2.3 Ntumbuluko - the academic perspective
2.3.2 The profile of Mr. Roberto Mario Mundlovo and his definition and description of ntumbuluko
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
endlaka na vaku i ntumbuluko wa vona. A mhaka ya ntumbuluko, yi tisa na ta masungulu ya munhu, leswinge, a munhu a tumbulukisile kuyini? Wanitwa, nipatsa na ntumbuluko loko ni vulavula hiku mahiwa ka vanhu. A Ntumbuluko i ma sungulu.
(Mundlovo 2001, interview)
Translation:
Thank you, but I am not sure if I will be able to explain all about what ntumbuluko is.
Why? Because if one says "ntumbuluko", that has many meanings. Why am I saying , that ntumbuluko has many meanings? In our Portuguese we say that ntumbuluko is the formation of a person from the beginning until when the person reaches the phase of speaking as a person. A person with grey hair is still a person because that person had the beginning. We can say that ntumbuluko is the beginning. There is a saying we use today (these days), we like saying that ntumbuluko of those people, or that that family originated like that in their ntumbuluko. This means that there is something a particular group or clan does that is different from what we do. These are things they do saying they are their ntumbuluko. The concept of ntumbuluko includes the beginning or origin of the human race, meaning what was the beginning or origin of humans? Do you hear me? I include ntumbuluko when I speak about the formation or creation of humans... [He used the evolutionary theory of human origin at this point]. Ntumbuluko is the beginning.
In his definition of ntumbuluko, Mundlovo used terms like "human formation", "the beginning", "principle" and "modus vivendi" and "modus operandi" of the Tsongas.
I asked him to clarify what he meant when he defined ntumbuluko as the beginning and he said: 'Loko niku a ntumbuluko wula ku hlamusela a masungulu, ni vula nitiyisile leswaku a ntumbuluko u kombisa a tamu lowu wungave kona a kuza ku humelela xokari (When I say that ntumbuluko means the beginning, I mean that ntumbuluko is the power that caused the beginning or which causes the beginning of anything)'.
Then I asked Mundlovo to describe to me what constitutes ntumbuluko, from his understanding and point of view. His description is:
Loko ni vulavula hiti mhaka ta ntumbuluko, ni vulile kwala niku ku ni swihena, anitivi aku kumbe maswitiva a swihena. Kuna swihena swa vanhu, leswi hiku famba ka mikarhi, swinga engeteliwaka kumbe swikhohliwa. Tani hi leswi a Bibele yi vulaka leswaku hi fanele a ku rivala a swakhali, leswi swinga mahiwa hi va kokwana va hina, hive vanhu vapwsa a timbilwini ta hina. I .aha a va vuli leswaku hi fanele ku tsika a va kokwani vahina, kambe a swi hen a swa va kokwani. Kasi aku ni khanyisa a hlamulo wa mina, nitaku; leswi hinga swi endla a khale a kaya i ntumbuluko. Laha unga twaka vaku 'lava va dawukisile kutani'. Kunge hi ku leha ka hina vaka Mundlovu, Mundlovu loyi wo sungula a a lehile kutani, na lava vaha velckiwaka valehile hi mhaka ya ntumbuluko wa vona. Laha a ntumbuluko wu vula transmissao
de genes, se a vanhu va vula vaku lava va dawukisile sweswo ni le entubulukweni wa vona a va lehile. Hikola, leswi hi nga xi swona namutlha hikolaho ka va kokwani.
(Mundlovo 2001, interview)
Translation:
When I define ntumbuluko I said there were customs, I do not know if you know what customs are. There are human customs which in the course of time may be added to or forgotten. Such as the Bible saying that we must forget the old ways of our grandparents, and that we become new in our hearts. It does not mean that we , must abandon our grandparents, but their customs. To make my answer clear, I can say that what we used to do at home (Magude district) in the past is ntumbuluko.
There you can hear them say 'these ones originated this way'. Like the height of Mundlovos, it is because the first Mundlovo was tall; therefore all Mundlovos are tall because of their ntumbuluko. Here ntumbuluko means genetic information transmission and the people will say that this people originated like that in their ntumbuluko. What we are today is because of our grandparents [ancestors].
