2.3 Ntumbuluko - the academic perspective
2.3.1 The profile of Mr. Felix Khosa and his definition and description of ntumbuluko
In the University Mr. Khosa is formally addressed as Tatana Khosa. The Tsonga term tatana means 'father', but it is used as a title of respect in the same way as "Sir" is used in English. Tatana Khosa is a lecturer of the Tsonga language in the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) in Maputo, Mozambique. UEM is the oldest institution of higher learning in the country.
Tatana Khosa was bom in Ka Pfumu (Maputo). He is 69 years old. Before joining the University staff he worked as a pastor in the Presbyterian Church of Mozambique, but he was seconded as a United Methodist pastor. Since his service in the Swiss mission or Presbyterian Church in the 1960s, he has remained with the Presbyterian Church. The University respects him more as pastor than as lecturer. Some of Tatana Khosa's degree studies were done in Portugal. I first met Tatana Khosa in the Scripture Union Mozambique meetings in the early 1990s when he was already an established Tsonga language lecturer at the University.
I asked Khosa to define the term or concept ntumbuluko for me. He defined ntumbuluko with the following words:
A ntumbuluko iswilo leswi hikwaswo hi swi endlaka swi khumbaka ngopfu a wutomi la hina la mapswaliwa. Hinga vula lcswaku ntumbuluko intamu lowu hinga wu voniki, lowu wu swi kotaka a ku hundzulusa a wu tomi la hina; wa swi kota a ku li onha; wa swi kota a ku li lulamisa. Hikwaswo leswo swi endleka hi loko hi kholwa ka swona. Kambc a ntamu lowu wuta hile ka va kokwani va hina. Wu hi tela loko hi kholwa ka vona, hi hleketa leswaku loko hi endla leswi, kumbe ni phahla, kokwani uta ni pfuna. Loko ni tsika ninga mutsundzuki, a wotomi lamina lita hela. A xikombiso xa matimba lawa imimoya ya vafi. A ntumbuluko wa hina imimoya ya , vakokwani.
(Khosa 2001, interview)
Translation:
Ntumbuluko is everything we do that deeply touches our birth life (natural or traditional life). We can say that ntumbuluko is a power that we do not see (an invisible power), power that is capable of changing/turning or converting our lives.
This power can spoil or break our lives down; it can straighten or fix up our lives.
All this happens if we believe in this power. This power comes from our grandparents. It comes to us if we believe in them, thinking that if I do this or if I pour libation and pray to my grandparents, they will help me. But if I do not remember them, my life will end. The signal or symbol of this power is the spirits of the dead. Our ntumbuluko are the spirits of the grandparents.
In his definition, Khosa said that ntumbuluko is an invisible power that can harm or help. I asked him to explain in which ways ntumbuluko is a harmful or a helpful invisible power. Before I finished my question he quickly answered saying: 'It can be harmful if one jokes with it, if one messes with it' (Khosa 2001, interview). When I finished my question he then gave an expanded answer saying:
Nita sungula hileswi manga onhaka. A matimba lawa ya ntumbuluko ma onha loko wena unga va tsundzuki lava vanga hi siya. Ku laveka leswaku karhi ni karhi uva tsundzuka wena. U phahla. Hi laha ma onhaka kona laho. Se loko unga mahi leswo vataku anga vatsundzuki a vafi, se vanhu vataku, 'wa vabya, wa xaniseka, hambi a lava a ntiro a nga wu kumi na kuve van'wana vawu kuma' aswilo hi kwaswo swinga mufambeli kwatsi. Kasi loko vaku vona uva tsundzuka, hi ku phahla, kumbe hiku va nyika a xifihlutu, a wu mahele a xifihlulu ka vona, wo maha wu vitana a maxaka ya wena, uku, tanani hitata kumbuka manyani. Ata swivona leswaku i pela hi kona ha mu tsundzuka. Leswo hitala ku swi endla, hambi hinga humeleliwanga ha tchumu, ha vula leswaku a hi tsundzukeni manyani. Kambc a vu nyingi bya hina hi maha loko swinga fambi kwatsi. Loko swilo hi kwaswo swa wutomi swinga fambi kwatsi, va li a vaka vona va mutsikile, kambe loko swi famba kahle, vataku, ati nguluve taka Khosa ti na mina.
