4.3 Traditional Sotho intertexts in MSP
4.3.2 Traditional Beliefs and Practices
4.3.2.3 Miscellaneous Beliefs and Practices
177 | P a g e activities are described along the lines of the activities involved in bothuela. For example, in lines16 – 20, he appeals to his schoolmates not to disturb him so that he could maintain focus and be able to find his way in his studies but puts it thus:
16. Ntloheleng ke le inotši kea kopa,
17. Rata le ka mpherekanya (Ramone, 2001: 4).
___________________________
16. Leave me alone I beg you,
17. Noise will distract and confuse me,
Some academic study methods are described through some traditional methods of finding solutions to ailments or human problems. For instance, having visions of what to do is described as dreaming while finding answers and solutions through consulting a variety of materials is presented as “ho laola” ‘throwing the divining bones’ and being able to understand what is being taught and finding direction in his studies is equated to ho “utloa mok’hoba hantle” ‘to diagnose the problem or locate hidden items’ in lines 18, 19 and 20 respectively.
Reference is also made to class sessions or lectures which are described in bothuela term hlophe35, by mathuela, where hlopheng in line 38 is an adjectival phrase denoting where the hlophe is taking place as in
33. Ke mathela hlopheng kea bitsoa, (Ramone, 2001: 5).
‘I am rushing to the hlophe, I am being called,’
While undergoing training for a certain length of time, a sangoma trainee is said to be in lefehlong. From the line below, the poem makes use of a similar term to refer to the academic training the student is undergoing:
36. Pelo ea ka ea choba ke lefehlong, (Ramone, 2001: 5)
‘My heart throbbed while undergoing sangoma training,’
178 | P a g e (a) Medicine murder (Liretlo)
The reference to the concept of liretlo ‘medicine murder’ also known as ‘ritual murder’
in Bolebali (1951: 26) echoes one of the beliefs and practices that exist among the Basotho, dreadful as they may be. According to Jones, in Maake (1998: 2), the word
“diretlo” is a Sesotho cognate of “dreitlo” is a Sesotho cognate ‘diretlo’, which is:
The traditional name for flesh and other parts of the body obtained from the body of an enemy killed in the normal course of warfare ….diretlo is not obtained from bodies of strangers or enemies, but from definite person who is thought to possess specific attributes considered essential for the particular medicine being made.
Maake (1998: 2) further relates that the person identified for this purpose of liretlo would usually come from the same community and would often be related to some of his/her killers. The needed parts have to be stripped from his / her body specifically for this purpose while still alive after which “the diretlo are mixed as an ingredient for a lenaka ‘horn’; hence the Sesotho adage that must have been coined in cognisance of this practice “Motho o retloa maleo a sa phela. ‘A person is sliced (cut up for making medicine) while alive,” the meaning “one is useful to others while alive”
(Mokitimi, 1997: 23-24). The word maleo is used for liretlo by some Sesotho literary artists. The concept is evoked in MSP through the poem entitled ‘Mehopolo’
‘Thoughts’ in (Bolebali, 1951: 26):
13. Mehopolo ea morena e tletse bona:
14. Ngaka e mo khelosa ka bohata, 15. A bolaee mofo ho kata lenaka,
________________________________
13. A chief’s thoughts are about chieftainship:
14. A witch doctor deceives him with lies,
15. And he kills a subject to fill up the medicine horn,
As the poem makes mention of a chief and a witchdoctor, the belief and the practice of liretlo have always been associated with chiefs and business men through the help and advice of witchdoctors.
(b) Perceptions about death
The perception of death, in particular, its nearness to us humans, is echoed and expressed in the poem ‘Bahale’ ‘The Brave ones’ in Bolebali (1951: 40) through the following line:
4. Lefu le qoleng ea kobo,
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‘Death is at the corner of a blanket’
This is a Sesotho adage that means “in the midst of life we are never far from death”
Mokitimi (1997:3). The line evokes other proverbs showing how near death is in the understanding and perception of the Basotho. These are “Lefu hase ntho e ncha”
‘death is not something new’, “Lefu ke ngoetsi ea malapa ‘ohle” ‘There is always death in every homestead’ (Mokitimi, ibid).
