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Africa:
Religion: Religious system of the Amazulu: The Lord of Heaven
The Spiritual Bookstore Online World Religion Library
THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM
OF THE AMAZULU
p. 117
THE LORD OF HEAVEN.
IN the previous pages we meet with frequent allusions to a
lord above or heavenly lord. Thunder and lightning and aerial changes appear
to be the only natural phenomena which have attracted the notice of the
natives of this part of Africa, and led them to believe in a personal power
above nature. Struck with terror by a thunder storm, they encourage each
other by asserting that they have committed no crime against the powerful
being in heaven who wields the lightning, and that he is not angry, but
merely playing. But we shall be much mistaken if we hasten to conclude from
this that because they speak of a heavenly lord, they have any conception of
him which identifies him with God.
In almost every country there is some such notion of a heavenly being,—a
relic possibly of heaven-worship; or it may be merely a natural suggestion
of the human mind, springing up spontaneously among different peoples, and
every where leading to a similar conclusion, that where there are such
manifestations of power, there is also a personal cause.
There is the Indian Indra, called also "the lord of heaven;" the Zeus
and Jupiter of the Greeks and Romans; the Esquimaux Pirksoma; the Mau or
Ye-whe of Whydah; the So or Khevioso of Dahome; the Kaang or chief in the
sky of the Bushmen; and the Thor of our own ancestors.
We have already seen that the Dahomans speak of thunder in the same way
as the natives of these parts; they do not say it is the sign of an angry
chief, but of a chief who is rejoicing or playing. Arbousset says that among
the Bechuanas, "when it thunders every one trembles; if there are several
together, one asks the other with uneasiness, 'Is there any one amongst us
that devours the wealth of others?' All then spit on the ground, saying, 'We
do not devour the wealth of others.' If a thunderbolt strikes and kills one
of them, no one complains, none weep; instead of being grieved, all unite in
saying
p. 118 that the
lord is delighted, (that is to say, he has done right,) with killing that
man." (Op. cit., p. 323.) In like manner among the natives of Natal,
if the lightning kills their cattle, they neither complain nor mourn, but
say, "The lord has taken his own." Neither do they cry the funeral wail over
those who have been killed in this manner, lest, as they say, they should
summon the lightning to kill them too. It is not lawful for them to touch
the body of a person killed with lightning, until the doctor has come and
applied medicines to the dead, and to the living of the village to which he
belonged.—Among the Romans those struck with lightning were not buried,
neither are they among the Dahomans; but they cut from the corpse lumps of
flesh, which they chew without eating, crying to the passers by, "We sell
you meat!—fine meat!—Come and buy!" (Burton, Mission to the King of
Dahome. Vol. II., p. 142.)
The following statement by an intelligent, educated Christian native
will show how utterly indistinct and undeveloped is their notion respecting
a heavenly lord:—
It is by no means clear what is really said about the lord of
heaven. For when the heaven [lightning] has struck any place, it is
said, "The lord is angry." This is said because of the lightning stroke.
It is not very clear which is the lord that strikes—whether it is the
lightning, or whether the lightning is the lord's power. It is said of
the lightning, "The lord has struck." But there are many who are called
lords by men, and even beasts, as the boa and the lion; but althongh
they are thus named, they are notwithstanding killed, that is, their
being called lords is not the same as giving the name lord to the lord
of heaven.
p. 119
There is a bird of heaven;30
it too is killed; it comes down when the lightning strikes the earth,
and remains on the ground; but neither is it said to be the lord; it is
not very clear which is meant by lord, the lightning, or the lord which
is in heaven. We hear it said there are men in heaven and under the
earth. But it is hard to understand what is the condition of these
underground men; neither do we know what is the condition of those who
are above. All we know is that it is said they are there.
Among the Amazulu, when there is a thunder storm, they say:
The heaven of Umjokwane is thundering and raining, the heaven of
Upunga and of Umageba; the heaven of Ugukqabadele.
The first three of these names are izibongo of the Amazulu, that is, of
the royal family, the names of ancient chiefs. But Ugukqabadele
p. 120 is said to
be a new name, invented for that Lord of heaven of whom the white man speaks
to them. It means the Unconquerable (see
p. 114).
This is explained in the following account:—
As regards the saying, "The heaven of Upunga and of Umageba and
Umjokwane, it is not permitted that there should be any thing greater
than the chief. The greatness of the heaven was said to belong to
Upunga, who was a great Zulu chief; for you can see by this that it is
merely something done for the purpose of exalting a man when it is said
that the heaven too belongs to him.
