2.5 Ntumbuluko - the Christian practitioner's perspective
2.5.3 Igreja Assembleias de Deus de Mozambique
2.5.3.1 The profile of Mr. Solomoni Chitlango and his definition and description of ntumbuluko
We still have two other informants, from a different Christian tradition, whose contribution we need to hear.
definitions/descriptions and explanations. However, we will have extensive quotations in the beginning to highlight how he defined ntumbuluko, and then we will summarize the rest, quoting only parts with important definitions.
My question was so simple, "what is ntumbuluko"! His answer was:
Ya, se, nita vulisa leswi, niku a ntumbuluko iswilo swa le kaya ka hina a makwatini , [geographic definition]. A ku fana na muti loko u yakwa. Avaku, a muti awu fanelangi ku yakiwa na unga rangeliwangi hi mulumuzana na nkosikazi - i ntumbuluko lowo.
A xa wumbiri avaku laha kaya a ku faneli leswaku loko n'wana a pswaliwa anga tiviwi. Avaku swa yila. Loko amuti wu sunguliwa na unga rangeliwangi avaku swa
> ila. Aku yila hikwihi? Avaku swi nyika ku khohlola aka bava na ka mamani. Loko kola a munhu ata endla swa masangu laha kaya aka wena kuve awu rangelangi muti, uma kumile.
Khale ka matiko, a tikweni la hina nitiva aku loko karhi wa tipfula wu fikile ta ku byala, ava hlangana vaya a phangweni, aka swikwembu swa va kokwani lava vanga fa khale (vona hi vona swikwembu swa kona) - vaya vaya phahla. Se vaku, ati mbewu a ti byaliwe. Loko vabyalile, avaku, aswi fanele aku un'wani ni un'wani loyi anga kona lomu tikweni a sungula kudya a timbewu leto (loko ti upfa) na anga yangi tiya phahliwa. Avaku swa yila aku ga vanga phahlangi. Avaku ku ta ta ti fenhe, iinyanyani kumbe tindlopfu ti ta ga mavele ti heta. Se, loko va la ku lumela timbewu, mun'wani ni mun'wani ata khaya xikhevana, xi riwana, hambi loko a phahlile a mutini wakwe a ka ntumbuluko wakwe, ata yisa a timbewu aku tiya phahliwa aka ntumbuluko wa tiko. Se, ava teka timbewu leti vaya phangweni se a hosi yi ya phahla ya tiko lego, se yiku: 'fambani mu ya ga a timbewu ta n'wina. 'Se loko vaya a karini waku hula, va peta a byala la ntumbuluko. loko li upfili mun'wani ni mun'wani a teka a mbita vaya hlangana aka ndawu leyi ya munhu loyi anga fa khale anga yena xikwembu xa kona. Se vaya fika va phahla se vaku; mun'wani ni mun'wani a nga ha endla leswi aswi lavaku; kumbe wa peta byala, kumbe a na swikwembu swakwe, se hi endlile swa ntumbuluko.
Ina ka, aka swilo hikwaswo leswi swi vitaniwaka swaku i ntumbuluko aswiza swi endliwa hi mhaka muni? A vaku, loko swinga maheke leswo swa yila; kufana na leswi ninga vula aku a muti na n'wana swa bohiwa.
(Chidango S 2001, interview)
Translation:
Yes, I will say diat ntumbuluko is things of home in the village. Like when one builds a home. They say that a home must not be built without the mulumuzana (male family head) and nkosikazi (female family head) knowing the new home56 first.
This is ntumbuluko.
They also said that if a child is born in a family and is not known, swa yila [is a taboo]. A long time ago, when the rainy sowing season came, they gathered and went to tipangweni, to their gods, which are their forefathers, and they sacrificed and
According to S. Chitlango, if they failed to do so, the family heads would contract tuberculosis.
Once anyone comes from outside (visitors or daughters with their husbands) and has sex before the ritual, the two family heads or die children will contract tuberculosis.
prayed to them. Afterwards, they went back and sowed. After that, they were told not to eat anything from their agricultural produce before taking their first fruits to the tipangu to be prayed for. They said it is taboo to eat before praying for the crops.
Monkeys, birds and elephants would come and destroy all the crops. When they want to "bite the season" (eating the season's produce for the first time), they will take all the crops they have, even if they have prayed for their crops according to their family ntumbuluko, they have to follow the national ntumbuluko of praying for all the crops. They will go to the pangweni and the king will offer a sacrifice and say to the people: 'Go and enjoy your seeds (crops or produce)'. After the harvest, they make millet drink and they will go back again to their lipangu and present then- harvest and the king says: 'From now henceforth, each may do as he pleases with his , harvest, whether you make millet drink, or you have your gods, do as you please, we have now done what is of ntumbuluko''.
