mbunu (radical or root) + ko/u (suffix). Ntu appears as a suffix in words and concepts like xintu. intu. muntu, vantu, buntu, bantu, ubuntu. As for the radical or root, I am not sure of its use, although in Xitshwa, one of the Tsonga languages, mbulu is the supernatural power from diviners that enables one to act supematurally. If one is said to have mbulu wa nyama (magic power for hunting) one can call animals to come to oneself75. The suffix "ko/u" indicates the class of the word. Ntumbuluko/u is an abstract substantive or noun. Tu without "n" is the verbal form of the word ntumbuluko which is more related to the verb "to create," "creation" and "creator."
Ku tumbuluka is the verb "to begin" or "to originate"; ku tumbuluxa is the verb "to create", "to cause something to begin", "to be the force or master-mind behind the beginning or origin of something"; tumbuluxa is the imperative of ku tumbuluxa. Ku tumbulukixiwa is "to be created, made or formed"; mutumbuluxi is "the creator", whereas other forms include tumbulukile, tumbulukisa and tumbulukisiwa, etc.
3.2 Ontological and philosophical interpretative approach to the study of ntumbuluko
In our attempt to translate the concept ntumbuluko, I shall survey the ontological study of ntu by Kagame (1956). Ntu was introduced into ontological philosophical studies of "being" by Tempels (1945) in his Bantu Philosophy, which was followed by many works including Kagame's (1956) La Philosophie Bantu-Rwandaise de I'Etre. In 1976 Kagame published another work, La Philosophie Bantu Comparee, covering all 24 Bantu countries in West, Central, East and Southern Africa.
According to Mudimbe (1985:187) both works rely heavily on linguistic analyses of Bantu languages because, for Kagame:
75 My grandfather on my mother's side had an mbulu wa nyama in the form of a bow. If he took that bow and went hunting he simply found a place and stood still. All animals were alledgedly attracted to him, including lions and snakes. They came near to him and stopped, until he chose those he wanted to kill and shot them (Hlungwani 1995, counselling).
[T]o speak of Bantu philosophy implies, above all, a consideration of two conditions for its possibility: the linguistic coherence of Bantu languages which uniformly presents class structures and the commodity of a philosophical method inherited from the West (Kagame, 1971:591). Tempels, according to Kagame, initiated the availability of the method and that is his merit. His Bantu Philosophy should be revised because Tempels was not a scholar: he did not pay attention to Bantu languages and moreover, his synthesis, strictly based on his experience within the Luba-Shaba community, does not offer a comprehensive understanding of Bantu cultures.
(Mudimbe 1985:187)
It is with this assumption that Kagame, and thereafter Mulago (1965:152-53), Mujynya (1972:13-14), as well as Jahn (1961:100), emphasized that all me ten classes or categories of ntu in Kinyarwandan can be reduced to four basic concepts (Mudimbe 1985:188-89). The four basic categories are: (1) MU-ntu = being of intelligence (Aristotelian notion of substance; (2) Kl-ntu = being without intelligence or thing; (3) HA-ntu with variant PA-, VA- and GO- expressing time and place and; (4) KU-ntu related to modification of the being (Mudimbe 1985:189). Summarizing Kagame and Mulago, Mudimbe (1985:189) says that all the four categories come from the root NTU, which refers to being and also to force. Ntu is a form of universal sign of similitude; its presence in beings brings them to life and attests to both their individual value and to the measure of their integration in the dialectic of vital energy.
Mujynya (1972) is quoted in Mudimbe (1985) summarizing his understanding of ntu by saying that:
(1) all elements of the universe, that is each created ntu, is a force and an active force; (2) everything being force, each ntu is thus always part of a multitude of other forces and all of them influence each other; (3) every ntu can always, under the influence of other ntu, increase or decrease in its being; (4) because each created being can weaken inferior beings or can be weakened by superior beings, each ntu is always and simultaneously an active and fragile force.
(Mudimbe 1985:190)
To conclude this study of ntu I quote Mudimbe saying: (Ntu is the fundamental and referential basic being-force which dynamically manifests itself in all existing beings, differentiating them but also linking them in an ontological hierarchy' (Mudimbe
1985:189). Then the question to ask is: does ntu of ntumbuluko carry all these?
