1.2 The background and motivation for the topic
1.2.1 Existential motivation: A personal story
My use of the term "existential" here must not be understood as an endorsement of the secular existentialist philosophy of Seren Kierkegaard (Atkinson 1983:201), nor an endorsement of the existential theological systems and methods of Paul Tillich (Hagglund 1981:349) or Rudolf Bultmann (Hagglund 1981:351-354; Conn 1974:33- 38). I will not discuss the relationship between existentialism and theology. I use the term "existential" in its simplest possible meaning, that is one's being as a human in general and one's existence, specifically, as a Tsonga and a Christian. It is from this use of the term that my personal story will elucidate the struggles of a personal participation in 'being and existing' (Hagglund 1981:202) as a Tsonga and a Christian believer.
Comstock (1987), introducing his study of "Two Types of Narrative Theology", which asserts that narrative theology, as a reflection of religious claims embedded in stories, is one of the most significant western currents of thought in the late 20th
century and that this debate was initiated by Niebuhr's (1941) The Story of Our Lives.
Balcomb (2000:56) quotes Robert MacAfee Brown saying: '...I not only am many stories, but I also have many stories and know many other stories not my own. I am constantly balancing - or juggling - a number of ways of telling my own story'.
Although the quote indicates several ways of entering into or identifying with the
stories of others, the portion quoted above serves to show that we humans are stories, we have many stories and know many stories and that there are many different ways in which we can tell the stories of our lives.
But perhaps, before presenting my life story, I need to grapple with the prevailing emphasis on academic "neutrality," "detachment," "objectivity" and related concepts.
The question is; can story material be used in an academic work, where one should be
"neutral," "detached" and "objective?" Or in other words, does not one's personal and family story violate the "neutrality," "detachment" and "objectivity" expected or required in an academic work? This is a question of method and model in doing theology, which needs to be looked at within its context and model.
Bevans (1992), after arguing that "Contextual Theology" is a theological imperative, goes on to say that a contextual approach to theology is partly a departure from the notion of traditional theology. Although he indicates it to be also a continuity of traditional theology, he distinguishes the two, saying:
Classical theology conceived theology as a kind of objective science of faith. It was understood as a reflection in faith on the two loci theologici (theological sources) of scripture and tradition, the content of which has not and never will be changed, and is above culture and historically conditioned expression. But what makes contextual theology precisely contextual is the recognition of the validity of another locus theologicus: present human experience. Theology that is contextual realizes that culture, history, contemporary thought forms and so forth are to be considered, along with scripture and tradition, as valid sources for theological expression.
While classical theology understood theology as objective, contextual theology understands theology as unabashedly subjective [italics mine]. By subjective, however, I do not mean relative or private or anything like that. When I say that contextual theology is subjective, I mean it is a result of the modern appropriation of the 'turn to the subjective at the beginning of modern times' and points to the fact that a human person or human society, culturally and historically bound as it is, is the source of reality, not a supposed value- and culture-free objectivity 'already out there now real.' [Bevans' italics].
(Bevans 1992:1-2)
Bevans considers the contextual approach to theology an imperative and he regards contextual theology as being more subjective than objective. Reality is not value- and culture-free objectivity, it is subjectively constructed by the subject. In this work my approach is "contextual" and I use various contextual models (the translation model, the anthropological model, the prophetic model, synthetic model and the
transcendental model) all together. I used what Bevans (1992:111) calls a 'healthy pluralism' of methodologies. Within this range of methodologies, the dominant methodologies are first, the transcendental model and second the translation model.
According to Bevans, to understand the transcendental method one needs a complete change of mind. 'Some things demand a radical shift in perspective, a change in horizon - a conversion - before they begin to make sense. Until we make this shift, whatever we are trying to understand will defy understanding' [Bevans' italics]
(1992:97). What is important here is not the type of theology produced, but the fact that the theologian who is producing it operates as an authentic and converted subject.
