Opinion / Columnist
Ndebele Cultural Ceremonies
30 Oct 2017 at 15:21hrs | Views
Introduction
On the 28th of July, 2017 King Lobengula Family made a Press Statement at the Bulawayo Press Club, that from then-on the Royal House is taking its rightful role of cultural leadership within the UMthwakazi nation. This was indicative of a major step towards re-enacting the Monarch system that saw its demise at the hands of the white settlers on 4 December 1893, when King Lobengula disappeared after the Pupu battles. Later, early in 1897 Nyamande, the son of Lobengula who had been coroneted on the 25th of June 1896, was bundled out of Bulawayo and kept in restriction in the Bembesi forest. King Nyamande had flatly refused the request by the then Bulawayo Administrator to abandon being King of UMthwakazi so that they crown him as Paramount Chief of Bulawayo. He eventually died a miserable man under oppressive conditions in 1929.
Cultural events and social gatherings have kept the royal genetic make-up within King Mzilikazi's nation. The different cultural events, except for Inxwala Ceremony, have no restrictions in terms of who launches them and for what purpose the ritual is carried out. The timing of the occurrence of the events in the year is critical in terms of the relevance to the life of the people. All rituals have a meaning, in particular relevance to the identity of the peoples of the UMthwakazi nation.
Inxwala Ceremony
This is a very important ceremony for UMthwakazi people and other Nguni nations within the SADC Region. It is a ritual replete with respect and detailed procedures. Inxwala ceremony is very strongly associated with the identity of the nation. Most important, is to note that only a legitimate King leads in the Inxwala ceremony. Nobody else can or should lead that ceremony and it still be described as Inxwala ceremony. This is organised to taste the first fruits when crops are ready for consumption from the fields. The King tastes the food from the fields first and nobody else can do so. It was such an important collective event that every person including military units were expected to attend, failure to attend would be considered a declaration of disobedience and dishonour to the King. The Zwangendaba regiment is a case in point that was exterminated by King Lobengula for not attending Inxwala ceremony.
Inxwala Ceremony was never done twice in a year as Stanley Raphael Tshuma-Khumalo and his handlers faked it early this year and are planning to do so again on the 5th of November 2017, as advertised. Where does Stanley derive the authority to call himself king? People are never summoned to Inxwala ceremony to pray for rain or request for rain. This is done at the Injelele shrine where Umlimo is, according to local culture, resident. The rites are conducted by amawosana. The Khumalo, and indeed the King, completely respected the rain making ceremonies, but would never interfere with them because it is owned by and is a Ngwali ceremony. How does Stanley, if he is Khumalo at all, conduct a rain making ceremony? Is he a wosana?
Specifically, the Inxwala ceremony was called by a legitimate King only after the rains and not at the beginning of the rainy season, such as the one we are entering now. What Stanley and his crew are advertising for the 5th of November, had better be called something else and not Inxwala. This is an insult to the people of Mthwakazi. Any person determined to preserve our identity and those aspects of our culture that are part of our true spiritual definition, should find it strange that a person summons people to attend Inxwala ceremony at the start of the rainy season and the second time around in a year. Something has gone really wrong amongst us as UMthwakazi nation that our own people should trivialise such an important ritual and the venue of the ceremony, that our forefathers and progressive previous Councils revered and observed for so long. Further, Stanley is trivialising the rain making ceremony by meddling into cultural matters he is ignorant about.
King Lobengula's House expresses absolute disgust and dismay at such an act. The Mthwakazi nation sees this as a day-time effort to commit cultural genocide. If a person can wake up in the morning and tell a nation, which for years has been proud of a stable culture and a way of doing things, that he dreamt the previous night; and that he is now a king of some sort and abuse all the institutional rituals, then as a nation, we must avoid associating with characters like Stanley. We cannot continue as a nation to be in constant state of slumber and fail to realise the level of damage all this is doing to our culture and identity. It is one thing being a strong advocate for popular political ends and it is another to try to attain political mileage through the destruction of our culture which is a very strong seam to the future of Mthwakazi nationhood. It is a huge tragedy that today UMthwakazi sits back and cannot even notice that through and through they are being taken for a ride.
Very soon there will be an important event at koGadadi, to remember thousands of gallant Matabele warriors who died defending their nation. This is a genuine cause that Vukani Mahlabezulu had a vision about and they launched it. Organisations such as Imbovane yamaHlabezulu were active in supporting this brilliant idea. Today, Chief Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni carries the flag for this grand initiative, strongly support by Umhlahlo weSizwe sikaMthwakazi. With such an important event on the cards for early November, 2017 the advert for Inxwala is certainly misplaced and it would not be farfetched to suspect that this is designed to divert people's attention away from the koGadadi memorials which are currently more relevant at this point in time and topical to the local people.
It is an honest opinion, that it is high time UMthwakazi reject any maneuvers that appear to be projects of individuals camouflaged as genuine Monarch revival programs. UMthwakazi, at this point need to take stock and say NO! to these antics. Cultural issues are imbued in UMthwakazi bloodline and it is very bad for our cultural functions that are of necessity part of us to be decimated at the expense of UMthwakazi nationhood. These antics are clearly for personal popularity or gain. The self proclaimed "king" can continue with the political side of things and give space to culture which, by the make-up of things, he and his colleagues are groping in the dark. That will pay this nation better dividends.
