Njelele renegades must be brought to book

A group of people who have thrice visited the traditional sacred Njelele Shrine and verbally harassed and insulted its official keeper, a MaNdlovu, were recently described as "renegades" by the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association national chairman, Cde Jabulani Sibanda, as "liars and pretenders" by the Zanu-PF provincial chairman for Matabeleland South, Cde Andrew Langa.

Both Cdes Sibanda and Langa distanced their organisations from the culturally-embarrassing rogues who call themselves war veterans. On one of their unexpected and unsanctioned visits to the highly revered place, they were reliably said to have ordered the keeper of the place to accompany them to the Hovi (Gomfi) River where they reportedly stripped naked and bathed while the helpless woman was kneeling, ululating and clapping hands as per their express instructions.

It is surprising that no-one has up to now been taken by the police for questioning (at the very least) about these intrusions into Zimbabwe's most sacred traditional shrine. A large number of Zimbabweans are practising believers in the traditional god whose major shrine is the dome-shaped Njelele rock.

Located in the Matobo District of Matabeleland South Province, Njelele is a Mecca for many people of the region extending as far as the eastern and northern provinces of South Africa and Botswana, and as well as the western areas of Mozambique.

In Zimbabwe, Njelele has branches  in Matabeleland North and in Matabeleland South itself. Two widely known branches are Dula in the Umzingwane District and Manyangwa in the Bulilima District.

In South Africa, a shrine in the Limpopo Province's area mostly used by the Lobedu tribe is also known as Njelele. It is a kopje. Incidentally the word "njelele" is TjiKalanga for a type of hawk known as "umzwazwa" in SiNdebele.

It is most likely that the etymological origin of that word is Venda, but that is not really relevant to this discussion no more than it is relevant that the Njelele deity (Mwali, Mwari, uNgwali) is of Venda cultural origin.

We now focus our comment on the unwelcome visits to Njelele in the Matopo Hills by the obviously disdainful cultural scamps referred to as "renegades" by the war veterans' national chairman, Cde Sibanda, and as "liars and pretenders" by Cde  Langa.

The Njelele Shrine has a group of local people who look after it and also who guide and advise those who wish to be spiritually assisted by Mwali. The assistance may also be about infertility (or sterility), or persistent illness, drought or political guidance or direction.

The people concerned work closely with the traditional leadership of the locality, that is to say the chiefs and all their well known aides: kraal heads (bosobhuku), headmen and councillors as well as senior officials who advise chiefs on various fields in which they are experts or specialists. These are known as counsellors.

To get to the Njelele Shrine, one must report first to the keeper who advises one how to go about it. It is certainly unacceptable to impose oneself (or selves) on the keeper and order her or him about what she or he should do.

What one should do about one's problem should come from the Njelele Shrine and not from the solution-seeker. It was very rude and downright insulting for the renegades on one of their strange visits to order MaNdlovu to accompany them to the Hovi (Gomfi) River and watch them bathe nude while she was on her knees and clapping hands as well as ululating.

That was what the leader of the 650-strong mob, a Tensi, ordered the defenceless old MaNdlovu to do. If that is not sheer, naked lunacy, what else can it be? And the ZRP is mum about all this and yet it appears that there was a prima facie case on that occasion. In fact, it would appear that more than one crime was committed by the renegades on that occasion.

First it is possible that the group trespassed, second, it intimidated MaNdlovu; third it kidnapped and took her to the Hovi River; fourth, the renegades committed the crime of indecent exposure and/or crimen injuria by bathing as naked as when their mother bore them in the full and forced view of MaNdlovu.

Surely, the ZRP could have picked up the group's leader and charged him or her. Why did the ZRP not take action? They will doubtlessly be misunderstood; that would be naked betrayal of their mission statement. ZRP owes the nation either action against the intruders or an explanation.

Very important questions these renegades must be asked are: Why are the spirits of the dead freedom fighters bothering them? Did they play any role in the death of those comrades who according to common understanding were killed by the armed forces of the Smith regime?

Could it be that those people now wishing to be cleansed at the Njelele Shrine were directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of the comrades whose spirits they are saying are bothering them?

The author of this opinion article is a former researcher in social anthropology among the Kalanga people, and has an understanding of the world of spirits obtaining in Zimbabwe's various cultural groups.

It is a fact of life that one cannot be haunted or pestered by a spirit of a deceased person if one was not a direct agent or active participant in the death of that dead person.

So, can those people through the police, explain how and why they are being bothered by the spirits of freedom fighters who were killed, so we believe, by Rhodesian forces? The people of Zimbabwe in particular and the world at large have a right to know these important details.

If there is a Gukurahundi aspect in all this, Tensi must come clean.

The chiefs have done a noble thing by standing up against this palpable blasphemy by a pack of cultural and national misfits. As custodians of our national culture, traditions and more, the chiefs have an unquestionable responsibility to guide the people on this issue.