Explaining the transcendental method, Bevans says:
[The] transcendental method proposes a basic switch in the process of coming to know reality. Instead of beginning with the conviction that reality is 'out there,' existing somehow independently of human knowing, it suggests that the knowing subject is intimately involved in determining reality's basic shape. One needs to begin one's quest for knowing what Ms' by attending to the dynamic of one's own consciousness and irrepressible desire to know. The switch is from beginning with a world of objects to beginning with the world of the subject, the interior world of the human person. 'Genuine objectivity is the fruit of authentic subjectivity,'...
Objective knowledge, knowledge of the real, can only be achieved 'by attaining authentic subjectivity.' It is in attending to one's transcendental subjectivity as it reaches out naturally toward truth that one finds oneself doing an authentic contextual theology.
(Bevans 1992:98)
As one can see, subjectivity is not counter to objectivity. It is authentic subjectivity that produces genuine objectivity. Following from this relationship between subjectivity and objectivity, the author outlines four basic assumptions of the transcendental model as follows:
(1) A fundamental presupposition of the transcendental model is that one begins to theologize contextually, not by focusing on the essence of the gospel message or of tradition as such, nor even by trying to thematize or analyze culture or expressions of culture in language. Rather, the starting point is transcendental, concerned with one's own religious experience and one's own experience of self.
When one starts with oneself, however, it is important to understand that one does not and cannot start in a vacuum. Very much to the contrary, as a subject, one is determined at every turn by one's context.
(2) That which might seem private and personal can articulate the experience of others who share one's basic context - members of one's generation, one's culture, one's nation. Given the fact that ... the only true objectivity is through radical and authentic subjectivity, or given the fact that ... the most personal is the most general.
(3) God's Revelation is not 'out there.' Revelation is not in the words of scripture, the doctrines of tradition, or even hidden within the labyrinthine networks of culture. The only place God can reveal Godself (sic) truly and effectively is within human experience, as a human person is open to the words of scripture as read or proclaimed, open to events in daily life, and open to the values embodied in a cultural tradition.
(4) While every person is truly historically and culturally conditioned in terms of the content of thought, the human mind operates in identical ways in all cultures and all periods of history. When an Asian or an African inquires or understands, the concepts and images by which he or she understands will be radically different from, say, a North American or a European, but the basic cognitive operations will be the same.
(Bevans 1992:98-99)
With these presuppositions, the author argues: 'What might seem at first glance to be a very personal and even individualistic starting point is really extremely contextual and communal. From this transcendental starting point, theology is conceived as the process of "bringing to speech" who I am as a person of faith who is, in every possible respect, a product of historical, geographical, social, and cultural environment' (Bevans 1992:96). Based on psychologist Carl Rogers' argument, Bevans says: 'the practitioner of the transcendental model would argue that what might seem like a rather narrow starting point in individual experience is actually the best starting point for doing theology that speaks to other individuals - historically and culturally determined subjects - who share one's own worldview' (1992:99).
My personal and family story in this thesis will give it a rather radical and authentic subjectivity that ensures a unique and genuine objectivity. My starting point is contextual and communal rather than individualistic. It is a starting point that brings to speech who I am, as a Christian and as a Tsonga person, within my context.
Starting with my personal and family story is not a narrow starting point, nor is it a breach of academic "neutrality," "detachment" and "objectivity". It is in my personal and family story that the best starting point for doing an authentic theology that
speaks deep into Tsonga people's and other people's lives. My experience and story become the locus of understanding and interpretation of reality. This work will only speak to others if it reveals the person that I am7 to other individuals, not just what I say.
Mugambi takes this issue of subjectivity further; pointing out that any science is, in fact, subjective. Mugambi argues:
* When the scientific method is applied in theology, the results of theological enquiry will depend on many factors, including the presuppositions of the theologian, and the level of competence in applying relevant skills to the operations pertinent to the enquiry. A scientist, irrespective of the branch of enquiry, formulates the hypothesis, chooses the method, sets the experiments, identifies the facts, analyzes those facts using chosen models, derives the implications, and draws conclusions. From this procedure it is clear that science is 'subjective' to the extent that its subject matter is arbitrarily circumscribed by the scientists themselves.
(Mugambi 1998:23)
Subjectivity in objectivity is not only an issue limited to contextual theology. It is the nature of theology as 'science of a religion' (Mugambi 1998:24) and of science in general, irrespective of the branch of enquiry. It is through radical subjectivity that objectivity is achieved in any branch of scientific enquiry and, more particularly, in contextual theology which seeks to reflect on the relevance of the gospel in the local and personal situation and culture (Mugambi 1998:25).
