41
Conversations with Nature Spirits
While understanding that the destructive energy of the cyclone was generated by the warming currents jostling over the Indian Ocean, it is said by some that these currents were spawned
by a jostling for control between two mermaids, producing immense pressure. When one mermaid lost, she fed up the Mozambique Channel, drawing the power of the cyclone with her to
Zimbabwe.
In cultures globally, often depicted holding a mirror, mermaids are portentous in holding up a
mirror to humankind. They can be displeased or antagonised at being disturbed, for instance, by
pollutants or people of ill will. A water spirit that is considered neither good nor bad, s/he perhaps
represents the antagonistic duality that exists within humanity, through which we may better understand ourselves and our relationship with nature.
A mermaid could pull you down and hold you in her deep pool, from where, if fortunate enough
to be released after days, or even years, you would emerge enlightened. So despite her reputation
for destruction, mermaids are spirits of good fortune. The force of the cyclone, while doing damage
to landscapes, lives and livelihoods, created more pools and eddies to play host to new mermaids.
Like the returning biodiversity, she provides a vision of hope for the future.
CHANGING RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE LANDSCAPE
The heart of our Mwari spiritual landscape lies in the Matopos Hills of south-western Zimbabwe
where the vast granite rocks, piled seemingly precariously one on top of the other, attract impressive lightening and rainstorms. These rocks are said to be stitched onto the land – the needles having created the seams through which the water fows, and from which rivers below are formed. We
believe that the pools inside the rocks of the Matopos contain the rain clouds and are identifed as
the source of all water.
Home to the High God Mwari, there are a number of important shrines within the Matopos Hills,
the most senior of which is Njelele (or Matonjeni). The interior landscape of the shrines, still visited
by emissaries from across Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa, is thought to represent the source
of all social and biological life – with perennial pools, streams, trees, ancient San rock art and the
rocks themselves from which the Voices emanate. In this way, shrines are ‘the nucleus of a living
and active landscape’ (Zvaba, 1988 in Ranger, 1997: 22). Mwari adepts (or oracles) wear traditional
leopard skins, sweep the shrines by hand, use stone tools to cut the grass and are forbidden to farm
or trade. As messengers of Mwari, their instructions involve obligations to, and relationship with,
the landscape.
This way of life has long been under attack from the ‘civilising’ forces of Christianity 1 and the
not-unconnected technocratic implementation of conservation and pursuance of economic development. Michael Drinkwater referred to this as the ‘colonisation of the lifeworld of the Africa people
in Zimbabwe’ that has led to the marginalisation of traditional religion and its adherents (1991: 107).
With the march of settler colonialism and the growth of actively confrontational missions, many
believed that God had left Njelele, and so the Voice could no longer be heard. What took place has
been described as a form of ‘ideological warfare … about the defnition of community, patterns of
production and hence about landscape’ (Ranger, 1999: 53). At the heart of this lay the early role of
Christian missions to liberate people from the superstitions and coercive tendencies of customary
authorities, headed by Chiefs, and promote agricultural modernisation for the creation of an entrepreneurial class. This was to lead to progressive nationalist thought and, inexorably, to national liberation.
By the time of the liberation war, between 1964 and 1979, rain ceremonies (makoto) were still performed, but fewer people consulted the adepts. After 1980, intricate farming traditions fell into further
1 Native Commissioners of the settler Rhodesian state in the nineteenth century allocated a religion to their area – having
been infuenced or lobbied by whichever was the dominant mission. Many Africans therefore became, by default, followers of a particular denomination, while they and/or others were directly infuenced by mission teachings.
Conversations with Nature Spirits
While understanding that the destructive energy of the cyclone was generated by the warming currents jostling over the Indian Ocean, it is said by some that these currents were spawned
by a jostling for control between two mermaids, producing immense pressure. When one mermaid lost, she fed up the Mozambique Channel, drawing the power of the cyclone with her to
Zimbabwe.
In cultures globally, often depicted holding a mirror, mermaids are portentous in holding up a
mirror to humankind. They can be displeased or antagonised at being disturbed, for instance, by
pollutants or people of ill will. A water spirit that is considered neither good nor bad, s/he perhaps
represents the antagonistic duality that exists within humanity, through which we may better understand ourselves and our relationship with nature.
A mermaid could pull you down and hold you in her deep pool, from where, if fortunate enough
to be released after days, or even years, you would emerge enlightened. So despite her reputation
for destruction, mermaids are spirits of good fortune. The force of the cyclone, while doing damage
to landscapes, lives and livelihoods, created more pools and eddies to play host to new mermaids.
Like the returning biodiversity, she provides a vision of hope for the future.
CHANGING RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE LANDSCAPE
The heart of our Mwari spiritual landscape lies in the Matopos Hills of south-western Zimbabwe
where the vast granite rocks, piled seemingly precariously one on top of the other, attract impressive lightening and rainstorms. These rocks are said to be stitched onto the land – the needles having created the seams through which the water fows, and from which rivers below are formed. We
believe that the pools inside the rocks of the Matopos contain the rain clouds and are identifed as
the source of all water.
Home to the High God Mwari, there are a number of important shrines within the Matopos Hills,
the most senior of which is Njelele (or Matonjeni). The interior landscape of the shrines, still visited
by emissaries from across Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa, is thought to represent the source
of all social and biological life – with perennial pools, streams, trees, ancient San rock art and the
rocks themselves from which the Voices emanate. In this way, shrines are ‘the nucleus of a living
and active landscape’ (Zvaba, 1988 in Ranger, 1997: 22). Mwari adepts (or oracles) wear traditional
leopard skins, sweep the shrines by hand, use stone tools to cut the grass and are forbidden to farm
or trade. As messengers of Mwari, their instructions involve obligations to, and relationship with,
the landscape.
This way of life has long been under attack from the ‘civilising’ forces of Christianity 1 and the
not-unconnected technocratic implementation of conservation and pursuance of economic development. Michael Drinkwater referred to this as the ‘colonisation of the lifeworld of the Africa people
in Zimbabwe’ that has led to the marginalisation of traditional religion and its adherents (1991: 107).
With the march of settler colonialism and the growth of actively confrontational missions, many
believed that God had left Njelele, and so the Voice could no longer be heard. What took place has
been described as a form of ‘ideological warfare … about the defnition of community, patterns of
production and hence about landscape’ (Ranger, 1999: 53). At the heart of this lay the early role of
Christian missions to liberate people from the superstitions and coercive tendencies of customary
authorities, headed by Chiefs, and promote agricultural modernisation for the creation of an entrepreneurial class. This was to lead to progressive nationalist thought and, inexorably, to national liberation.
By the time of the liberation war, between 1964 and 1979, rain ceremonies (makoto) were still performed, but fewer people consulted the adepts. After 1980, intricate farming traditions fell into further
1 Native Commissioners of the settler Rhodesian state in the nineteenth century allocated a religion to their area – having
been infuenced or lobbied by whichever was the dominant mission. Many Africans therefore became, by default, followers of a particular denomination, while they and/or others were directly infuenced by mission teachings.