Based on his description, I then asked him about the meaning of a popular outcry that has developed during and after Marxist Communism in Mozambique. It is common to hear a general critic saying that the people have, or a particular person has, abandoned ntumbuluko. This was much used to explain the calamities and natural disasters of the 1980s in Mozambique. So, I wanted Mundlovo to explain what he understood of the phrase "a vanhu va tsikile ntumbuluko" (the people have abandoned ntumbuluko), he said:
Wa vona a vanhu lava va pswaliweke a ti handle ka madoropa, nyamutlha loko va fika doropeni va sindzisiwa hi doropa a kuva va hanya xidoropa [Khosa ate xilungu].
Hina van'wani hi kulile na hidya muhungu na guxi na makhutla futsi hidya, kambe loko hita fika doropeni, a makhutla aha ha dyi, naswona amakona. Loko no heta a malembe yotala nihi laha doropeni ni land/a amahanyela ya doropa, nihlamba laha kunga na gezi, ni hi kwaswo swa xilungu, nje hi swakudya swa xilungu, anahari lavi na wuswa, hikusa nitolovela a masa leyi dyiwaka haleno doropeni; a nyama nidya a mabifi niswin'wani swin'wani, loko votsuka vaya veka a nyama ya hloko anaha yidyi. Hitchitcha na ma ambalela, a vanhanyana va ambala a mabuluku... .a tikereke hoti hlawulela, hambi ni tumbulukile ni hi wa Musawu Suwisa, naswikota akuya hlawula Siyawu Apostolika. Loko, nisukile a kerekeni ya vapswali, ni hambene na ntumbuluko....loko ni fularela a mahanyela lawa mangari kona khali a kaya hi ndlela yo kala yinga twisiseke, nitava ni tsikile ntumbuluko.
(Mundlovo 2001, interview)
Translation:
You see, people who are born in the countryside, when they come to the metropolis they are forced by the metropolis to live a metropolitan life. We grew up eating bran with guxi (wild okra) and makhutla (yellow belly frogs). When we come to the city
we no longer eat frogs, they do not even exist here. If I stay many years in the city, I start living a metropolitan life. I bath where there is light and enjoy a western life style. I eat western food and I no longer want to eat wuswa (millet or maize meal) because I am used to macaroni, beef and other good food. If they give me an animal head I do not eat it. We even change our way of dressing, girls put on trousers.. .we choose whatever church we want. Even if by ntumbuluko I am a Presbyterian (Swiss Mission), I can choose to join Zion Apostolic. If I leave the church of my parents I have departed from ntumbuluko.. ..If I turn back against the way of life in my family in an incomprehensible way, I have abandoned ntumbuluko.
Because of what I heard from Mr. Khosa about ntumbuluko in post-Marxist Mozambique, I asked Mr. Mundlovo the following question: 'In the public life of our country what has more influence, the gospel or ntumbulukoT Mundlovo's answer was: 'Makereke manga na influencia hambi manga /andznve.... (The churches have influence, even if it is not followed/obeyed)'. Then Mundlovo asked me to turn the tape off, for he wanted to tell me something confidential. Then, whispering, he told me that even the national anthem was composed by church people or choir (from his church). This story was to back his argument for the church's influence. But I asked if he heard what was once broadcast by Radio Mozambique in the same studio in which we were sitting, talking about a TV station in Niassa Province. The station was set up but could not work. All technological requirements were followed but no images appeared. When all technology failed, they called the local traditional leader to pour libation and the station immediately started to operate and show pictures.
When I said, did you hear about that? His answer was:
Niyitwile kambe aniyi tivisise ngopfu. Tsena mina ni pswaliwa a Magude48, wa tiva a ku a Magude vali Magude nkanyini? - Anitivi tchumu hita Nkanyi, no tiva aku kuna ka Magudu- Loko munhu a ku i wa Magudu, ufancle akuswitiva leswaku iwa Magude nkanyini. Anitive leswaku uvona njani, loko vaku Magudu nkanyine, awu hlamali tchumu kwalaho? - Nahlamala, a nkanyi lowu ixini, wuvula yini ke?- Magudu i tiko a nkanyi i sinya. Kutani, le Magude kuni nkanyi lowu wu hlamuseliwaka swo tula; wu nyikiwa swotala leswi hlayiwaka hi wona a nkanyi lowu. Hikuva hikari wun'wana unga tsuka uya wu tsema hiku ranza ka wena nje, wu pfuka wu file. Kumbe wutsuka, wuku ni lava aku swivona, hakunene le swi vuliwaka swihumelela. Kambe ahileswaku wo loya a kanyi lowuya, kumbe ku a vanhu va Magudu vo loya, tsena swikona swiyelanaka na ntumbuluko swinga ko ka nkanyi lowuya.