The subjectivity relating to my personal and family story in this thesis is a necessity for doing genuine contextual theology. It is also a necessity in doing any science, as Mugambi (1998) argues. My personal and family story makes it genuinely contextual and penetrating within my context. This also gives it a possibility of communicating profoundly in other human contexts.
To conclude my justification for using personal and family story in an academic work, let me quote Donahue (1988:24) highlighting the importance of stories with the following argument:
7 In his conclusion, Bevans says: 'What I have found particularly effective is the use of experiences from my own life. Such experiences tend to evoke similar experiences from the students and to help them do their own theologizing out of their own experiences' (Bevans 1992:139).
[I]t is the stories of the Bible which give it its distinctive shape. A people freed from Egypt told and preserved the stories, and the stories formed and preserved a people during centuries of exile and oppression. The stories became Torah and Testament for Jew and Christian...
(In Balcomb 2000:56)
This quote indicates that the Bible is shaped by stories of people. Although my story is not of such magnitude as the Bible stories, I find it fit to open up my own life, concealed within my life story. It is in my life story that one may find the context and background of the topic and it is in this story that the thesis will have its distinctive shape.
1.2.1.1 My infancy and family struggle with ntumbuluko and the issues of the Christian faith
I was born into a Tsonga Christian family. My father was the leader of our local Baptist church and the congregation met in our home. My father and mother were baptized and married by the church; and we, their children, were given biblical names and dedicated to the Lord according to the Baptist practice. However, when each of us was born, there was something done before dedication and we were given other names before our youth names or biblical names. I was, according to ntumbuluko, marked (ku lahela) with mativa zotlhe* protective muri (medicine), shown to the
8 Mativa zotlhe- This protective medicine is also known as madamba or madanga swiyila. This medicine can be found in a specific tree called mativa zotlhe or damba ziyila. But it can also be prepared from a log found in the middle of a path. What makes this log important is that it has been stepped over by many women as they pass by, and thus it has seen many women's private parts, with all their swiyila (impurities). It protects new-born babies, teens in their first period called ku khomba, ku ngena ndlini or ku kula, and women during the first 8 days after giving birth. It protects them from the deadly effect of vanuhu vo hisa (hot men and women, that is those who have had sex recently) and from impure women who are menstruating or haemorrhaging, or who have undergone miscarriage or abortion. The medicine renders these ritual impurities or evils harmless to the baby, teen or mother (Thombeni 2001, interview with author).
moon, 'wa mu vona nsatV and I was given vito la xikwembu (the name of god) then I was presented in the family gandzelo (altar) to the swikwembu11 swa laha kaya (household gods) in general and given artifacts and amulets12 to symbolize my spiritual link with my mabizweni (namesake) or the god I was named after.
9 Wa muvona nsati or kengelekeze- This is a Tsonga rite called 'ku lahela', 'ku komba nyanga' or 'n'weti' (to show the moon). Among the Tsongas in the Save River basin (Gundani, Tangwani and Malindile), this rite consists of taking a baby at sunset to the west side of the homestead facing the new moon (the first since the baby was born), lifting up the baby and shouting, 'wa mu vona nuna' (do you see the, or your, husband?!) for a girl and or 'wa mu vona nsati' (do you see the, or your, wife?!) for boys. The moon is personified as the baby's wife or husband. If that does not happen, they believe the baby will be unwell whenever a new moon appears. These health hazards will include lunacy and epilepsy. Among the Tsongas south of the Limpopo the shout to show the baby the moon, as suggested by one of the Mozambican poets, is 'kengelekeze'. The poet depicts it as an important rite. After snouting, "kengelekeze" is represented in the poem saying "no one shall ever again say to you that your mother did not show you the moon". This suggests that someone who is not well accepted socially because of not having undergone this ritual, all his/her bad behavour could be explained on the basis that he or she was not shown the moon.