Prince Zwide Khumalo
Spokesman, King Lobengula Family
+263 772 350 443
zwide54@gmail.com
On the 28th of July, 2017 King Lobengula Family made a Press Statement at the Bulawayo Press Club, that from then-on the Royal House is taking its rightful role of cultural leadership within the UMthwakazi nation. This was indicative of a major step towards re-enacting the Monarch system that saw its demise at the hands of the white settlers on 4 December 1893, when King Lobengula disappeared after the Pupu battles. Later, early in 1897 Nyamande, the son of Lobengula who had been coroneted on the 25th of June 1896, was bundled out of Bulawayo and kept in restriction in the Bembesi forest. King Nyamande had flatly refused the request by the then Bulawayo Administrator to abandon being King of UMthwakazi so that they crown him as Paramount Chief of Bulawayo. He eventually died a miserable man under oppressive conditions in 1929.
Cultural events and social gatherings have kept the royal genetic make-up within King Mzilikazi's nation. The different cultural events, except for Inxwala Ceremony, have no restrictions in terms of who launches them and for what purpose the ritual is carried out. The timing of the occurrence of the events in the year is critical in terms of the relevance to the life of the people. All rituals have a meaning, in particular relevance to the identity of the peoples of the UMthwakazi nation.
Inxwala Ceremony
This is a very important ceremony for UMthwakazi people and other Nguni nations within the SADC Region. It is a ritual replete with respect and detailed procedures. Inxwala ceremony is very strongly associated with the identity of the nation. Most important, is to note that only a legitimate King leads in the Inxwala ceremony. Nobody else can or should lead that ceremony and it still be described as Inxwala ceremony. This is organised to taste the first fruits when crops are ready for consumption from the fields. The King tastes the food from the fields first and nobody else can do so. It was such an important collective event that every person including military units were expected to attend, failure to attend would be considered a declaration of disobedience and dishonour to the King. The Zwangendaba regiment is a case in point that was exterminated by King Lobengula for not attending Inxwala ceremony.
Inxwala Ceremony was never done twice in a year as Stanley Raphael Tshuma-Khumalo and his handlers faked it early this year and are planning to do so again on the 5th of November 2017, as advertised. Where does Stanley derive the authority to call himself king? People are never summoned to Inxwala ceremony to pray for rain or request for rain. This is done at the Injelele shrine where Umlimo is, according to local culture, resident. The rites are conducted by amawosana. The Khumalo, and indeed the King, completely respected the rain making ceremonies, but would never interfere with them because it is owned by and is a Ngwali ceremony. How does Stanley, if he is Khumalo at all, conduct a rain making ceremony? Is he a wosana?
Specifically, the Inxwala ceremony was called by a legitimate King only after the rains and not at the beginning of the rainy season, such as the one we are entering now. What Stanley and his crew are advertising for the 5th of November, had better be called something else and not Inxwala. This is an insult to the people of Mthwakazi. Any person determined to preserve our identity and those aspects of our culture that are part of our true spiritual definition, should find it strange that a person summons people to attend Inxwala ceremony at the start of the rainy season and the second time around in a year. Something has gone really wrong amongst us as UMthwakazi nation that our own people should trivialise such an important ritual and the venue of the ceremony, that our forefathers and progressive previous Councils revered and observed for so long. Further, Stanley is trivialising the rain making ceremony by meddling into cultural matters he is ignorant about.
King Lobengula's House expresses absolute disgust and dismay at such an act. The Mthwakazi nation sees this as a day-time effort to commit cultural genocide. If a person can wake up in the morning and tell a nation, which for years has been proud of a stable culture and a way of doing things, that he dreamt the previous night; and that he is now a king of some sort and abuse all the institutional rituals, then as a nation, we must avoid associating with characters like Stanley. We cannot continue as a nation to be in constant state of slumber and fail to realise the level of damage all this is doing to our culture and identity. It is one thing being a strong advocate for popular political ends and it is another to try to attain political mileage through the destruction of our culture which is a very strong seam to the future of Mthwakazi nationhood. It is a huge tragedy that today UMthwakazi sits back and cannot even notice that through and through they are being taken for a ride.
Very soon there will be an important event at koGadadi, to remember thousands of gallant Matabele warriors who died defending their nation. This is a genuine cause that Vukani Mahlabezulu had a vision about and they launched it. Organisations such as Imbovane yamaHlabezulu were active in supporting this brilliant idea. Today, Chief Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni carries the flag for this grand initiative, strongly support by Umhlahlo weSizwe sikaMthwakazi. With such an important event on the cards for early November, 2017 the advert for Inxwala is certainly misplaced and it would not be farfetched to suspect that this is designed to divert people's attention away from the koGadadi memorials which are currently more relevant at this point in time and topical to the local people.
It is an honest opinion, that it is high time UMthwakazi reject any maneuvers that appear to be projects of individuals camouflaged as genuine Monarch revival programs. UMthwakazi, at this point need to take stock and say NO! to these antics. Cultural issues are imbued in UMthwakazi bloodline and it is very bad for our cultural functions that are of necessity part of us to be decimated at the expense of UMthwakazi nationhood. These antics are clearly for personal popularity or gain. The self proclaimed "king" can continue with the political side of things and give space to culture which, by the make-up of things, he and his colleagues are groping in the dark. That will pay this nation better dividends.
Prince Zwide Khumalo
Spokesman, King Lobengula Family
+263 772 350 443
zwide54@gmail.com
Source - Prince Zwide Khumalo
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