(Khosa 2001, interview)
Translation:
I will start by showing how this power [ntumbuluko] can harm. The power of ntumbuluko can harm if one does not remember the departed ones. It is necessary that one remembers them from time to time. One must pour libation. This is the way in which this power harms. If one fails to do that, it will be said that s/he does not remember the dead and people will say: 'S/he is ill, is suffering, even if s/he looks for a job s/he does not find it, while others do find jobs'. Everything goes wrong. But if they see one remembering them [the dead] through libation or by giving them breakfast, one is not giving that breakfast to them, but one calls his/her relatives saying: 'come, let us remember so-and-so, or let us have a memorial for so-and-so'.
The one to whom the memorial is dedicated will see that we truly remember him/her. <
We usually do that even if there is nothing critical that has happened to us, we just decide and say, let us remember so-and-so. But most of us do that when things are not going well. When everything in life goes wrong, it is said that 'his [dead] have forsaken him/her', and when everything goes well, they say, 'Khosa spirits are with me'.
After asking him to explain his understanding of what the Tsongas think about the destiny or the place where the spirits of the dead go, I then asked him about the function of ntumbuluko in the Tsonga daily life. His answer was:
Se nivulile leswaku a ntumbuluko wunga ku pfuna, naswona wungaku tsika wuhohloka. A mapfunela ya ntumbuluko, hihina vanhu hiti nyiketaka. Swin'wana wunga tsuka wuswivona hiku lorisiwa, se loko wu Ionic swaku karhi, uku, a muloro leyi ningave nayona, swikona nibyeliwaka swona. Se wulava a tlamuselo wa kona (hitihlolo). A ntumbuluko wa hina waku lungisa a swilo, a hiwaku onha. Kambe kulaveka a mhamba a kan'we hi lembe 'o coelho so engorda uma vez por and". Ko laveka mun'we a ka lixaka loyi anga vulaka leswaku ahi maheni a mahewu hi tsundzuka vakokwani. Kambe le xi ni hlamalisaka, ku, avafi vahina vala hansi, kambe loko a pfula yingani, hili, lowalehehla a hi tsikile.
(Khosa 2001, interview)
Translation:
I have already said that ntumbuluko can help one, but it can also leave one crumbling.
The way in which ntumbuluko does help is based on our human commitment. Some of the things one sees by being caused to dream (sic), then, after dreaming something, one says: 'The dream I had is something I am being told'. Then one looks for the interpretation of the dream through bones-casting divination [astragalomanc/9].
Our ntumbuluko is for mending/fixing things and not breaking things [relationships]
down. But there is a need of mhamba*0 once a year (the rabbit gets fat once a year)41. There must be one person in a family or clan who can say: 'Let us make mahewu
39 I found this technical term for the bones casting divination in Hiebert, Shaw & Tienou (1999:184).
40 A family or clan religious gathering to speak with the ancestors through prayers, libation and mediums.
41 This is a Portuguese saying which he used in order to enforce or underline the importance, validity and logic of the clan or family annual religious gathering with or for the ancestors.
drink and remember the grandparents'. But what amuses me is the fact that our dead are underground42, but if it fails to rain we say: "The above-one has forsaken us'.
Finally I asked him about the position or place of ntumbuluko in public life in Mozambique after Marxism. Marxism, as indicated in the historical background, tried to eliminate ntumbuluko. His assessment of the place of ntumbuluko in the post- Marxist and democratic Mozambique is:
Kambe lomu tikweni, ndzaku ka Marxismo, leyi yinga pfukela awu khongeli, sweswi a ntumbuluko ni wun'wanga swi fuma hintamu ngopfu. A magandzelo ma pfuxiwa hi ntamu wa mufumu, a maprojecto ma khanguliwa hi mhamba, a ti n'anga ti nyikiwe a vito ripswa, tina associacao (Associacao dos Medicos Tradicionais Mocambicanos). A va ha vuli leswaku iti nyanga, vali, vadokodela kufana na van'wani lava vanga dyondza a xikoleni, kambe vona lava i vadokodela va ntumbuluko.
(Khosa 2001, interview)
Translation:
Now, here in this country [Mozambique], after Marxism, which was against religion, ntumbuluko and divination are ruling/dominating very powerfully. Magandzelo (places of libation, worship also called tipangu) are re-established with the government support/authority, projects are inaugurated with mhamba (an address of thanksgiving prayer to the dead), diviners/mediums were given a new name and they do have an association (Associacao dos Medicos Tradicionais Mocambicanos [AMETRAMO] the Association of Mozambican Traditional Doctors). They are no longer called tinyanga [plural of n 'anga] (diviners/mediums), they say these are equally doctors in the same manner as those trained and graduated from schools, these ones being doctors in ntumbuluko or ntumbuluko doctors.