10 Vito la xikwembu- In Tsonga a person has three names. There is vito la mapswalwa (birth name) given immediately after birth by the matron, also called mu amukeli. The second name is given if the baby cries without ceasing and the family resorts to divination and finds that a rilela vito. This is called vito la xikwembu (the name of god). It is the name of one of the deceased from the father's or mother's family. However, some people do not have vito la xikwembu. The third name is vito la wu jaha or vito la wu ntumbi (youth name), which is carefully selected and given to teens.
11 Swikwembu- This term in Tsonga has different uses in both its singular and plural forms. In the singular form xikwembu (the form adapted in the Bible for God with a capital 'X' or ' § ' , or for god with a small initial letter [Xikwembu or Sikwembu in the new and old versions of the Tsonga Bible respectively]), means god, "God", a presumed spirit of the dead (also called mukwembu) belonging to the family but attacking the family for one reason or another, and/or one of various spirits that a medium has. In the plural form swikembu (used in the Tsonga Bible for gods), means gods or spirits of mediums or shamans. If they say so-and-so ana swikwembu, it means that the person has spirits of divination or medium. But there is another use. Swikwembu swa ka hina ("gods of ours or clan gods"), swikwembu swa hina ("our gods") and swikumbu swa laha kaya ("gods of home or homestead gods") are the other uses. Swikwembu swa hina is a term that is used to deify parents and leaders. It is sometimes used in churches for pastors, superintendents or bishops calling for absolute submission and respect. Swikwembu swa ka hina and swikwembu swa laha kaya both indicate the deceased members of the clan or family, whose spirits they believe to be present and powerful in determining the course and future of the life and prosperity of the living.
12 The artifacts and amulets that I was given were palu ("colourful piece of cloth") and nguvo yo basa ("white piece of cloth"). These cloths are covenant symbols which tie or link the person with the namesake gods or spirits. The name itself is a spiritual code of the person. It is with this name, or birth name, that a person can be 'tuned' supematurally. A person exists in the spiritual realm only in this name. It is the name used in libation, spirit conversation, divination and spell. Otherwise, none of these acts can find the person; it is as if one was telephoning someone from another city or country without using the city or country dial code. As for the artifacts and amulets, there are many other types, depending on the namesake god or spirit's preference. These include sinza ("bronze bracelet"), black cloth, mbamba ("sea shell") and zangu ("a rope made of cloth with many other things attached which is worn from one shoulder and under the armpit").
Whenever we were ill, although my parents would pray, the ultimate thing to ensure our wellbeing was to do anything according to ntumbuluko. The next step was to visit a diviner for consultation and if necessary to invite a medium to mediate negotiation and deal between our family and the attacking spirit(s) called nguluve (singular) or tinguluve (plural). These spirits are believed to be sent by witches and are responsible for illnesses and all misfortunes. Two brothers and a sister of mine died mysteriously, and it was believed that the negotiation did not work and/or was delayed.
In 1970/71 my father was working in South Africa. My brothers, sister, mother and I suffered constant attacks from spirits and witchcraft. My mother gave birth to my sister at a medium's house. When we returned home, we found that in the evenings our yard was full of owls13. I became very ill and sometimes I was unconscious. One day my mother was walking on a path at around 5 or 6 pm and an owl hit her on her chest. From that incident it was believed that she contracted tuberculosis and coughed out blood. Her breast milk changed colour and looked mixed with blood and became poisonous, causing her baby to be ill. A few days later, the baby refused to breast- feed. (The next baby after this one, who insisted on breast-feeding, died).
1.2.1.2 Deep disillusionment with Christian faith and dependence in ntumbuluko
Our Christianity was not able to protect or deliver us from the above problems. We had to go to diviners, prophets, mediums and shamans for help and protection. We all believed firmly in what the diviners and spirits said, even to the point of
According to Tsonga culture, owls are associated with witches. They are believed to transport witches in their astral travels. This belief was confirmed by Pastor Matlhombe, a converted ex-witch who claims to have attained very high position in a secret society of witches in Africa before his conversion. Matlhombe gave his personal testimony in the Igreja Assembleias de Deus (Assemblies of God Church) in Maputo, Mozambique in 1995 (Mavundza 1995, interview with author; Ribeiro 1995, interview with author).