Now, then, all I have explained and whatever is said to be of ntumbuluko, why were these things done? They said that if those things were not done, something will happen as in the case of a new home and a newborn baby.
S. Chitlango made a clear connection between the concept and its various administrations in life. I asked him to explain each of the rituals he alluded to above, namely the tying, knowing or leading the home and knowing the child. He started with the home, saying:
Ina ka loko vaku a muti wa tiviwa ava vula leswaku, loko ku sungula vaya fika lahaya va tsema hlapfu vaku hi laha mitini laha. Se ayaka a heta, se aya teka nkosikazai yakwe, hambi ova na mune kumbe tlhanu wa vava nsati; a taya teka a nkosikazi yakwe leyi anga sungula a teka (a nsati wa xiteko) - loko va fika laha kaya la na vahi va mbiri, na kuhi hava mun'wani. Se va teka a sangu vali andlala, loko vali andlalile, ku na mati lawa va ngata na wona, se va endla ti mhaka ta vona ta masangu, se va teka a mati lawa va hlambisana. Se va teka a mati lawa vaya laha sangweni [entrada] laha ku ngenaka vanhu, se va tchela a mati lawa aka magodi vanga cela...se va ngenisa tinhi va siyetela. Se va famba vaya fika laha phakati ka muti va hlamba a mati lawaya (ave se maha tchumu leswo) se va n'watsekela. Se va ya a ndlini vaya fika vaku hi hina venyi va muti; hi lava mun'wani ni mun'wani loyi a taku laha a kuma leswaku hina hi hina venyi va muti lowu.
(Chitlango S 2001, interview)
Translation:
Yes, if they say that a home/household is known they mean that when they chose a place to build a new home they first cut a branch and say "here is home." After finishing building the house(s), the head of the family will bring his first wife (nkosikazi). Even if he has four or five wives, it is the nkosikazi (wife of marriage) that he will bring for the ritual. When the two of them arrive in the new home at night, they will unfold their mat and have intercourse and they will wash each other with water they brought for the purpose after the intercourse. They take the water to the gateway where they have already dug two holes and brought two poles to erect at the entrance. They will pour the water and plant the poles. Then they go to the centre of the home and sprinkle the water to all four winds and then they go inside the house and say: 'We are the owners of this home, we want anyone who comes here to find that we are the owners of this home'....
There is a problem of order in the explanation. They bring the two poles with them and then dig the holes before entering the home. Then they enter the home and have intercourse inside the house. The whole ritual, from beginning to end, is done naked, and it takes the whole night to complete the outside and the inside intercourse. I have illustrated this scenario by means of a diagram of a home with gateway holes, the home centre and the house.
""• Entrance or gate - • Holes for the poles
"^Imaginary rectangle
•Semi-circle of a home j ^ T h e new house
—The centre of a home (known as bandla
"court" and the spot in which the men of the homestead gather around the fire in the evenings)
Figure 1.
After the home-knowing ritual he explained many other rituals, like knowing and tying the child, tying oneself, puberty, xirotha (wedding ritual) and how the life of the husband stays in the xirotha pot. He warned about the proper handling of the pot, giving an example of how his aunt killed her husband by using this pot to serve millet drink to the family's grandchildren. The man who died was called Xibamani, a young brother of the supreme king Mabungele of the Chitlango kingdom. After that story he also warned of the deadly effect of women during their period. They must be separated from their husbands during their periods and not touch anything belonging to their husbands. He then gave a list of food ntumbuluko laws. To support his arguments for ntumbuluko, in each of the applications of it to life activities or life events, he said:
Diagram of a typical Tsonga home
A ntumbuluko awu tirela yini? Awu tirela aku seva [to save] awu tomi la hina aku hi hanya kwatsi, hi kuma masiku ya ku leha. A ntumbuluko avaku, ahi pfumeleliwe aku, hahari va tsongo, hi etlela na vava nsati va hombe - a swi yila.
(Chitlango S 2001, interview)
Translation:
What was ntumbuluko for? It was for saving our life, thus allowing us long living.
In ntumbuluko we were not allowed to sleep around with old women. It is a taboo. «
S. Chitlango presented ntumbuluko here as having the function of saving and preserving life to ensure long living. It is also a moral guardian, although he did not indicate what ntumbuluko says about sleeping around with girls of one's own age.
Further, he said: 'These days that ntumbuluko is finished (sic) [no longer practised], our life is not the same as yesterday (sic) [it used to be]. Because all the things our fathers told us were intended to save our lives' (Chitlango S 2001, interview). He then gave further descriptions of ntumbuluko as follows:
Ntumbuluko - hikwaswo leswi venge i ntumbuluko a wuhi ntumbuluko wa ku hanya.
