RENOWNED Nigerian author Chinua Achebe in the book Things Fall Apart wrote:
“The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion.
We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”
Achebe aptly describes the demise of African traditions as a result of colonisation of Africa by whites.
Blacks, as a result of mental colonisation, now take pride in identifying with the whiteman’s culture.
Traditions and rituals that promoted unity and cohesion in societies and helped Africans identify with one another were replaced.
They were demonised.
A ritual, according to Wikipedia, is a ceremony or series of acts always performed the same way.
Agriculture, history teaches, has always been a source of livelihood for indigenes.
As such the agricultural calendar was punctuated by rituals signalling the beginning or end of different seasons.
After harvesting, societies under the guidance of chiefs and village elders, held mapira echando to thank God for harvests.
To prepare for the summer cropping season, societies engaged in what have been termed rain-asking ceremonies or mabira emvura, as part of preparations.
The ceremonies were held between July and September.
Such rituals are not peculiar to local societies, but also practised throughout Africa.
But the tradition is slowly dying as people now favour Christian rituals.
Sociologist, Professor Claude Mararike said rituals were common as societies prepared for the cropping season, but whites had done a lot to belittle the events.
He said, to ridicule the ritual, whites deliberately termed it wrongly.
“There is no such thing as rain-making ceremony as the ceremony had nothing to do with making rain, but asking for the rain,” he said.
“The term ‘rain-making’ was coined by whites to downplay the significance and importance of the rituals.
“Rain-making is a wrong term as we do not have rain-makers.
“If rains did not come after the rain-asking ceremonies, whites would label the rituals as insignificant yet when people ask for something, either they get it or not.”
The Free Dictionary defines rain-making as a process of producing or attempting to produce rain by magic.
Prof Mararike said the rituals were a form of social cohesion.
Societies have always believed in a higher power and that the link to that was through their ancestors hence they had to acknowledge them.
“Through rituals, the living kept in touch with the dead as communication channels were kept open and these were some kind of test to find out if they were still in touch,” said Prof Mararike.
“People remained morally upright as deeds such as adultery, incest, murder and theft were wrongs that would stop the rains from coming.
“The rituals promoted preservation of trees and animals as venues for different rituals.”
The rain-asking rituals are normally conducted under a muchakata/muhacha tree and people were prohibited from cutting down such trees.
In other societies, an enclosure was built using poles from muchakata trees, which were debarked and a special type of bark used to tie them together.
“Given such a scenario, the muchakata tree was preserved and it is one tree that produces fruit during drought, so in case of a drought people survived on its fruits,” said Prof Mararike.
“The practice helped sustain ecological balance.”
Prof Mararike said rituals were not performed blindly.
“It should be understood that those leading the rituals would have studied weather patterns; that is wind movement and cloud patterns and this would help them advise on amounts of rainfalls to be expected,” he said.
“Armed with such information, people would be guided on which crops to grow.”
The African tradition, said Prof Mararike, was never about membership as is with Christianity.
“Rituals continue to be performed even if there is a low turn-out,” he said.
“The advent of Christianity has left people with divergent views and others no longer practise such rituals.”
Author Taazadza Munhumutema concurred with Prof Mararike that makombwe (people guiding the rain-asking rituals) would have studied weather patterns.
“It was these leaders who would advise on the expected rainfall patterns after studying weather patterns which was more like a weather forecast,” he said.
“If low rains were to be expected, people were advised to grow crops that were drought-resistant.”
President of the Chiefs’ Council, Chief Fortune Charumbira, said processes when conducting the ceremonies, differed with each society.
“The venue which is normally under a specific type of tree or bushy area is dependent on the beliefs of ethnic groups,” he said.
“The process normally starts with the gathering of rukweza to be used to brew the beer used during the ceremony.
“The beer is prepared by women on the menopause stage.”
The rukweza is then taken to the mountains where appeals are made to ancestors, citing reasons they want to brew the beer.
Chief Charumbira said special attention was paid when brewing the beer.
“Rukweza rwunoshandiswa runonyikwa mumvura inodonha mudenga saka madzimai anorwutora voshandisa mvura yemugomo, vapedza rwonanikwa paruware rwozokuyiwa,” he said.
“The beer is brewed in special traditional pots.”
On the day of the ceremony, Chief Charumbira said rituals were performed early in the morning, guided by chiefs and village elders.
“People wake up as early as 5am and once again, appeals are made to the ancestors with a nyusa (one possessed with a spirit medium that assists on rain issues) leading the process,” he said.
“After that, the ceremony becomes open for every community member.
“People sing and dance.”
Chief Charumbira said communities still upheld the tradition of asking for rains.
“There is a section of hardliners who no longer see sense in such traditions, but mapira emvura are still being performed,” he said.
Raymond Samanga, son of Chief Samanga in Manicaland and a veteran educationist, has faith in this tradition.
He emphasised that since the process was scientific, procedures had to be followed to the letter.
“Sometimes requests are not met because of prevalence of taboos like incest, desecration of sacred places and unsuitable people performing the rituals, among others,” he said.
Samanga said he had attended some ceremonies where requests had been answered with an immediate downpour.
As Achebe highlighted, it is such beliefs and rituals that held societies together and indeed they should be upheld.
Prof Mararike said no culture is superior to others, hence it is out of ignorance for blacks to abandon their culture in favour of that of foreigners.