Khosa indicates the privileged place of ntumbuluko in the new political dispensation in Mozambique. It is hard to believe that the government which is now sponsoring and promoting ntumbuluko is the same government that waged war against ntumbuluko in the mid 1970s and through the 1980s. Ntumbuluko was frontally attacked and the government believed to have wiped it out after burning all amulets, and artefacts, and by prohibiting divination, libation, polygamy, kingship, witchcraft and magic, etc. In the meantime, Christianity and Islam were allowed to operate
42 Khosa says that: 'We, in our Tsonga culture, the spirits of the dead go nowhere. Our family or clan (the dead) is here with us. It was for this reason that the dead were buried in the homes. When it is time for libation, prayer or worship, we pour drink and tobacco on the ground, for they are with us here'. See the full translation of the transcript in the appendices.
under some restrictions, but now ntumbuluko has taken control in the public life . The government represent the elite and most educated people of the country. Part of this change can be explained by the fact that ntumbuluko was deeply involved in the civil war and became a political tool in the democratization process and electoral campaign44. This move has caused much unrest in different denominations, including mine, from 1990 to this day. Many Christians, including clergy, want and live publicly an ntumbuluko-centsied Christian life and push for a synthetic45 Christianity or a form of ntumbuluko Christianity or culture Christianity. This causes friction, break-away and many open conflicts and expulsion of people and clergy, which never happened during the Marxist or even the colonial periods.
Summarising Tatana Khosa's definition, we can say that ntumbuluko is a power, an invisible power. This power operates deeply in the traditional life of Tsonga people.
It is a life-touching and life-changing power. For this power to operate there is an element of faith (believing in the power) and that faith is to be expressed in remembrance (mhamba) and libation to the spirits of the dead grandparents who are the channel or symbol of the invisible power.
From Khosa's definition or conception, ntumbuluko is an invisible power that manifests itself through the spirits of the dead, the grandparents. Khosa highlights the
43 Under the present dispensation, public ceremonies include ntumbuluko rituals. The government does everything in its power to promote ntumbuluko in the public and community life. Projects are now inaugurated with libation. In my village, CARE International dug a manual water pump well, but it broke down so often that they came and asked that the king should pour libation. A king and a chief argued over the right to pour libation over the well and the chief died as a result of that spiritual power struggle. The chief was also a Zionist bishop. But, unfortunately, the well is now permanently broken down; in fact the real problem is that it is too deep.
44 One of the arguments of the rebel movement that was fighting the government was that it had obliterated Mozambican culture, thus dehumanizing the people. Renamo started to use traditional government systems in its controlled zones at the local and district levels (Cline 1989:50-56).
Whenever the Renamo guerrillas entered a zone, they looked for the king or chief of the area to pour libation on their behalf before they went to engage the government army in battle. They also used to have a diviner or a Zionist prophet to provide them with ntumbuluko supernatural guidance. Renamo used this after the war to prove its respect for the people and their culture and accuse the government of disrespect and abuse to the people and their cultures. As an electoral tactic, the government started to reinstate kings and allow the public administration of ntumbuluko rituals to prove its political opponent wrong in his accusations.
45 Niebuhr (1951) uses the term "synthetic Christianity" to refer to a kind of gospel and culture relationship in which one synthesizes faith and culture, producing culture Christianity. Culture Christianity is a technical term that Niebuhr adopted from Karl Barm's definition of what is popularly called "liberal" or "liberalism" in relation to Christian orthodoxy.
mhamba4 (missa) (a Portuguese/Latin word [mass] used to mean the memorial ceremony for the ancestors) aspect of ntumbuluko as the most important and helpful aspect of ntumbuluko. According to his account, it is with this aspect of ntumbuluko that one ensures that everything goes well in life (business, employment, promotion, good relationships etc.). He seems positive on mhamba oxxifihlutu (breakfast) for the dead, he sounds unhappy about the privileged place ntumbuluko has in public life in Mozambique.
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The next informant of this category had a different opinion on ntumbuluko and public life.
2.3.2 The profile of Mr. Roberto Mario Mundlovo and his definition and