(Mundlovo 2001, interview)
48 There are two variations to the spelling of this town and district. In Tsonga it is spelled "Magudu"
but in Portuguese "Magude" here the informant and the interviewer use both spellings.
Translation:
I heard about the TV station story in Niassa, but I know little about it. But I was born in Magude. Do you know that Magude is called Magude Kanyini?...If someone says s/he is from Magude, you must know that s/he is from Magude Kanyini. I don't know what you see or think if we say Magude Kanyini. Aren't you amused or don't you suspect something? Magude is the territory and kanyi is a tree. At Magude there is a kanyi tree with so many stories; there are many things said about that tree.
Because, if one goes to that tree and strikes it for fun, the next day one is dead while sleeping. Or if one does something to test, prove and see whether or not what is said about the tree is true, one dies. But it does not mean that the tree is a sorcerer or bewitches, or that the people of Magude are sorcerers; but there is something of "
ntumbuluko in that kanyi tree.
After telling me his story of kanyi (marula tree) I asked him to explain what he thought was related to ntumbuluko that was killing people. He gave the following answer and story:
Aniswitivi hiku hetelela, kambe va hlaya leswaku, loko uya a Joni, khale kava bava na va ha famba himilenge,...u tsema hika Xikhukhuza a livaleni la swihari, akurhi na laha swinga nabyala ngopfu aku u khomiwa hi swiharhi, kambe, loko uta na unga yi tive [a ndawu ley] uta ndlula, swibiha loko uyi tiva u sima uya...Leswo shivula leswaku mina nitivaka hita nkanyi lowuya, loko nowu ringa a swinge lungi, ninga famba. Kambe loko wuwu yela na unga wutivi, akunaproWem...nitwa leswaku, a karini wa nyipi, kuve ni musotchua anga wu duwula na a lava aku swivona, kambe a pfuka na a file.
Tivemos um estudo de genero, nao genero masculino ou feminino, mas genero que analisa as relacSes ou relacionamento em casa, no servico, interpessoal etc. O estudo salieta que na biografia dum individou ha disvious no comportamento da vida dum individou (os disvious de alguns acontecimentos. Nesses disvious e para o bem ou para o pior). Aonde ha mudanca ha uma forca invisfvel que disvia; entao, penso que tambem nesta quest2o do canhueiro de Magude ha uma forca invisfvel que deviamos procurar descobrir.
(Mundlovo 2001, interview)
Translation:
I do not know everything about this tree, but it is said that when our fathers used to walk to Johannesburg (South Africa), they used a shortcut through Xikhukhuza, in the plain with many wild animals and beasts. There was a particular place where it was easy for one to be attacked and devoured by beasts. One could pass safely if one used that route without knowing the dangers. Those who knew but were stubborn did not survive. This means that as I know about that kanyi tree, if I attempt anything on it, things will go badly for me, I will go (die). But if one approaches the tree unknowingly, there is no problem... I heard that, during the war, there was a soldier who shot the tree with his gun to see what would happen. The morning after the incident he was dead.
We had a study of gender, not masculine and feminine gender, but gender that analyzes social (family), work place, interpersonal, etc. relations or relationships.
The study pointed out that in the biography of an individual there are deviations
(these deviations of events are deviations for good or ill) in the behaviour or course of an individual person's life. The study also pointed out that where there is change, there is an invisible power that deviates. I, then, therefore, also think that in the question of the kanyi tree of Magude, there is an invisible power which we should try to discover.