It used to be said if any omen happened in a village, that it was
occasioned by the chief. For instance, Utshaka once sprinkled the blood
of a bullock in the royal house during the night, saying by that means
he should know if the diviners were true when they pointed out
offenders. But they did not divine rightly, and he killed them all but
one, who said, "It was done by the heaven," and asked, if he could point
out the heaven as the offender? That was all he said; and the people
understood that by the heaven he meant Utshaka; for the heaven too was
said to be his. This is not true; it is a mere exaltation of the chief.
For they say he is as big as the mountains, meaning great mountains. But
it is not so; for if he is standing or sitting at the foot of
p. 121 the
mountain it would hide him, and he could not be seen. It is the mere
exaltation of a human being.
Further, the word Ugukqabadele is not a name of Utshaka or
Usenzangakona. It is a name which has arisen here among the English, as
a name for the lord of heaven. For at first when the Dutch came, the
white men used to make us swear to the truth of what we said; for they
did not understand what a man said when he swore by our chiefs; so the
oath was, "Utikxo o pezulu," God of heaven; or, "I swear by the Lord of
heaven," and one spat on his finger and pointed towards heaven and said,
"May He take me if I know this thing." The word Ugukqabadele means the
Lord of heaven. And kneeling is a sign of strength; for it is said, if a
man wish to make himself very firm, and avail himself of all his
strength, he kneels, that he may not be moved from his place; and the
man who is fighting with him will go away. That, then, is what is meant
by "ba-dele," They pass on or have enough, that is, they leave him when
he has knelt.
p. 122
AN old native, in expressing his gratitude for some act of
kindness, said, pointing towards heaven, "Nkosi, elako ilanga," Sir, the sun
is yours. On asking the meaning of this, I received the following
explanation:—
Among the Amazulu they use the name of heaven; and when it thunders
they say, "The heaven of the chief thundered." They do not mean the
owner of the heaven who made it, but a mere man who is a chief; he is
exalted by saying the heaven is his. And many are now in the habit of
making obeisance to others, saying, "Thou of the inner circle of
greatness, the heaven is thine; all things are thine."
They say thus because they see no one else but the chief himself,
who if he choose can command any particular person to die, and he will
die at once. And so they say, "That man is the owner of heaven; and
every thing is his." It does not suffice them to honour a great man,
unless they place the heaven on his shoulders; they do not believe what
they say; they merely wish to ascribe all greatness to him.
Such, then, is the reverence of black men; for the chief did not
say, "No; you are ascribing to me what does not belong to me; the heaven
and the sun are not mine; they have their own owner; for my part I am
insignificant." He expected to have it said always
p. 123 that
the heaven was his; and now our people address white men in the same
way.
It happens among black men when the chief calls out an army and he
has collected all his bands, he addresses them, and then they sing a
song which excites their passions, that their hearts burn with the
desire of seeing their enemy; and though the heaven is clear, it becomes
clouded by a great wind which arises. And the people say, "The heaven of
the chief feels that the chief is suffering." Therefore it was affirmed
among great chiefs, that the heaven is the chief's; for when he
assembles his troops the heaven clouds over, although it had been quite
bright.
ANOTHER native, named Ududula, who was a great courtier,
whose highest notion of politeness was the highest hyperbole of praise,
wished to borrow half-a-crown, which I had no wish to lend. At length he
said, "Mfundisi, u ng' ubaba," Teacher, you are my father. I asked, "How?"
He replied, "Wa dabuka emhlabeni, wa kula, wa ba ngaka; mina be ngi ngaka
nje," You broke off from the earth, and grew as big as this, (placing his
hand six feet above the ground;) but for my part I only grew as high as
this, (placing his hand about a foot and a half from it.) By this he meant
to say that I was not born like other men, but came out of the ground, like
Unkulunkulu.31
p. 124
It appears, therefore, that in the native mind there is scarcely any
notion of Deity, if any at all, wrapt up in their sayings about a heavenly
chief. When it is applied to God, it is simply the result of teaching. Among
themselves he is not regarded as the Creator, nor as the Preserver of men;
but as a power, it may be nothing more than an earthly chief, still
celebrated by name,—a relic of the king-worship of the Egyptians; another
form merely of ancestor-worship.
A lad of the Waiau or Ajawa tribe, living on the Eastern coast of Lake
Nyassa, informs me that among them the Rainbow is called Umlungu, that is,
God; for Umlungu is the word they there use for the Supreme Being and
supernatural powers. They also call the Supreme Being Lisoka, the Invisible,
when they wish to distinguish him from the Rainbow.32—Among
the Dahomans, the Rainbow is worshipped
p. 125 under the
name of Danh, the heavenly snake. (Burton, Op. cit., p. 148.)