Unlike other Bantu languages, Tsonga does not use ntu in reference to human beings.
Tsonga and Shona use munhu and vanhu where other Bantu languages use buntu/muntu/intu and bantu/vantu/antu. However, the idea of "being", "force",
"creation", "origin", "human essence" and "beginning" that are basic to ntumbuluko are also discussed in varying degrees in the Kinyarwandan ntu of the above scholars.
In fact, Parratt (1995:28-40) identifies Mulago and Kagame as contributors for an African theological method with their study of ntu (Parratt 1995:32) following Tempels' study. But this study is conceptual rather than linguistic, so, we must go back to the conceptual exploration.
Temples' work itself {Bantu Philosophy) does not separate ntu and study the concept of ntu philosophically. His work is more concerned with the concept of 'vital force' (Tempels 1959:44) and 'philosophy of forces' (Tempels 1959:74) in Bantu cultures.
With this concept Tempels analyses the "muntu" concept of being in various human situations. Discussing Buntu metaphysics or 'philosophy of forces' (1959:74) he says:
The philosophy of forces is a theory of life, a weltanschaung. It is possible that it may have been devised to justify a given behaviour, or that a particular adaptation of nature may have conditioned this behaviour, but always the philosophy of forces strictly governs in fact the whole of Bantu life.
It explains the human motivations of all Bantu customs. It decrees the norms in accordance with which personality in the individual shall be kept unaltered or allowed to develop. This does not mean that every Bantu is able to enumerate the cardinal truths of his philosophy, but it is not less true that the "muntu" who neglects to orientate his life in accordance with the ancient norms laid down by Bantu wisdom will be treated as "kidima" by his fellows: that is to say as a sub-human, a man of insufficient mind to count as a "muntu." The normal "muntu" knows his philosophy, he recognizes the forces in being.
(Tempels 1959:74)
Tempels' treatment of philosophy here is parallel to the notion of ntumbuluko among the Tsonga. The combination of what he calls the vital force which orientates Bantu behaviour, philosophy of forces and Bantu ethics (1959:115-137) are all covered in the concept ntumbuluko. The requisite to know one's philosophy, customs or wisdom which guide life and determine one's personality or personhood is a core element of ntumbuluko in the Tsonga worldview. One of the important conclusions of Tempels' study is his acknowledgement of Bantu thought forms when he says:
Even before we "rethought" Bantu philosophy, before grasping clearly its profound influence upon every act and deed of the "muntu," we were beginning to suspect, perhaps, that everywhere there was a Bantu way of thinking which deeply influenced their behaviour. We were even thinking that we must take account of it. Such a reality cannot be disguised, ruled out, denied or ignored by any conscientious educator. The question now is to know how and to what extent we must take this reality into consideration.
(Tempels 1959:170)
This conscious attempt to recognise and take into account the Bantu ways of thinking, contributed towards the development of theological methods which allow our explorations of this way of thinking as the locus of theologizing. Among the Tsonga, ntumbuluko represents a Tsonga worldview, a Tsonga philosophy of being and life.
This must not be viewed in the negative sense as a huge challenge, but it is also an opportunity and a possibility of greater theological development for the church.
Tempels argues that:
If the Bantu have a defined philosophy, a profound corpus of wisdom and an established code of behaviour we can, perhaps, find in it a real foundation on which the Bantu peoples will be able to build their civilization.
(Tempels 1959:170)
Although we are not building Bantu or Tsonga civilization, this statement helps one to see how, in the case of ntumbuluko as a defined philosophy, a profound corpus of wisdom and, to use the most recent term, the deep indigenous knowledge system and an established code of conduct among the Tsonga peoples, ntumbuluko can be a foundation on which Tsonga Christianity can develop. When Christian witnesses know how to speak of ntumbuluko thought forms as Tempels suggests: 'We feel that we should speak "from one school of wisdom to another," "from one ideal to another," "from one conception of the world to another conception of it'" (1959:168), we will be better able to communicate the gospel of Christ among the Tsonga.
After analysing ntumbuluko from an ontological and philosophical point of view we need to proceed to looking at it phenomenologically using specific literary works.
These literary works will be looked at separately so as to provide another theoretical angle for the understanding of ntumbuluko.
3.3 Phenomenological interpretative approach to the study of ntumbuluko