD, like any other new commodity or idea, had to find space within the existing community’s cosmological spaces. We shall here use two words, one from the Shona world and the other from the Ndebele world. Language carries more meaning than we are sometimes prepared to admit.
Long ago Ndebele people embraced the visual art tradition called ukuloba which involved the painting of faces. This was part of the visual art tradition engaged in by the womenfolk. It was part of the broader body art that sought to express certain ideas in line with the theme that we are pursuing. Many cultural activities and artistic renditions were cultural expressions. So was food.
Many researchers are beginning to appreciate that these artistic renditions were, in actual fact, cosmic expressions. “As above, so below” was the maxim that Africans applied as they sought to replicate the heavens on earth. The same idea is expressed in the Bible: “Let thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We should, as we digest this biblical rendition, appreciate that the Biblical world was an Africa world. Besides, the Israelis spent quite some time in Egypt where they acquired African ideas, courtesy of Joseph and his knowledge of interpreting dreams.
Dreams, so Africans, including the Egyptians, were important revelations that guided people in their daily lives. Sometimes dreams allowed people to take preemptive action to avoid disasters. It is interesting to note that the same spiritual revelations were seen in bad light, even judged as pagan when practiced by Africans. The African, of course, fell for this racial and imperial illusion line hook and sinker, baited fish style. Be that as it may, the fact remains that the heavens strongly influenced African ideas, which should be seen as cosmic ideas or perceptions that underpin African cosmologies, worldviews, beliefs and philosophies.
The cosmos were like a chalk board in the dark starry night. Messages, so believed the Africans, were posted on the board to communicate messages to humans below. Once again we turn to the Bible glean some example. When Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem in Judea, the all important historical event was announced to the wisemen from the east through the appearance of stars that they followed, and indeed, found a baby had been born in a stable. Interestingly, once again, such observations among Africans would be labelled pagan and primitive.
However, when the same practices were assimilated into Christian faith from a pagan past, nothing seems amiss. Let us return to the demonstration of domestication of old ideas into the new era or period. To execute images on the faces of women, a short thin and pointed wooden stick was used. The process was called ukuloba. When contact between the Ndebele and the early missionaries such as the Reverend Dr Robert Moffat and Reverends Thomas Morgan Thomas and William Sykes of the London Missionary Society (LMS, now the United Congressional Church of Southern Africa, UCCSA) they introduced writing to the Ndebele.
Language stems from, among other sources, a people’s cultural activities and objects in their material world. Initially, a feather from some bird was used for writing. Later, fountain pens were used and later still, ball point pens. The Ndebele had to draw upon the rich reservoir of experiences and related language to find the most appropriate term for the new activity. Similarities between the two activities, writing and painting faces lay in the designs of gadgets that were applied. It also lay in the resulting images. One produced letters on some surface (paper), while the paper produced motifs (equivalent to letters on paper). After this cognitive enquiry that drew upon experiences from the lived experiences the Ndebele word used was ukuloba in reference to writing.
Even today those of us who write are known as writers even at a time when we have migrated towards each other by using keyboards to write with computers and laptops. Thus the word ukuloba invokes a past experience, a people’s heritage. This realisation underscores the all important need to preserve a people’s language as it does much more that communicate ideas. It unravels a journey undertaken by a people in their interactions with the environment, including new comers from exotic cultures, like those of missionaries and colonists.
Let us now turn to the Shona world and experience similar ideas. The word nyora means to cut short incisions on the human skin. This was done for various reasons among different ethnic groups. Among some groups this was done as tribal identity. Other people used these for bleeding an individual such as was the case among the VaVheda with the two parallel lines below their eyes — amaleveni as I referred to them in one of my earlier newspaper articles. Here it was to do with medical interventions relating to problematic eyes.
Such incisions were known as nyora in the ChiShona language. The term underscores the idea that the gadgets used to effect cuts was sharp and pointed, and resembled the gadgets used in writing. Appropriately, the term that was used for writing was kunyora, and the writers, vanyori. The similarities lay not only in the design and shape of gadgets used but also in the resulting impressions. The incisions on bodies were the equivalent of written letters.
Similarly, the term Mwari existed in the Shona spiritual world. When the new language, English, introduced the word God, the Shona relied on their own spiritual experiences and adopted the word Mwari for God. God was not a new concept but was effectively domesticated with some differing nuances and subtleties.
Back to our topic regarding coping with stages in human development and states when an individual was regarded as vulnerable to ill health and personal injury, or death even. Continuity was a concept that engaged Africans in their intellectual and artistic pursuits and expressions. It was an idea that was inspired by the cosmos. The heavens have been in existence longer than 14 billion years, long before humankind came into being. Given the brevity of human occupation of the earth, the period of existence for the cosmos seems eternal.
The stages in human development varied in their vulnerability and the required assistance to ward off danger to an individual. Pregnancy was one such state when a woman’s life was at risk. Given limited heath technologies, giving birth was attended with challenges that sometimes posed a threat to a pregnant mother. It was not uncommon to hear people refer to a woman involved in labour as, “wasala ezibini.” By that they meant a woman died during delivery. Izibi, literally trash, being referred to here is cattle manure, umquba which was used as an absorbent for blood during delivery. There was no cotton wool in those days.
The separation of mother and baby was attended with a lot of fear and trepidation. No wonder when she successfully delivered the Ndebele said, “amhlophe,” meaning, in the literal sense, white eyes. If delivery had gone the wrong way resulting in the death of either the mother or baby or both, eyes of relatives and friends were not going to be white. Instead, they were going to be red through crying. Amhlophe thus expressed success, congratulations.
To assist safe delivery certain herbal concoctions were administered to the expectant mother long before the due date. For example, the afterbirth of a donkey, ingqwatshi was one of the ingredients. This was a case where symbolism played a role. Those who have herded donkeys will testify to the effect that they suddenly saw in front of them, a colt, the young of a donkey walking feebly ahead of them. They did not see the mother deliver. The whole process of delivery was a very quick one.
Quickness of delivery which attends the delivery of a donkey was manipulated to apply in the human sphere during mothers’ delivery. However, we are not concerned with these herbal interventions today. Our thrust lies in food taboos that were observed in order to facilitate safe delivery. As we shall see, symbolism was at work. The aim was to avoid undesirable like or produce required like. Let’s deal with more of these issues as we delve into the seemingly mysterious world of traditional Africans.