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THE WAY of the ANCESTORS by Rebecca Rogerson

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THE WAY of the ANCESTORS by Rebecca Rogerson THE WAY OF THE ANCESTORS By Rebecca Rogerson 93,282 words Rebecca Rogerson 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS Creative Portion of Thesis -- Section A Glossary In Praise of the Ancestors – Kunene Poem Preface PART ONE – Mnyama- Black Chapter One – Carrying the Load Chapter Two - Miasmatic Deluges: Drowning in Initiation Chapter Three – What the Dead Remember Chapter Four – Bloodied Knees. A Baby in the ‘Prayer Way’ Chapter Five – The New Arrival: Talking to ‘the Bones’ Chapter Six –Learning How Chickens Should Die, and Babies Should ‘Drop’ Chapter Seven - Plants Ashes: Changing Times and ‘Changed People” Chapter Eight –White (Workin’- Class) Settlers: Cadillacs, Crown Royale and Death Premonitions Chapter Nine - Grandmother Healers: First Kisses and Imagined Witches Chapter Ten – The Strong Woman’s Song Chapter Eleven –Spilled Manischewitz Wine and Chewed Chicken Bones Chapter Twelve –The Befallen, Intergenerational Trauma and Remembering with Ancestors Chapter Thirteen – Mostly Cured Chapter Fourteen – Digging for Muthi: Cold Orange Fanta and a Double Homicide Chapter Fifteen – Teach Them to Remember PART TWO – Bomvu - Red Chapter Sixteen – A Chance Meeting with a Pipe Smoking Nuclear Physicist in Calcutta Chapter Seventeen – Question and Answer Period (with a Deceased) Mother Theresa Chapter Eighteen –Government AIDS Clinics, Bacon-Wrapped Scallops, a Glass of Merlot, and Other Inequalities Chapter Nineteen –Legacies of Prophecies Chapter Twenty – A Missing Donkey, An Almost Evaded Murder-Rap, Ghosts Bothering Children, and the Struggles of a Crack Addict: All in a Day’s Work! Chapter Twenty-One –Healing the ‘Un-Healable’ Chapter Twenty-Two – A Stream Can Wear a Mountain Down Chapter Twenty-Three – Try Not to Go into Labour When Enraptured Chapter Twenty-Four – Blood Thirsty Battles, Lost Souls and Colonial Reckonings Chapter Twenty-Five – The Meeting of a Misogynist Ancestor and My Baby Girl Chapter Twenty-Six – Botswana Bound Chapter Twenty-Seven – Institutionalized Homophobia, George W. Bush and the Eras Before the Vikings Chapter Twenty-Eighty – A Lost (but retrievable) Love Story Between the People and the Plants PART THREE – Mhlope - White Chapter Twenty-Nine –Fireflies, Violence Against Children, and the Global North Chapter Thirty – The Perpetual Calling: Callings Within Callings Chapter Thirty-One –Dungamanzi: The One Who Stirs Waters Chapter Thirty-Two – Ngihawukele Thonga Lami – Have Mercy on me, Ancestors! Chapter Thirty-Three – Our Children are Our Ancestors Chapter Thirty-Four – A Pipe Ceremony for my Dead Father in the Atrium of Barrie’s Royal Victoria Regional Hospital Chapter Thirty-Five – Rezar a Los Santos, Pray to the Saints Chapter Thirty-Six –Birthing, Breastmilk and Body Memory: Navigating Canals and Surfacing’s Chapter Thirty-Seven –Pieces, Particles and Perpetuity Chapter Thirty-Eight –Panic and Terror: The Feared Madness of Channeling Spirits Chapter Thirty-Nine –Poisons of Our Making, Drinking Sea Water and Transmittal Energy with Wild Animals Chapter Forty– Nations Built on the Backs of Other Mothers Chapter Forty-One – “One Story and One Message has Many Things to Tell” Epilogue References Glossary All words are in Zulu unless otherwise stated. Amadlozi (plural,) iDlozi (singular): Refers to lineal, foreign and collective ancestors. In this account, it also refers to an ecstatic state or trance, “having A/madlozi.” Amathambo: Throwing the bones is an indigenous-knowledge system used for diagnosis, and identifying: causation, prevention strategies, and steps for rectification to ultimately restore balance and harmony for the individual, and in their interrelationships. The bones include animal bones and other sacred items, many are obtained throughout the training process. Baba: Father, a term often used by a healing apprentice towards his/her teacher. Badimo: Setswana for ancestors Bakkie: Afrikaans word for small truck Bheka: Look Dagga: wild marijuana Futha: Steaming for ritual purposes Geza: To wash Gobela: The traditional healing teacher Hamba: go Hawu/ouw: A South African-ism to express shock or amazement Heyoka: The clown or backwards people often associated with the thunder beings. Heyoka is associated with specific teachings and medicine in many Indigenous belief systems throughout the Americas. Indumba: Sacred healing space for the ancestors Ingozi: danger Impepho: A sacred herb used to invoke or calm the ancestors Intwaso: The healing student’s sickness that manifests in a multitude of ways. The student finds wellness through the process of answering the calling to heal. Inyanga (singular,) izinyanga (plural): Herbalist. A type of traditional South African healer. Inyongo: Goat gall bladder, a