A Girl Named Disaster (28 page)

From 1964 to 1974 Mozambique was embroiled in a war of liberation from Portugal. Independence was declared in 1975, with the political party Frelimo taking over the government.

In 1963 the British attempted to grant independence to their colony Zimbabwe (then called Rhodesia). A small English tribe living in the country took over the government. They ruled until 1979, when independence was finally achieved after several years of fighting.

Nhamo’s journey takes place around 1981. Land mines were still in place along the border, and relations among white people, the Shona, and the Matabele were sometimes hostile.

The ancestors of the Shona arrived from the north between
A.D.
1000 and 1200 as a collection of tribes with a common language and a distinct culture. The whole group was not referred to as Shona until the nineteenth century.

Histories of several royal lines were preserved in oral poetry, but the most famous king was Monomatapa. Monomatapa lived in the fifteenth century, and tales of his splendor reached the first Portuguese traders on the coast of Mozambique. He was supposed to rule a vast kingdom from the Kalahari Desert in the west to the Indian Ocean in the east.

Throughout southern Africa are the traces of an ancient civilization. The most important site is the city of Great Zimbabwe. This is located inland from the southeastern coast of Africa in present-day Zimbabwe. The city center was on a hilltop that was naturally protected from attack by a large outcrop of granite. Because it was situated on a high plateau, it was safe from the disease-infested tsetse flies that
were common in the lowlands. This made it possible for an economy based on cattle to exist. Large amounts of rain made the land good for farming, and, rich in minerals, the earth could be mined for granite, iron, copper, and gold. The ancient Zimbabweans traded gold for glass beads, porcelain, and silk from as far away as China.

The city was only one of many such structures. More than 150 stone enclosures were built over several centuries from Mozambique to South Africa, but it is unknown whether they were part of a large kingdom or the remains of several small ones. The word
zimbabwe
means “stone enclosure” in Shona.

Mzilikazi, one of Shaka Zulu’s generals, was allowed to leave the Zulu tribe with three hundred warriors. He built up his own tribe (the Matabele), but was driven out of South Africa by encroaching white settlers. He moved into southern Zimbabwe around 1836. Mzilikazi brought with him the powerful military organization of the Zulus and was able to establish a kingdom at the expense of the resident Shona. At the time of independence, the Matabele made up about 19 percent of the population. The two tribes, Shona and Matabele, have had a long history of mutual hostility.

The British tribe is composed of several subgroups: the Scots, Irish, Welsh, and English. One of these, the English, has been dominant for several centuries. The British gained control of Zimbabwe around 1890, but not without violent dissent from the Shona and Matabele. Several uprisings occurred before 1965, when the British lost control of the country. From 1965 to 1979 Zimbabwe was ruled by a small minority of English tribesmen.

The Portuguese first settled in East Africa in the fifteenth century. They pursued a policy of conquest and trade with the interior for five centuries, and developed the slave trade from around 1600 until the
late nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, a great number of Portuguese immigrated to colonies in Africa. After Mozambique and Angola became independent in 1975, many of these people moved to South Africa, Zimbabwe, or back to Portugal.

While the Afrikaners’ language is based on Dutch, only about a third of their ancestors actually came from Holland. They are a mixture of Dutch, French Huguenots, and Germans. They also clearly have a few English, Malay, Hottentot, and black African ancestors as well. In spite of this mixture, they form a distinct culture with strict Protestant ethics. Beginning in the late seventeenth century, they established farms throughout South Africa. In 1906 only about 6 percent of them lived in cities, towns, or villages.

Some of the early Afrikaners became wandering farmers, or Trekboers, and performed amazing feats of courage and endurance. Each group was highly individualistic, with a patriarch and a holy mission to find the Promised Land under the guidance of God. Some, hazy on geography, thought they had reached the Nile River when they were about halfway up South Africa. Trekboers went as far as Kenya in their wanderings, and many settled in Zimbabwe.

Many Shona-speaking people live in Mozambique. Other cultural groups include the Maravi, the Yao, and the Maconde. The most important influence on the tribal system of northern Mozambique was the slave trade. This was carried on by Arab traders, the Portuguese, and the Yao from the sixteenth century on, but became epidemic from about 1790 to 1840. Serious depopulation and great displacement of people occurred. This permanently disrupted the traditional culture. One group, the Tonga, appears to be the remnant of several groups of fleeing people rather than a genuine tribe.

The Portuguese in Mozambique gave up slavery in 1890, although it had become technically illegal years earlier. At this time the majority of the Yao converted to Islam in order to keep trading slaves with the Muslim sheikhs on the coast and with the sultan of Zanzibar.

Shona culture is extremely complicated. The following is intended only as a brief overview.

The supreme being of the Shona is usually called Mwari, although he—or she, for Mwari is both—is known by many praise names. Mwari could best be described as Natural Order. Anything thought contrary to Natural Order, such as the birth of twins, must be put right or disaster will follow. Mwari may not be referred to as “it” because he/she is a sexual being involved with the mysteries of fertility. He/she is a bringer of rain, and one of his/her praise names is Dzivaguru, the Great Pool.

Great Zimbabwe, the ancient city, was a religious shrine that operated as a spiritual and governmental center in the same way as West-minster Abbey in England. In the nineteenth century a ceremony was held in the ruins of Great Zimbabwe every second year. A black cow was sacrificed as a request for rain. Two other cattle were killed, one for the priests and one to feed the wild animals of the forest. The latter carcass was left near a building known as the temple. If it was devoured, it was a sign that Mwari had accepted the prayers. The high priests who transmitted the messages of the spirit world to ordinary people were—and are—called the Ear, the Eye, and the Mouth. I changed the latter to Arm in an earlier book to indicate the physical way in which things are communicated through possession in Africa.

