Establishing the academy of ‘witchcraft’: Seeking to understand principles behind the science and craft of traditional Africans
Cultural Heritage
Pathisa Nyathi WHEN dealing with African cultural practices it is imperative at all times to seek to answer the question “why.” Within objectively proffered answers lies a deeper understanding of the African whose world is material physical and spiritual. His material world is intrinsically linked with the spiritual one wherein dwells the more intricate archaeology of deep-seated meanings, perceptions, ideologies and perceptions.
How we perceive the world and the cosmos does, to a very large extent, determine the way we relate to it. That ‘‘it’’ or the total cosmic phenomenon is not restricted to the physical/material environment but also encompasses the spiritual realm and indeed, human beings. There is a tendency for human beings to exclude themselves when nature is considered, as if he is above nature. An important view of traditional Africans was to posit a common origin for all things on the cosmos and Planet Earth.
When we talk of ubuntu/hunhu/vumunhu we are, in essence, talking about this very broad environment which is informed by the desire to maintain some equilibrium/balance in order to achieve sustainability. The importance of this view lies in the fact that humans’ continued existence on the globe depends on these critical interactions between various aspects of all forms of nature, be they animate or inanimate.
Spirituality or ideology is a cultural construct which helps man to relate sustainably to the environment. Spirituality, as far as the African was concerned, was not an idle pursuit. There was some utilitarian or functional basis for it. It was meant to see to it that humans were assisted to achieve continuity and endlessness in the cosmos, as inspired by perceived continuity of the cosmos. Ceremonies such as the “bringing home” ( umbuyiso) of the spirit where an ancestral spirit, the living dead to use Professor John Mbiti’s terminology, was summoned to enter the human plane, were conducted so that ancestral spirits looked after their living progeny.
The ancestral spirit has, in the meantime by uncoupling itself from the material aspects, acquired some power over things material and can influence events so as to ensure the continued life of their progeny. The summoned spirit, which is called by the name that the deceased used in life, is instructed to look after their progeny ( Zibani woza ekhaya uzegcina imuli) in a world with challenges that might very well translate to the termination of life or at least some reduction to its quality as defined by the people themselves.
There are invariably, barriers today to seeing the world through African eyes. There are few Africans who are prepared and sufficiently knowledgeable and articulate enough to propagate African views of life and existence. Alternative imperial cultures have reduced African culture to an inferior status. In the process the African, the victim in the world wide campaign demean him, is now the willing apostle and prophet.
As we presently are dealing with food as a cultural expression, we should view see this topic against the backdrop of such ideological perceptions. Why do most Africans in southern Africa not consume the flesh of animals such as leopards, lions, jackals and related carnivores? These animals are carnivores that eat the flesh of other animals and birds. The same is true of birds that prey on the flesh of birds and animals. As they do so, they are engaging in spiritual cannibalism.
There are people whose totemic animals or birds ought to be tabooed. By consuming meat from carnivores and birds of prey this spiritual injunction is tempered with. Totems are a people’s spiritual IDs. They are the way people are classified and relate to other people. It may not make sense to outsiders particularly if they are not rooted in African Thought. What is important though is not to rush and judge as nonsensical and superstitious things not intelligible to exotic researchers. As we have often said, who says issues, particularly African ideologies and cosmologies are simple?
Last week I met two like-minded colleagues in a street in Bulawayo. Rather uncharacteristic of us whenever we meet, this time we did not dwell on Zapu/ ZPRA liberation struggle history. Somehow, our talk meandered till we settled for the subject that Africans has come to know as “witchcraft.” We were all of the same view that there is indeed some phenomenon whose name has been derogatively given as “witchcraft.” The term immediately conjures negative perceptions in the minds of wrongly educated Africans.
I still remember one time when, in some animated discussion I said, ‘‘let us remove the witch from the craft and deal with the craft, the science behind that craft’’. I still remember vividly when a woman delegate from Botswana said, ‘‘you are a philosopher.’’ It sounds unbelievable that universities in black Africa have not devoted their academic prowess towards a better understanding and application of this phenomenon. It was at that juncture that one of our colleagues cited his drive during the liberation struggle towards the establishment of an ‘‘Academy on Witchcraft’’.
I can see and hear many laugh derisively, ukuhleka usulu. This is expected. The success of educational systems in Africa is measured in terms of producing Africans who deride and denigrate everything African and extol everything foreign. The other colleague, weighing in, gave an example of an incident when one of the ZPRA cadres trespassed into a man’s wife in the Zambezi Valley. The man’s wife was fenced through what is termed ulunyoka. The culprit, who took advantage of his power of the gun to access what was not rightfully his, experienced serious consequences. His organ of manhood attained eternal erection.
In similar vein, a senior ZPRA commander threatened the man of fencing exploits, ingcwethi as the narrator of the story would put it, to cause immediate divorce between the man and his life. Shaking like a reed in a flooded river, the man disappeared behind the bush and quickly dug up a root to administer to the ailing man afflicted with ulunyoka. There was immediate explosion on the scale of Hiroshima from the rear part of the man. There was fury and sound that were expelled and the man was healed.
Efforts had been made to provide him with sexually soothing exposures — by availing women to him. The situation got worse and the man was wasting away. However, after the explosions akin to a deflating bicycle tube, the man’s stone stiff organ of trespass immediately became flaccid. This is Africa and there are many related incidents that can be narrated from the liberation struggle experiences and beyond. In my own biography of one participant in the liberation struggle, there is reference to a similar incident that took place at Gwayi Assembly Point.
Just who is fooling who here? Can’t this science be used to bring about change to the geopolitical balance in the world? Seeing there is so much reliance on carbonbased fuels, can we not draw from the experiences of airborne scientists who engage in nocturnal trips without using petroleum? Have we not heard of cases where lightning has been used to bring about justice to erring individuals? Science is neither bad nor good. It all depends to the use it is put, for example, medical technology or devastating bomb as at Nagasaki.
I have not doubted it that Africa is sitting on science and technology that she has been persuaded with immeasurable success to despise, demonise and denigrate. This will change when universities on the African continent cease to be agents of Western epistemologies and ideologies and become truly African universities with an Africa agenda. Then, and only then, will they hold hope for unravelling African science.
The “Academy of Witchcraft” may sound like fury and sound and farfetched by all accounts, but the time will come when Africa will grow tired of celebrating other people’s science. When such celebration has run its full course Africa will begin to view her past in a different light. It is a matter of time.