(c) Traditional dress and make-up
Reference is also made to traditional dress and make-up. Illustrations to this effect can be found in both B. Khaketla’s Lipshamathe (1985) and N. Khaketla’s ‘Mantsopa (1963). In the poem entitled Hlakantsutsu ea Mophato-moholo: ‘The mess at the great mophato: 1954’, MSP refers to some traditional attire.
20. Ba mekhahla, ba lithaha, ba bile ba maelana, (Khaketla, 1963: 14).
‘They have put on roughly tanned skins, red-bishop plumes and skin tippets,’
The poem borrows terms mekhahla ‘roughly tanned skins’, lithaha ‘red-bishop plumes’ and maelana ‘skin tippets worn by men in war or at initiation ceremonies’
(Mabille et al, 1979:166) used for traditional attire to describe the 1954 Basutoland High School, (now Lesotho High School) teachers’ academic regalia. Tattooing and other bodily decorations form part of the attire, especially for women. In ‘Lesotho’, Khaketla (1985:58) uses the tattoo image to roughly suggest the pattern in which the four rivers, Senqu ‘Orange’, Namahali ‘Elands’, Khubelu and Tugela rise from the immediate vicinity of Phofung Mountain in the Mokhotlong district of Lesotho.
15. Nyooko o roetse Phofung kotolahali, 16. Ea re khapa! ea mo phatsa maamohelo, ________________________________
15. She has Phofung, like a big round ball of bile on her head, 16. It overflew and incised her, creating lines of tattoo.
The word maamohelo connotes a curving and round about pattern in the manner in which these rivers flow from the source considering the pattern maamohelo take in the face of the owner, a Mosotho woman or litsoejane36. According to the Sesotho
36 Litsoejane – girl graduates from initiation school.
180 | P a g e custom, the day following their graduation is the day for ho tebuka37 by the litsoejane.
Describing the activity, Matšela (1990: 77) indicates that
E mong le e mongo oa litsoejane o tebuka a roetse nyooko ea nku/poli tlopong ea lenyetse e hloohong. Ea se nang eona o tebuka ka lihlong tse tšabehang…
‘Every one of the litsoejane has to parade with a bile gland from the sheep /goat slaughtered for her. The bile gland is tied on the tlopo38 of lenyetse39 on her head.
Those who do not have this nyooko, parade in great shame.’
On the other hand, maamohelo as a form of facial decoration go along with traditional attire. Describing how leamohelo (sing.) for maamohelo (plur.) Segoete (1987: 14) says:
Haholo ke la basali, leha banna ba bang le bona ba le etsa. Motho o phatsoa ho tloha holim’a phatla ho theosa le ‘mopo ho fihla nkong, le ho tloha holim’a mahlo ho pota ho isa ‘mopong le ho tloha ‘mopong ho ea mehlahareng.
‘It is mostly for women, even though some men still do it. One is incised from the forehead down the nose bridge to the nose and from above the eyes, round to the nose bridge and from there to the jaws.’
While the Phofung Mountain suggests an elevated source from where these rivers rise and map their way in a pattern suggested by the image of maamohelo, the gliding and gradual flow is connoted by the image of the implied parading setsoejane.
The images of traditional wear and tattoo in the above references do not only bring into modern Sesotho poetry, traditional intetertexts in the forms indicated, but also brings closer to an ordinary Mosotho in an associative manner, the idea of the academic regalia which may be a foreign phenomenon as well as the precise image of where and the pattern in which some Lesotho rivers form and flow from the mountain source down to the lowlands of the country. In this way, MSP as a literary piece of work, through these poems aligns itself with what Miller says in Bloom (1986:
225), that it “is invariably inhabited by a parasitical presence – echoes, allusions, ghosts of previous texts and feed upon the guest for survival”. Some of these allusions such as maamohelo as we have seen, probe further into other traditional practices like initiation and incising.
37 Tebuka – a public appearance in a slow graceful walk by litsoejane on the day of their graduation from initiation
38 Tlopo – hair left on top of the heads of litsoejane, while all sides are clean-shaven.
39 Lenyetse - lock of plaited hair on top of setsoejane’s head or all over the head of a sangoma.
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