The power of goblins (Ontikolotshe)

A FEW days ago, my attention was drawn to some screaming and sensational headlines on social media. "Plane Makes Emergency Landing in Malawi." I never thought the story that appeared in the Malawi Voice on August12, 2024 was my kind of stuff. I never imagined the aircraft was of a different kind in terms of navigation and training of a pilot. There was no reference to Chileka Airport. However, lo and behold, the site was some remote village where aircraft were powered based on Ancient African Science (AAS).

Watching the aircraft that had crash-landed on the ground there was expected derisive and scornful laughter from incredulous and amazed spectators. It did not look like there were passengers on the saucer-type craft that we have seen depicted. The pilot was nowhere to be found. I saw some hand holding a smart phone capturing the spectacle that was an attraction to many. The aircraft seemed big in comparison to the saucer-like versions that we have seen depicted.

It was hemispherical, in the manner of a Zulu beehive hut. The framework seemed to be of wooden strips laced with some red cloth. I suspected that both the wooden framework and the red entanglements were carefully chosen in line with the dictates of African Indigenous aeronautics. Sadly, there was no story regarding how the aircraft came down. Did it run out of fuel, or the pilot fell asleep, leaving the contraption on autopilot? I have many questions to ask. How does a pilot navigate the craft at night when human beings are not endowed with clear night vision? The bearings are another puzzle for people who are not endowed with the science and technology of the ancients.

It is my hope that we shall continue to unravel and unearth the underpinning science and when the critical essence has been pinned down and isolated, new industries shall emerge that take advantage of the science that is applied. Crash landing does not mean there should be no further attempts at flying. The Wright brothers did not give up when their pioneering craft crashed.

Prospects are bright. Ancient African Science will one day be embraced. Chances are that Africans themselves will still be looking down upon their ancestors' science. One important requirement is the mental liberation of those who peddle the science, art and profession. Besides, they need to understand the underpinning science instead of relying exclusively on execution without seeking the science behind the technology.

I have a fear though that given the attitudes of Africans, other people will overtake them in the adoption and application of the ancient science of their forebears. When the time comes, human beings will have to find alternative settlements in the extra-terrestrial world. Africans will remain behind in the world that has been soiled by other people. There could very well be a second phase of enslavement in the new habitat. Well, it is advice from a seer who is despised in his own village.

We had started the discussion on the familiars that unlike goblins are domesticated and not cloned. Goblins are in essence the security, defence and army for the witches and wizards. It so happens that goblins (ontikolotshi) are the superior tools of trade in witchcraft. Goblins are superhuman as already alluded to in an earlier article. They are products of human beings whose fertility-connected body parts are extracted once the person has been ritually killed.

A goblin, also known as umkhoba has traits that endow it with extreme power. Goblins are small but powerful creatures. A case was reported when a goblin lifted a scotch cart and hurled it towards a hut that came tumbling down. Soon, we shall be writing about the Altar Stone at Stonehenge in England. The latest research traces its origin to Scotland. Questions continue to be posed; how was a six-ton stone transported to England?

A goblin can become invisible to a targeted person. It moves very swiftly and in no time, it will come back after achieving its mission such as killing a person it was sent to kill. Invisibility is a trait that many African groups will attain. The San are particularly good at that.

The make-up of a goblin will enable it to assume a certain material reality so that it is not readily identifiable. In fact, it has layers of identities and as it gets defeated, it goes through a whole range of material realities until its owner and handler's identity is revealed. That is when counter-ritual power overpowers it. During war, there are people who are capable of becoming invisible so that their enemies will not identify and kill them. Africa had and still has a dangerous spiritual arsenal it is not making use of. A victim of goblin assault will not know what hit him.

As pointed out from the very outset, Ancient African Science is about harnessing energy through the use of spiritual power emanating from a spirit that a wizard or witch hosts.

I did say I have come to a point in my spiritual growth and development where I posit that energy and spirit are the highest forms of being. I am still seeking that which lies beyond both energy and spirit. When we refer to goblins, we are in essence referring to energy and spirit, the two sides of the same coin. Both are indestructible and eternal. I was pleasantly surprised when I came across the saying, "Intellect provides information, but the spirit gives revelation."