To emphasise his point, Mundlovo told a story of the revolutionary combatant who, in typical Marxist fashion, wanted to prove that there was nothing in the tree, thus exposing the superstitions of the people and purge them of childish ignorance and obscurantism under which the religious ideologies and superstitions flourish, as opium of the people. The result was fatal49. Then Mundlovo told another story of a course which used astrological cycles50 of good and bad fortunes in the course of a person's life. The study argued that life has deviations and that those deviations are caused by an invisible power. He concluded by saying that the case of the marula tree of Magude indicates the presence of an invisible power which exists. In his opinion we should try to discover its power.
So far, if we analyse Mundlovo's definition of ntumbuluko, we find that he basically understands ntumbuluko as the beginning and, profoundly, as the power behind the beginning or that power that causes something to happen. His argument that 'a person is a person because he has beginning' (Mundovo 2001, interview) is very interesting;
it is unfortunate that he expressed it in Portuguese. In some Bantu languages, what he was saying is that mu-ntu becomes a mu-ntu because s/he has ntu. This could sound like Kagame, Mulago and Mujynya's philosophical argument on ntu that we will discuss at the beginning of the next chapter.
Based on the kanyi tree mystery and story, Mundlovo considers ntumbuluko as an invisible power and in his opinion, we must discover this power. Going back to his
49 Such fatalities are allegedly related to abuse against the powers of ntumbuluko. So called superstitions were common in Mozambique during the Marxist dispensation when the government officials, party militants and soldiers were trying to prove that there were no spiritual powers and God.
Maybe such experiences contributed to the total surrender of the government to ntumbuluko. Marxism that tried hard and violently to destroy or overthrow ntumbuluko crumbled.
50 Based on the explanation that Mundlovo gave about the study he had, I concluded that even if the study was not presented by astrologers, it used an analytical method which is similar to the astrological cycles (Hiebert, Shaw & Tienou 1999:186).
idea of the beginning, ntumbuluko as the beginning is the source of human life and works to ensure its continuity. He also sees ntumbuluko as responsible for some unchangeable genetic material that constitutes the uniqueness of an individual. In this point he explains ntumbuluko from biological science and the evolutionary theory of the origin of humans. Finally, he sees ntumbuluko as a way of life opposed to xidoropa (metropolitan life or culture) or xilungu (white or Western life or culture).
For him, to live xidoropa or xilungu life is tantamount to abandoning ntumbuluko.
However, he does not give any warning against the consequences of abandoning ntumbuluko, like the warnings given by Ndzukule, which make abandoning ntumbuluko a life-and-death matter.
To summarise the academic or modern definition of ntumbuluko, we can say that from both informants ntumbuluko is described as an invisible power. For Khosa, this power manifests itself and operates through the belief in the ancestors, which is enacted in the annual mhamba ceremony. But, for Mundlovo, this invisible power is in nature like that kanyi tree in Magude. However, in his story of the deviation of power in a personal human life in the description of how ntumbuluko can harm or help in one's personal life (like getting a job and achieving prosperity) Mundlovo agrees with Khosa in attributing to the invisible power of ntumbuluko the power of influencing the course of human life and events for good or for ill.
One would expect the modernists to be sceptical of ntumbuluko because of scientific influence, but my informants are not sceptical at all. They speak comfortably of the invisible power, the ancestors, the role and relationship of the ancestors. This suggests how strong and successful ntumbuluko is in resisting being wiped out by other theoretical constructs of reality.
However, Mundlovo's first choice definition of ntumbuluko is that it is the beginning or the power behind the beginning. He used the invisible power concept to comment on my argument against his assumption that the church has much influence in the public life of Mozambique. I am not sure whether Mundlovo gave that story in order to agree with Khosa that ntumbuluko dominates the national public life, or whether he wanted to show that ntumbuluko is an invisible but real power that cannot be ignored or despised. Or else to show that ntumbuluko is dominant because it exercises power
that we have not yet discovered and understood, and therefore there is nothing we can do about it. But his story does not support his argument of the influence of the church in the public life based on the church's artistic contribution in the national anthem.
Neither the old or the new national anthems have any Christian words. The old one sung praises to Frelimo (the ruling party) and to the nation, with Marxist philosophy tones. The new one sings praises to the nation, nation building, peace and progress.
After speaking of the national anthem, it is appropriate to follow this with the artist category, in which we analyse songs.