ELundini loThukela by J.J.R Jolobe Sir J.J.R. Jolobe gives us a novel based on the heritage of the Nguni tribes. Hes often been acknowledged as a tribalist writer, as he has, in this book, outlined tribal practices of the baHlubi people. AmaHlubis traditional practices, such as ulwaluko (boys initiation ritual), ukuthomba kwentombi, known by its patois intonjane (girls initiation ritual), ukuthwalwa, as well as umsitho (marriage), are pronounced in the periodic story of the royal family of the clan and its relationship with society, the habitat, and the ancestors. The story, then, reads as if told in the Nguni language that accomodates the isiXhosa dialect as well as the isiZulu prounounciation, tracking the historical and linguistic journey of the amaHlubi post the seperation of the Nguni family into different tribes from their place of origin, eMbo. He explains to us how the baHlubi king, Dlomo, came to be, through the revisitng of the clans formation and value system. He recounts how when king Dlomos father was found to be sterile, his brother was appointed to impregnate his wife, LamaHlubi the daughter of amaBhele, in order for the kingdom to prevail. The kingdom of amaHlubi could, then, be regarded as a matriarchal kingdom, as the people of the time adopted the name of undlu-nkulu (the great mother) to be the name of the nation. As, according to the ways they conducted marriage, the wife would not use the name of the home she is being married into, but would continue to use the name of her father. Therefore, whilst the daughters of a nation would employ their fathers name for their identity in a patriarchal manner, she would keep her identity in her marriage, however, if she was to be the queen of a nation, the nation would take on her name as their identity. So in the context of the amaHlubi matriarchal regime, ruled not solely by the king and queen, the ancestors had an immortal say through what is known as amathongo (dreams, for the lack of a better term). The children were expected to obey their mothers, and the mother was to respect her husband, to the point where, if the mother could not discipline her child, the husband had a right to send her back home in order for her to learn child upringing. To which, when the husband felt that his wife had enough time of acquiring knowledge, he would go and take her back to their house where they can rebuild their future together; this even after a year or years of seperation. The parents were expected to obey the king, but the king was a servant to his ancestors through which the entire nation was ruled by amathongo. However, the king had to hid the wisdom of his dreams by listening to a trusted sanuse (prophet, for the lack of a better term) and entrust the realization of his dreams to his advisors known as abaphakathi. The nation had abaphakathi for everything, including the boys initiation ritual, ulwaluko. It was considered that ulwaluko was the most crucial aspect of all traditional practices as no king could be king without having learned how to be a man first. To ensure that ukwaluka went accordingly, the umphathi-suthu (one of the kings advisors) would be assigned to foresee the proceedings and to also return with a report from the suthu (the proverbial initiation mountain) to the king. Umphathi-suthu was expected to know each of those boys, their health, and their behaviour in the process. I imagine, death was scarce in the mountain in those days, for if any harm came to the boys, the ordeal was punishable by death upon umphathi-suthu, the person responsible for preventing such from happening. The sanuse was also regarded as the kings advisor, and was assigned to be present in every important ritual that always included communication with the ancestors. During the return of the boys from the mountain he would then conduct another ritual of facing east and talking to the ancestors before the sun mounted the hills and the valleys, a dawning that the people imagined befell the entire the earth. After this procedure, by tradition, the boys would be expected to showcase praise-poetry to the king and his people, as men and women, children and dogs, awaited to hear what the boy has learned about his tribe and where he saw himself fit in as a man in society. Not every boy would excel, as it was a test also on his ability to articulate himself that he should have been taught in the mountain. Girls on the other hand underwent ukuthomba by being scarce from their social life. The girl would be home all of her time for a considerable amount of time decided upon by her culture. There she would be taught about her body and its changes, household duties, child-bearing, and all things that pertained to her as a woman and as a future wife. She would also be taught about her nation and also be pampered for the hoped for courting. By that time, not all men practiced polygamy but the king, as from that would be chosen (by amathongo and abaphakathi) undlu-nkulu. Perhaps, it was because of the kings status that polygamy was reserved for him, or rather his amount of cows that could support the families and their kind of breed that spoke volumes to the ancestors. Nevertheless, every girl was to be married only after ukuthomba and she did so after society had noticed that their men were ready to find a wife. In modern society, the faceless voice* had speculated that polygamy was a form of patriarchy. I wish to interrogate that notion in saying that perhaps polygamy was very much matriarchal. Considering the values and the logic this form of marriage was based on, that are also conveyed in this book, I daresay it was intended to safe-guard women in society and the nation itself. As it was the times of war, when amaZulu and amaNgwane would revel in attacking amaHlubi for their cows and other assets (human and ornament), a lot of men would have died leaving unmarried women behind. And as this was something that befell a nation as a whole, it was one of the kings duties to see to it that balance was restored. Alas, however that may have been, the ego of the patriach developed from the corruption of that logic. And perhaps, polygamy, before the corruption, was neither about the patriarch nor the matriarch, but the nation and the survival of its heritage. In modern society, a 34 year old rape culprit would say, in being convicted for ukuthwala a 14 year old, that he was practicing his culture. And the faceless voice that would intervene in the case would assert that it is blasphemy, as in true indigenous culture a man and woman would agree to ukuthwala when the man cannot afford the lobola for the woman. And that it is outrageous to think a 14 year old a woman. It is indeed outrageous to think a 14 year old a woman in the modern context, or any context if we consider the age by which a girl underwent ukuthomba, and also ask what it means for a 21 year old who has not been to intonjane. Having said that, it is also blasphemous to assert ukuthwala as an indigenous culture. In this book where ukuthwala is revisited, Im shown how ukuthwala was an early form of rape that emerged in the baHlubi society as a crime punishable by death. In which case, if it was a woman of royal blood (umntana wegazi) that was found to be abducted, the perpetrator would be hunted down and assasinated together with the housekeepers that had agreed to hide her. More so, ukuthwala would raise war between two tribes where even the king would pay for the crime. *a faceless voice because, it is not the voice of the ancestors, but rather the voice of ideas that have been corrupted by modern culture and rendered the listening estranged to their innate values. it begs the question, are we growing? Source: https://nobengoni.wordpress/tag/amahlubi/
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 20:19:20 +0000