RELIGION, culture and languages are too interrelated to be easily separated.
Religion and language are two critical inter-twined defining elements of culture.
Religion is cultural and has been explained within the limits of languages.
Religious understanding is a function of the knowledge and experience of the individual or community concerned.
Thus, religious experience cannot be explained fully outside the context of language.
Among the BaTonga, prior to colonisation, language and religion played a very critical role.
They had their own way of worshiping God through their ancestors.
They had, and still have to some extent, sacred shrines and caves where they worshiped Mwari, Musikavanhu.
One of such sacred places was the Mosi-oa-Tunya now named Victoria Falls by missionary explorer David Livingstone who was inspired to write the famous line: “Scenes so lovely must have been gazed by angels in their flight.”
This was in reference to the Victoria Falls, one of the spectacular Seven Wonders of the World.
According to BaTonga elders, well before Livingstone set foot at the falls and subsequently naming them after the Queen of England, Victoria, they used the falls as a shrine where they used to worship their ancestors as well as using it as a healing place.
Ceremonies were conducted during the height of the floods from March to May every year, although they are spectacular all year round.
Different people from both sides of the Zambezi would gather at the falls twice a year during the Lwindi Gonde and before the Kuomboka ceremony to perform rituals to their ancestors and God.
Oxen and buffalo carcasses were roasted and thrown at the Devil’s Cataract as a way to appease the ancestors.
The falls were regarded as some concentration point where the water flowing downstream was somehow regulated or controlled so that there is no flooding downstream.
If the falls had so much smoke or thunder, the elderly BaTonga would call a meeting and congregate at the falls to perform rituals to ‘calm’ the raging falls.
Traditional healers would also use the water from the falls for healing purposes, while the three-metre eels or hunga still found around the falling water were also captured, killed and eaten as a special delicacy by the chiefs, traditional medicine men and guardians of the falls.
However, not everyone was allowed to visit the Mosi-oa-Tunya as it was regarded as a special place of worshiping as well as carrying out some traditional rituals to appease the ancestors and gods.
The BaTonga chiefs and a selected group of matriarchs were only allowed to perform the rituals on behalf of their communities.
Chiefs from Livingstone and Siavonga on the Zambian side would also come to perform rituals at the falls.
The rituals performed at the falls were those of calming the river from flooding as well as the provision of fish.
The BaTonga believed a special fish species such as the eel, tiger fish and many others that are revered among the BaTonga spawned at the falls, therefore it was important to ensure that certain rituals were observed at all times.
Today the BaTonga continue to use the falls as their sacred shrine although it was declared a National Monument as well as National Park. They also pay homage to the Nyaminyami, which is the symbolical river god and they respect the elephant, tiger fish and the baobab tree as symbols of worshiping.
The baobab is believed to be a sacred place of worship where they communicate with Mwari.
Prior to the arrival of whites, hunters and fishermen would go under the giant tree when they were hungry and pray to Mwari through their ancestors and food would suddenly appear.
The tree was also used as a shelter, among other purposes.
Elders used to hide inside the groved baobab trunk during times of raids by other tribes.
Today the BaTonga still believe in Mwari and have made numerous trips to the Mwari shrine in the Njelele Shrine together with other tribes such as the Shona and others.
Mwari is the Supreme Creator of the Shona and northern and southern Ndebele people, and is worshiped in the traditional religion.
The majority of followers are concentrated in Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Mwari is an omnipotent being, who rules over spirits and is the Supreme God of the religion.
Mwari’s reverence dates back to the age of the ancient King Monomotapa, of the Mutapa Kingdom on the Zambezi River.
The name ‘Mwari’ in Shona means ‘God’.
The word itself can also be roughly interpreted as ‘God’, but only in the traditional religious context.
The furthering of this term’s acceptance is when the Christian missionaries were creating a bible for the locals, in which they used the term ‘Mwari’ instead of ‘God’.
Mwari is seen as a kind and loving God.
Mwari is not only the God of creation, but also of land fertility and blessing rains.
Mwari is the one who controls the forces of earth, from the fortunes of journeys to social and political events.
The introduction of Christianity among the BaTonga made the mistake of believing that to become Christians, the BaTonga people had to be removed from their indigenous cultures.
Second, failure of the missionaries to respect rituals and traditions of the Mwari religion meant that they were viewed with suspicion and their preaching unwelcome.
African religions, especially the Mwari religion, were treated as an evil which had to be countered.
This can be seen in the following quotation: “Once their children have gone to school, they begin to show interest in the strange religion of the white missionaries, religion which denies the truth of Mwari religious beliefs.”
It was frequently believed by Western missionaries that traditional religious beliefs and practices were inferior, and traditional customs had to be done away with before the acceptance of Christianity.
This did not happen without resistance or problems, and gave, for instance, rise to the process which can be seen as religious syncretism in religious beliefs today.
What religious commentators describe as a ‘form of schizophrenia’ was thus the result of having to disclaim the indigenous culture before converting to Christianity.
There is no reason to dismiss such attitudes as a thing of the past, however.
Many of the same sentiments can be found in contemporary religious expressions and among leaders of various religious groups.
The role of the missionaries in the destruction of the Mwari religion was also considerable in terms of cultural and political domination of the people.
Although the missionaries’ task was to make people accept the Bible and its teachings, Christianity was turned into an ideology which could be used to convince people not to resist white domination.
Religion was used to legitimise, sustain and even promote political tyranny and oppression by the former colonial masters.
Religion has functioned both as the ‘opiate of the people’ and a ‘source of the social renewal’.
Missionary Christianity can simply be identified with colonialism.
Regardless of claims that the missionaries regarded themselves as opposed to the colonial ideology, they were part of the colonial structure and brought with them religions, beliefs and practices which were alien to Zimbabwe.