Next
Footnotes
p. 119
30 "The bird of heaven" is a bird which is
said to descend from the sky when it thunders, and to be found in the
neighbourhood of the place where the lightning has struck. The
heaven-doctors place a large vessel of amasi mixed with various medicines
near a pool such as is frequently met with on the tops of hills; this is
done to attract the lightning, that it may strike in that place. The doctor
remains at hand watching, and when the lightning strikes the bird descends,
and he rushes forward and kills it. It is said to have a red bill, red legs,
and a short red tail like fire; its feathers are bright and dazzling, and it
is very fat. The bird is boiled for the sake of the fat, which is mixed with
other medicines and used by the heaven-doctors to puff on their bodies
(pepeta) and to anoint their lightning-rods, that they may be able to act on
the heavens without injury to themselves. The body is used for other
purposes as medicine. A few years ago some peacocks' feathers were sold at a
great price among the natives of Natal, being supposed to be the feathers of
this bird.
p. 123
31 Arbousset appears to have noticed a
similar custom. Yet his statement may have been made from not understanding
the meaning of such phrases as "Inkosi yohlanga " (see
Note
30, p. 14):—"They
p. 124
have no idol but he; it is before him, literally, that they prostrate
themselves. He grants them permission to live, or he slaughters them
according to his caprice. Can the devil really have whispered to the Zula
(the celestial) that he is a god? Be this as it may, many of the Matebeles,
of the same people, believe, on the word of their princes, that the
ancestors of these have sprung from the reeds of a fountain, instead of
being born of a woman, as other men are." (Op. cit., p. 231.)—But the
Amazulu are so called, not because they have arrogated to themselves the
title of "Celestials," but from Uzulu, an ancient chief. He, however, may
have obtained that name from the ascription to him of heavenly power.
U-izulu, Thou art the heaven, became soon converted into the proper name,
Uzulu.
32 In Rowley's Story of the
Universities' Mission to Central Africa we find the following account of
the religion of the people in the neighbourhood of Lake Nyassa:—
"Both Manganja and Ajawa seemed to have a better idea of the Deity than
most savage tribes. The Manganja called God, Pambi, or Mpambi; the Ajawa,
Mulungu. Neither, as I have elsewhere said, looked upon Him as a God of
wrath; indeed, they did not appear to assign any wrathful attribute to Him,
nor did they in any way make Him the author of evil; they supposed evil to
proceed from malevolent spirits—the Mfiti. We never, therefore, found them
offering up human sacrifices in order to avert God's anger. If great danger,
either famine or war, threatened them, they would assemble at an appointed
place, and in an appointed way, offer up prayer to God to deliver them from
the famine, or to give them the victory in the war. We saw instances of
this. At Magomero, soon after the commencement of the first rainy season
after we were in the land, there was a solemn assemblage
p. 125
for prayer. The ground had been prepared, the seed sown; the rains came, the
corn sprang up—all seemed as we desired it; and then the rains ceased: day
by day, week by week, and no rain; the fierce sun seemed withering the young
corn, famine appeared imminent. Chigunda assembled his people in the bush
ontside the village, then marched with them in procession to the appointed
place for prayer, a plot of ground cleared and fenced in, and in the middle
of which was a hut, called the prayer hut. The women attended as well as the
men, and in the procession the women preceded the men. All entered the
enclosure, the women sitting on one side of the hut, the men on the other;
Chigunda sat some distance apart by himself. Then a woman named Mbudzi, the
sister of Chigunda it was said, stood forth, and she acted as priestess. In
one hand she had a small basket containing Indian corn meal, in the other a
small earthen pot containing the native beer, pombi—the equivalent,
doubtless, to the ancient offering of corn and wine. She went just into the
hut, not so far but what she could be seen and heard. She put the basket and
the pot down on either side of her. Then she took up a handful of the meal
and dropped it on the floor, and in doing this called out in a high-pitched
voice, 'Imva Mpambi! Adza mvula!' (Hear thou, O God, and send rain!) and the
assembled people responded, clapping their hands softly, and intoning—they
always intone their prayers—'Imva Mpambi!' (Hear thou, O God!) This was done
again and again until the meal was expended, and then, after arranging it in
the form of a sugar loaf, the beer was poured, as a libation, round about
it, The supplications ceased, Mbudzi came out of the hut, fastened up the
door, sat on the ground, threw herself on her back; all the people followed
her example, and while in this position they clapped their hands and
repeated their supplication for several minutes. This over, they stood up,
clapped hands again, bowing themselves to the earth repeatedly while doing
so; then marched to where Chigunda was sitting, and danced round about him
like mad things. When the dance ceased, a large jar of water was brought and
placed before the chief; first Mbudzi washed her hands, arms, and face; then
water was poured over her by another woman; then all the women rushed
forward with calabashes in their hands, and dipping them into the jar threw
the water into the air with loud cries and wild gesticulations. And so the
ceremonies ended."
**
**
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