powerful medicine worn by graduated Izangoma. Isangoma (singular) Izangoma (plural): A type of traditional South African healer, a practitioner of Ngoma. Kaffir: A racist term for a black South African. Khanga: Traditional fabric worn by traditional healers Lobola: A bride offering/s for the union of both families. A/makhosi: King or chief, a term of respect used by specific traditional healers when referring to themselves and each other. Imbiza (singular,) izimbiza (plural): A herbal preparation for drinking. Malume: Uncle Mfiso/s, umgaco timfiso: Medicine pouch filled necklaces worn only by the healing apprentice, or graduate. Moya: Spirit Mpande: Meaning root, refers to the closely bound group of healers that come from a common core understanding, treatment and training. Healers belonging to an mpande are seen to come from the same “root”, and seen as Izangoma family. Muthi: Traditional medicine mixture Ngaka ya ditaola: Setswana for bone thrower or diviner Nkulunkulu: The great, great one. Creator Pahla: To pray or make offerings Panga: A machete or large blade Pap: A maize-based staple food, often prepared as a think or thick porridge Pantsula: A style of dance which also incorporates style and identity, much like hip hop music and culture in the United States. Phansi: Down Phalaza/o: To vomit with a ritual emetic Sjambok: A rubber whip Shebeens: Local, often unlicensed bars that are hubs of activity predominantly in townships. Skinner: gossip/gossiping Spaza: South African slang for a local shop Takkies: Running shoes Thokoza: Praise, joyfulness, be happy, give thanks, or rejoice. The word is mainly used as a term of respect among or towards Izangoma in greeting, prayer, praise, or agreement. To a lesser degree, it also refers to specific ancestors a healer may work with or “have.” This is particularly the case for some Swazi and Shangaani thokoza/takoza Izangoma. Thwasa (singular) (u) thwasana (plural): The traditional healing apprentice. Tsotsi’s: Criminals or “thugs” Gogo (singular) uGogo (plural): Grandmother/s. Also, a term many healers use when referring to one another. uButhakathi: A creature which is said to inflict harm and illness. Thakathi is also commonly used to denote witchcraft, or ill-intent. uKufihlelwa: Searching for hidden items with ancestral guidance. uKuthwasa/Ukuthwasana: The apprenticeship process uKuphothula: The healer’s graduation uMhlungu: white woman uMkhonto: Spear uMqombothi: Traditional beer Yebo: Yes, or I am in agreement Vetkoek: An Afrikaans word. A fried dumpling or donut Woza: Come In Praise of the Ancestors ...The ancestors have come to listen to our songs, Overjoyed they shake their heads in ecstasy. With us they celebrate their eternal life. They climb the mountain with their children To put the symbol of the ancient stone on its forehead. we honour those who gave birth to us, With them we watch the spectacle of the moving mists. They have opened their sacred book to sing with us. They are the mystery that envelops our dream. They are the power that shall unite us. They are the strange truth of the earth. They came from the womb of the universe. Restless they are, like a path of dreams. Like a forest sheltering the neighbouring race of animals. Yes, the deep eye of the universe is in our chest. With it we stare at the centers of the sky. We sing the anthems that celebrate their great eras, For indeed life does not begin with us. - Mazisi Kunene 1 Preface Weeks after Nelson Mandela’s inauguration, I entered early post-Apartheid South African society; a period that hastily surfaced the complexities of hundreds of years of colonization. It was during an eight-month hitchhiking journey throughout areas of sub Saharan Africa that I became ill with both decipherable and enigmatic illnesses. What followed was years of debilitating illnesses and puzzling symptoms that no biomedical or natural health practitioner could ‘fix.’ In my distress I sought the guidance from a traditional South African healer, an Isangoma. In a ‘throwing of the bones’ divination session, she explained that my baffling and longstanding symptoms were the result of being called to heal. As an intergenerational gift from my grandmother, she contended, I would need to apprentice with her and become an Isangoma as to be healed. I moved to her home in Soweto and followed apprenticeship protocol as to strengthen lineal and collective ancestral relationships, and to ‘cleanse away’ the healer’s sickness, as well as to learn how to heal. Within a few years I was a practicing traditional healer, community development consultant, researcher and social justice advocate. I contributed to the development of legislation, worked in under-resourced governmental hospitals at the height of the HIV and AIDS epidemic, and developed and implemented community-based and national level programing in South Africa and
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