I have been reflecting on cultural practices that we used to follow when we grew up. Whenever a prohibition was enunciated, there was always some accompanying interpretation. It all worked as taboos that were ignored at one's own peril. Their purpose was the preservation of an individual and interpretations that were given invoked fear to ensure compliance and therefore survival

Against the background of Ancient African Science, I remembered that we were not allowed to wear a single shoe instead of two. What we were told was that wearing one shoe would lead to the death of one of our parents. Well, who would have wished for a situation where one of his/her parents died? A similar taboo related to the death of one of the parents, a mother this time. It was said if we moved backward, our mother would get into a calabash (umama uzangena esigxingini).

The accompanying fear was the loss of a mother who would have ended up in a calabash. These taboos were targeted at young people who were not likely to question the veracity of the advanced fear. I was now reflecting on the funerary traditions and linking these with beliefs in Ancient African Science. During burial, men were engaged in digging the grave. On the other hand, women collected stones that were to be placed on the grave.

The stones were collected using a single hand. Without much observation, I imagined all the women carried stones and some bit of grass using the left hand. The reason for not using both hands was simple. The community or family has suffered a single death. That single death is symbolised with a single hand's left hand. I have not been sufficiently observant. I thought the left hand carried the small stone and grass.

Further, I always imagined, the grass was above the stone. That made sense, as that happens to be the natural order of things in terms of the arrangement of stone and grass in the natural environment. The grass is above the stones and soil. Some readers may remember an earlier article where we discussed the Law of Reversal. Not all collectors of stones and grass follow what I had all along assumed. They sought implementation of the Law of Reversal for their own witchy ends.

When they carry funerary stones, they too carry them with a single hand. That single hand was, however the right hand and not the left one that sought to limit death to one person, the one who is being buried. In the case of witches, they carried the stones using the right hand. The right hand is one associated with work, at least for the majority of people. This hand is involved more than the other in food preparation. Besides, the dead was more familiar with the hand that was used to shake his.

A wizard will want to access the corpse after burial. For that to happen, the Law of Reversal has to be implemented. The reversal lay in using the right hand but also, the order of arranging stone and grass. The grass was below the stone. This reversal is required when the corpse is to be effortlessly availed to witches. They need the meat for their own strengthening. The corpse has to come up effortlessly and avail itself to the persons of symbolic technology. A command or chant is powerful when complemented by symbolic acts. Act,  be they natural or cultural, complement each other to produce a ritual package of ritual energy package.

For these peddlers of Ancient African Science, work is done effortlessly. Spirit has force and power that in the physical world may require a lot of mechanical advantage.

I still remember reading the Egyptian Book of Death about how a single finger would manage to push and close the door to a pyramid. Spirit has power and energy.

If it were not, so, a goblin would not be in a position to hurl a scotch cart as if it were a piece of paper that demolishes a whole hut.

In an earlier article , we indicated how a stirring rod (uphini) is used to reverse and facilitate the upward progression of a corpse that is intended for consumption by witches and wizards. The whole essence during the process  of stirring is to bring the porridge that was at the bottom of the pot to the top. Further, what was on the sides of a cooking pot is pushed to the centre and vice versa.

Quite clearly, most of us would not perceive cultural phenomena in this light. The world that we are used to is material and physical. Witches and wizards operate in a different world where metaphor and symbolism have a role to play. As a result, their work is denigrated, trashed, despised and demonised, simply because we operate in two different worlds where the natural laws apply differently. The spirit world is different with different laws and rules, as we know them in the material and physical realm.

We are still to unpack the families that are part of the entourage of witches and wizards. As already pointed out, these are not a result of cloning, as is the case with goblins (imikhoba).

As indicated earlier, domestication demands that we seek a better understanding of the process. Was there some spiritual dimension in the process? Why were cattle domesticated but not buffaloes?

In the spirit world, snakes are tamed and used in the field of witchcraft. Why do we fail to do the same in the material and biological world?

We have a long way to go towards understanding some processes that we often take for granted.