We must emphasise that each chief is responsible for securing his or her territory's cultural, social, ecological and moral welfare. Politicians must be guided by the traditional leaders on these matters and not the other way round.

Meanwhile, some utterly pseudo-revolutionary politicians who clandestinely circulate highly anti-national documents claiming that some tribes are more Zimbabwean than others need to be exorcised of their greedy, primitive, tribalistic demon.

It is important for them to know a few facts about nation-building and the ethnic composition of some nations bordering Zimbabwe. Zambia, just across the Zambezi River, has almost 90 tribes excluding scattered communities of Shona, Ndebele, Kalanga and other ethnic groups of Zimbabwean origin.

Malawi comprises its well-known Chewa, Angoni, Tumbuka and Tonga tribes. Mozambique is ethnically made up of the Sena, the Shangaan, the Shona and several others, including people of mixed European and African blood. There are also many Mozambicans of Portuguese blood.

South Africa's population is truly cosmopolitan but those with identifiable languages are Zulus, the Xhosas, the Sothos, the Venda, the Pedi, the Ndebele, the Afrikaans, the Khoikhoi, the Tswana, the English, the San, Swazi, the Shangaan plus a few other ethnic and linguistic groups.

That nation's culture is vibrant in (if not because of) its diversity; this is in reference especially to its folklore, music and dances, foods and beverages, marital and culinary customs and more, its traditional attire as depicted by each ethnic community, and its various religious beliefs.

A look at Botswana's ethnic composition shows a similar diversity. The Batswana proper are the Bamangwato of Serowe, the BaKhatla of Mochudi, the Bakwena of Molepoloele, and the Mangwaketsi, the Rolong, the Babirwa of Bobonong, the Batawana of Maung, and the San, formerly known as Basarwa (Bakhwa) of the Kalahari Desert.

The country has in addition a large population of BaKalanga, the vast majority of whom live in Northern Botswana, a region formerly ruled by the Mambos and later granted as a concession to a mining undertaking called Tati Company.

All these and a fairly large number of white people and Coloureds are bona fide citizens of Botswana on the basis of one interpretation or other of that country's relevant constitutional clause. None of these nations is un-ethnic in composition.

The original place of domicile of a person's ancestors a century or five ago, and whether they came and settled in whatever country by force of arms or not should be of no interest whatsoever to a political party with a genuine national outlook or policy no more than is the violability of Africa's colonial made borders.

If that were not so, there would be complete chaos as we would be at one another's throat throughout Southern Africa, and the cause would be; who arrived wherever first from, say, Uganda or Rwanda or Burundi, or Tanganyika, or the DRC or Cameroon or from Sudan or Morocco?

Every Zimbabwean is constitutionally entitled to live securely and comfortably in Zimbabwe, so is every bona fide resident of and visitor to this country.

By living securely means receiving the protection of all sections of the national law enforcement establishments such as the army and the police. By living comfortably, we imply enjoying or utilising Zimbabwe's natural and human resources without being discriminated against but also within the locally and legally acceptable cultural, traditional and social norms and practices of Zimbabwe.

It is the duty of the police, the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) to protect every Zimbabwean from harassment, intimidation and any action or actions that induce alarm, fear and despondency by anyone, indigenous or foreign, internal or external.

If a violation of a cultural norm or human rights has been committed as it was obviously the case at Njelele on at least three occasions, a penalty must be imposed by the resident local authority on the wrong-doers.

The resident local authority in this case is Chief Masuku and the wrong-doers are the "renegades" or "liars and pretenders" as they have been aptly called.

They insulted, embarrassed and traumatised the Njelele-keeper whose personal dignity was publicly trampled upon is surely according to Zimbabwean customary law and practice, entitled to some "compensation", and so is the venerable shrine itself.

It would sound hollow for Tensi and her group to say that they do not have the material resources to meet such fines, assuming the law machinery is put in motion.

Admittedly, probably some of them as individuals could plead poverty and, therefore, real inability to pay a fine as compensation. But bearing in mind that these people did at least three times travel  to and from Mozambique, not on foot, but by a number of motor vehicles, it is certainly reasonable to presume that the group is not short of resources especially finance. There should be charged individually or collectively.

There is without doubt a donor or sponsor who provided the wherewithal to enable those renegades to undertake that project. That donor or sponsor is morally bound to back up the "gang" (as Cde Langa named them) through thick and thin.

In any case, it is not the public's concern whether or not those renegades can or cannot meet measures or demands of the process of justice. In one of the Kalanga dialects called Tjililima, there is an old saying "Minya mbvula wuzwikanga pato yikulu."

The literal translation of that proverb is: "swallowing of marulas means that one has a big a . . ." The actual connotation of the adage, however, is that one should be able to shoulder the consequences of one's actions.

With that, all those investigating this very painful matter ought to leave no stone unturned to see that justice prevails. There is no room for fear in the face of this utterly unwarranted insult to one of the religions of Zimbabwe.