HomeOld_PostsThe price of killing one’s mother among the BaTonga

The price of killing one’s mother among the BaTonga

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THE killing of one’s mother often brings bad luck to the killer.
It also has devastating consequences such as madness or kutanda botso for the perpetrator or the spirit of the dead mother may avenge through the killer’s children by bringing them bad luck.
In most societies, if one has killed his/her own mother, there are certain cleansing rituals that are carried out in order to bring peace to the killer.
However, among the BaTonga, it is customary to honour the killed mother through naming a beast after her when she has been killed by her son or close relative.
Although this practice is common among most patriarchal tribes, it is also practised among the BaTonga who are a matriarchal society.
Killing one’s mother is considered a very grave offence in most African societies.
According to some scholars, matriarchy is a social system in which females hold primary power, predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control over property at the specific exclusion of men.
Most anthropologists hold that there are no known societies that are unambiguously matriarchal, but some authors believe exceptions may exist or may have.
The animal, usually a bull or cow in this case, dedicated to the killed mother or the spirit elder may not be sold or disposed of; after an interval, sometimes of several years the spirit of the matriarch reclaims the animal.
The mother’s spirit may reveal its wishes by causing a member of the family to fall ill, or by simply unsettling the animal to start fighting with other animals or wandering about looking confused and lost.
Either of these events is enough to make the family visit a diviner, who on this evidence, confirmed by the fall of the hakata, will tell his clients that the matriarch is demanding the meat of her animal.
According to BaTonga elders, during the ceremony to offer the animal to the mother, the family gathers and sorghum beer is brewed.
The animal to be slaughtered should have then been led out of the kraal to a munhondo tree and this duty usually falls to the eldest son-in-law of the family.
The animal is firmly tied on the tree and the oldest son-in-law strikes the animal on the forehead.
The same man will take the knife and proceed to cut the animal’s throat. This is usually a difficult task that requires a lot of physical strength.
A bowl is put beneath the slit throat and blood is collected until about three quarters of the bowl is full.
Meanwhile another son-in-law will walk to another munhondo tree to cut off some large leafy branches; these are placed alongside the animal’s body.
At this point, wives, senior grandsons and sons of the departed matriarch will gather and sit quietly to the right of the animal’s head.
A pot filled with water is handed over to the principal granddaughter who crawls near the dead animal’s head and claps her hands and carefully washes the forehead and face of the animal.
She claps her hands again after finishing washing.
The elder grandson then covers the animal in a black and red cloth; all gathered will clap their hands and while women ululate, the cloth is taken off the animal after a few minutes.
BaTonga elders say the next part of the ceremony consists of making a shrine. The sons-in-law cut four thin forked branches from the munhondo tree and the eldest will trim each branch to about 30cm, bark is stripped from each stick while four small holes are dug on the ground and the four sticks are placed in them and covered with soil.
The shrine, in the form of a square, is put up close to the munhondo tree. The principal son-in-law places a small leafy branch off a mushamba tree in the centre of the square.
As soon as the shrine is ready, the youngest son-in-law prepares a large fire.
While this is going on, other grandsons will be skinning the animal.
After the skinning, the right forelimb is removed, followed by the corresponding hind leg through its proximal joint.
Next they open the abdomen and remove a sizeable lump of omental fat; they do this by hand (without a knife) and place fat in the basin with the blood.
Elders say, some special pieces of meat, intended for the spirit of the great matriarch are then cut from the carcass and this is done by the principal son-in-law.
This meat, usually called the hwamu among the Shona tribes, is cut from the inner side of each forelimb up to the pectoral region and another piece, about the same size, is cut from the flesh of the left loin.
These pieces are placed on a wooden plate and a large slice of liver is added and placed beside the hwamu.
The principal son-in-law, assisted by one of his family, cuts the meat into long narrow strips which are hung over the fire to roast.
No salt is added.
While this meat is being roasted, the head of the animal is severed from the carcass through the joint of the neck and carried into the shrine.
It is placed in the centre, its lower jaw on the ground with forehead and horns upright.
A handful of dung removed from the intestines is placed on top of the forehead.
Meanwhile, a small strip of the intestines is cut into smaller pieces together with a large slice of the liver. These are placed on a wooden plate and every blood relation of the great-grandmother, male and female, child and adult, is given a piece of the raw meat to eat.
As soon as the other strips of the roasted meat are ready, they are cut into small pieces and placed on a wooden plate.
The principal son-in-law then takes the wooden plate to the edge of the shrine and places it on the leaves, clapping his hands while all other men sit in a circle around the shrine.
All clap their hands as the principal son-in-law supplicates: “Great grandmother this is your roasted meat, keep us well.”
After this brief supplication he eats a piece of meat, while each of the other participants also eat a piece.
The rest of the meat of the animal is cut up and cooked in earthenware pots by the women, who also cook sadza for everyone at the ceremony.
When the sadza is ready, the principal son-in-law is handed three plates which are placed in the shrine.
Each plate represents the spirit of the departed elders.
This concludes the main ceremony of offering to the spirit of the great matriarch among the BaTonga.

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