HomeOld_Posts‘North, South, East, West, home is best’

‘North, South, East, West, home is best’

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By Farayi Mungoshi

ALMOST a year after my grandfather’s death, in August 2015, President Robert Mugabe once again put the British under scrutiny, forcing them to revisit their conscience in as far as their crimes against humanity, especially in Africa, were concerned.
He spoke about the heads of the leaders of the First Chimurenga, namely Chief Mapondera and Chingaira among others, who were decapitated by colonialists and their heads shipped to England to be displayed ‘to signify British victory and subjugation of the black people’.
President Mugabe said: “Surely, keeping decapitated heads as war trophies in this day and age, in a national history museum, must rank among the highest forms of racist moral decadence, sadism and human insensitivity.”
Some of our sons and daughters would not give a second thought to this inhumane deed by the British simply because they do not see its hidden implications.
‘It doesn’t put food on the table hence not worth thinking about’, they say.
As the years have rolled by since the invasion by the colonialist forces and the establishment of their European system in which Africans were/are taught more about Europe and European history than Africa and African history, the people have blindly turned away from the path shown us by our elders and our culture.
We label our culture backward, preferring televised Western culture in which even pornography is viewed as art.
The movie Boogie Nights is one example of such perversity, yet our own people cannot see what is going on.
Not only was the shipment of the skulls of the First Chimurenga heroes to England immoral, it was a violation of the people’s beliefs and rights.
Many now view traditional funerals and rites with an arrogant attitude and negativity displaying a lack of understanding of chivanhu chedu.
And since they are now Christians, they don’t see the importance of it all, but we still have to take into consideration that Mbuya Nehanda was not Christian.
She was a spirit medium whose voice was a beacon of strength, offering advice and direction in the First Chimurenga and as such, a symbol of hope to the people of Zimbabwe, whose name still holds great sway.
And on the day that the remains of the heroes and heroines are brought back to the country as the British said they will, will they find the sons and daughters of Zimbabwe waiting to welcome and celebrate them as one?
Or shall we be divided because of our different beliefs, cultures and religions?
Author of Chibarabada, Tinashe Muchuri, gave an interesting insight on this topic.
He said that there is something about the land (soil/earth).
It is from the soil that God created man.
When we say, ivhu we are referring to the whole being of a person, body, soul and spirit.
Kana toita zvirapira tinoungana pavhu.
From the soil is where it all begins and when one returns home upon his death to be buried there, the spirit finds rest.
This is why it is important for one to understand that whenever you visit home (village/kumusha) you are not going there for the huts or house.
Instead you are going there to see, view, scout for a possible resting place for your body.
The soil is our home, our source of life.
Whenever visiting new places back in the old days, our elders always advised us to take a bit of soil from our place of abode so that we mix it with the soil of the place we are visiting to avoid falling ill on arrival.
This way one could avoid attacks from negative territorial spirits of the land one is visiting; such is the power found in our soil.
Author of Fading Sun, David Mungoshi, decided to take a different route to explain the importance of bringing home a dearly departed, starting by quoting an English saying: “North, South, East or West, home is best.”
He went on to say, many things on the plane of human existence have facsimiles in the animal world.
Giving an example of the salmon fish, he explained that at a certain time, it leaves the ocean and traces its way back to its freshwater origins in some river where it was spawned.
There, it creates the next generation and basically meets its demise.
There is a spiritual attachment as well as a sentimental one in being buried on home soil where people know how to celebrate your life.
Western ideologies have driven us from ourselves, unknowingly too and if the children are not taught our culture and ways, all will be lost and we will be consumed by a culture that has no respect for us as a people and feels justified displaying us in museums like animals.
I know some of my Christian brothers and sisters might find this hard to swallow, after all I am a self-confessed believer in Yashua (Jesus) but that does not mean I do not acknowledge those that came and went before me.
If they were irrelevant, where would I be?
Even Jesus needed a lineage to be brought to this earth and was still called Son of David.
Am I not a son of my own fathers who went ahead of me and were also created by the same God who created me?
And if it is too much of a difficult pill to swallow, what then shall we say of Joseph’s bones that were carried to Israel by the Israelites hundreds of years after he made them swear an oath to carry his bones to the Promised Land?
What was so special about his bones being taken to be buried in Israel?
I would say because that’s where his heart was and he believed he would be at peace there.
Is it so far-fetched then, that Mbuya Nehanda also felt for Zimbabwe as Joseph felt for Israel?
She sacrificed her life for Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe was and is her family and it is only right that she is brought back home to it.
“Hatisati tatora ivhu kusvika misoro yakatutwa navapambevhu, irimumamuseum avo yadzoka,” remarked Tinashe Muchuri.

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