A Girl Named Disaster

THE BELIEF SYSTEM OF THE SHONA

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

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. THE MHONDORO

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

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. SHAVE

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. NGOZI

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. VARI KUDENGA

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. VARI PANYIKA

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. VARI PASI

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. CHRISTIANITY

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. TOTEMS

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:

mutupo chidao Gumbo (leg) Sambiri (The possessor of fame) Soko (baboon) Murehwa (One who is spoken about) Soko (baboon) Vhudzijena (White-haired, venerable) Moyo (heart) Chirandu (Great Beast, probably elephant)

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