Now the center of the religion has shifted to the Matopos Hills near the city of Bulawayo in southern Zimbabwe. This is the one place on earth where the voice of Mwari can still be heard. Below the priests is a lower circle of devotees called the
mbonga
and the
hossanahs. Mbonga
are virgins dedicated to the service of the god. They care for the shrines until they reach puberty, when they are expected to marry.
The
hossanahs
are young men who dance during ceremonies and carry messages for the priests.

The
mbonga
, when they marry, move to another status as mediums for tribal spirits, and when they pass child-bearing age they become very important as
muchembera
, priestesses who brew the sacred beer used in ceremonies.

A
mhondoro
, or lion spirit, is concerned with the land and its people as a whole. Because the Shona are actually made up of several tribes, each tribe has a
mhondoro
and a lion-spirit medium. The
mhondoro
is concerned with general problems, such as rainfall and famine.

The
mudzimu
(plural,
vadzimu
) is a more personal spirit belonging to a family. Each person has at least four, his or her parents and patrilineal grandparents, who may make contact to warn of impending danger or to demand that some wrong be righted. Other ancestors may or may not take an interest in their offspring. One consults a specific male or female ancestor through a spirit medium to receive advice on personal problems. Certain family spirits may become interested in their descendants and teach them skills. This is why particular abilities run in families.

Old people are considered to be close to the spirit world and therefore are cloaked in power. The elderly are treated with great respect in Shona society.

A
shave
(plural,
mashave
) is someone who died far from home and therefore couldn’t receive proper burial rites. A
shave
can possess anyone he or she likes, to impart knowledge. This is what happens when an unusual skill shows up in a family, for example a computer expert in a family noted for hunting. Race or tribe is unimportant in this possession. The original names of the spirits are not known, so they are referred to by the attributes or skills they impart. Some of
the more popular
mashave
are Mazinda, who teaches one how to dance; Rotunhu, who imparts the art of healing; Nkupa, who teaches generosity; and Rokuba, who turns people into kleptomaniacs.

Rokuroya makes people act like witches. This is a particularly bad
shave
, and people who sleepwalk are suspected of being possessed by Rokuroya. In the bad old days they used to pound wooden pegs into the heads of sleepwalkers and leave them to die in the bush.

Chirungu is my personal favorite. He or she is the spirit of a white person, who makes people dress in pure white clothes, sit in chairs, drink boiling tea, and crave hard-boiled eggs.

An
ngozi
is an angry spirit who can cause madness, illness, and death. A murder victim, a parent mistreated by his children, or anyone else who has a grievance left over from life may turn into an
ngozi.
The wrong must be corrected before the spirit will agree to depart.

The
vari kudenga
, or people of the sky, live in Mwari’s country and are very powerful. At the same time, not much is known about them. They are said to be the source of newborn souls.

The
vari panyika
, or people of Middle Earth, include living humans, visiting ancestral spirits, and animals. The boundary between humans and animals can be weak, and some people have the ability to change from one to the other. Most people don’t want to be overwhelmed by the animal world; it’s considered extremely dangerous. One way to fall into the clutches of an alien form is to eat your own totem. A totem is the symbol of your family or clan.

Certain people have a special ability to contact the spirit world. These mediums are highly respected, unless they devote themselves to evil and become witches. Witchcraft is thought to be hereditary, but it sometimes shows up in a normal family. It is a serious crime to accuse someone of witchcraft in Zimbabwe because accused people
may commit suicide. This is partly because of the social isolation that overtakes such individuals.

The
vari pasi
are the people who live under the earth. A lot is known about them. The ancestors live with them, and sometimes living people fall into their realm.

Some of the most important inhabitants of the underworld are the
njuzu
, the water spirits. They protect lakes and rivers. If they are angry, they travel through the air like whirlwinds, bringing drought to the land beneath them.
Njuzu
take the shape of attractive men or women, but they can metamorphose into snakes, fish, or even crocodiles. They sometimes carry off people in their whirlwinds or pull them into their sacred pools.

Traditional healers, or
ngangas
, are often kidnapped and trained by
njuzu
, but they have to be very careful. They must never accept food while they are in the spiritual realm or they will be condemned to live in it forever.

Catholic missionaries arrived in southern Africa along with the Portuguese. Most of the other Christian groups have established churches in the past hundred years, but there are a few genuinely African sects. One of the most widespread is the
Vapostori
, or Apostles.

In 1932 Johane Maranke, the grandson of a chief and a member of the Methodist church, fell into a trance and began “speaking in tongues” after experiencing a vision. He and his family believed he had received the inspiration to establish a new church from the Holy Spirit.

The new system spread rapidly. It was against traditional religious practices and considered ancestral spirits to be evil demons. It also had a full set of rules, communicated to Maranke in his visions.

Vapostori
may not drink alcohol, smoke tobacco, or eat pork. They may not use medicines, although they are allowed holy water and the laying on of hands at healing ceremonies. The men shave their heads and let their beards grow. On the Sabbath, Saturday,
Vapostori
meet outdoors for confession and prayer. All wear white, and the men carry shepherd’s crooks.

While they reject the traditional Shona religion, they do believe in witchcraft and have ceremonies to deal with it.

When a child is born, he or she is given the father’s totem name. This identifies the infant as belonging to a particular clan. This name, or
mutupo
, refers to an animal or part of an animal that must not be eaten. The child also receives a principal praise name, or
chidao.
This refers to a much smaller and more closely related group of relatives. A person can marry someone with the same
mutupo
but not the same
chidao.

Examples of names are:

A man with the totem Soko-Murehwa could marry a woman with the totem Soko-Vhudzijena, but not someone in his own
chidao
group.