Leswaku wutomi la hina li hanya liya phambeni - hambi loko lifo lihikona. Sweswi, loko hinga ha hanyi, hiku hi lahlile a ntumbuluko wa hina lowu hinga hanya hi wona.
Hina vaka Xitlhangu a hinga ringani a ku dla a humba, hiku ixibongo [totem] xa hina, loko hidya hita hela matino. A tolo na vaha swi tirisa a swi endleka. Ku fana na vaka Nxumayo, leswi va ha swi tirisaka, loko vadya hlaphi va file (a te akuhi na totem ya Xiyuda na ya Xigriki).
(Chitlango S 2001, interview)
Translation:
Ntumbuluko - everything called ntumbuluko was ntumbuluko of life - so that our life was prolonged, even though there is death. The reason why we no longer live long is because we have lost our ntumbuluko by which we lived. We the Chitlangos should not eat a snail, because it is our surname. If we eat it we lose all our teeth. Yesterday [previously] when this was respected it happened to those who disobeyed. As the N'umayos are still using it, if one eats fish, one dies. There were also things that the Jews should not eat or do, as well as the Greeks.
After saying this he also said: 'Keeping/observing ntumbuluko and tipangu gave us life'. He started to name various tipangu he knew and how they were attended to and concluded:
Mavona, hikwaswo leswi aswi nga ha endleki - ati pfula a tinga hani - kambe sweswi vangaku pfuxani a tipangu, a pfula yina, kuzile ku tala a ndambi.
Ntumbuluko a wuhi wa ku nyika wu tomi laku hanya. A wu nyika ku hanya ka munhu na ku hanya ka tiko.
A ntumbuluko a wu edlela aku hina vanhu hi kuma wu tomi loko hi mahile swa ntumbuluko. A ntumbuluko a a hi muhlayisi wa wu tomi la hina kasi ku hi ta hanya hi ku lanza a ntumbuluko. akuhi na ntumbuluko wa lixaka na lixaka, muti na mini.
kambe lowu wa hombe hi lowu wa tiko hi kwalo.
(Chitlango S 2001, interview) Translation:
You see, now none of these things were happening57. Rain stopped raining, but now that (there was no rain, but when) they said: 'Resume tipangu', it started to rain, until there was flooding. Ntumbuluko was for giving life and for good living. It gave life to the individuals and to the nation.
Ntumbuluko made it possible for us humans to gain life as we did things of ntumbuluko. Ntumbuluko was our life care-taker and we lived by following ntumbuluko. There was clan ntumbuluko51, family ntumbuluko, but the greatest one was the national or territorial ntumbuluko.
From these two quotes it is clear that ntumbuluko is life for S. Chitlango. It is ntumbuluko that ensures long living. He criticised the Communist policy of the Frelimo government before 1990. He said that when they stopped tipangu, which is ntumbuluko, rain also stopped. When they asked and urged people to rebuild and clean up their tipangu and resume the sacrifices, the rain started to fall again until it reached a climax in the 2000 floods. When he said that, his fellow Assemblies of God man confronted him. It would be interesting to hear what he says of the drought in the year (2002). S. Chitlango was very strong and confident about ntumbuluko. There was no other informant in this category who said categorically that ntumbuluko is life and that if one follows ntumbuluko one inherits life. This brings him closer to Ndzukule, who belongs to the traditionalist segment in our research categories.
Arguing for ntumbuluko and his ground as a Christian he said that ntumbuluko is good also, and that he was born and brought up in ntumbuluko and then left it to go into the gospel. Even now he is in ntumbuluko while in the gospel. He said there are some aspects of ntumbuluko that even the Bible likes and supports. He had no problem
7 This is a criticism of Frelimo in the mid 1970s and 1980s. They banned all religious ritual in the country and the shrines were abandoned. He says that is why there was no rain in the 1980s. Now the government has changed its policy, drafting a new constitution in 1990. They have revived these old practices through statements and Ministerio de Cultura e Juventude. Chissano attributes the rains to the same source: the rain shrines in the country that are now attended to and wheredue sacrifices are given.
Ntumbuluko has four levels. (1) Personal ntumbuluko, (2) Family ntumbuluko, (3) Clan and Tribal ntumbuluko and (4) Community or Territorial or Societal ntu. Number 4 is the supreme ntumbuluko.
with those who mix ntumbuluko and Christian faith. He seemed more concerned about those who abandon ntumbuluko for whatever reason. He accused xilungu (western culture or modernity) and the government Marxist policy for causing people to abandon ntumbuluko. Although he did not make an accusation against Christianity, his argument on his stand in ntumbuluko and in the Christian faith is a form of criticism. But his friend frequently challenged him.