Zimpapers Logo

Cont Mhlanga
PASSING through Khami area last week, I noticed a small group of worshippers dressed in white gowns praying right on the top of the sacred Ingulungundu hill. I boiled with anger for a moment, then I realised that maybe the Madzibaba and his little family and friends praying on top of this important heritage hill don’t know its history, relevance and legacy.

My anger died down and I thought it important to give this information to all of you young nieces and nephews out there in the hope that you will pass on this information to all those who dress in white gowns and go out to pray in open places and hills.

Religion is a very sensitive subject for many people under the sun, which is why we should all respect other people’s ways of worship and their places. People worship differently and God made it so. It is important that one does not infringe on other people’s ways of worship because all forms of worship and religion are equal before God. Some spaces are not just open spaces or hills but are heritage sites and shrines.

Ingulungundu hill is a place of worship for other people. It has been so for many centuries and it is offensive to those whose religion is practised at the hill to find a bunch of friends dancing on top of the hill. This hill is a place of peace and power in the African religion of this continent.

Let me give you some background on African religion bazukulu, so that you do get where I am coming from. According to African religion, in the beginning God created izulu then created umhlaba. Izulu is the galaxy (not heaven) as the African religion has no such thing as heaven, and umhlaba is the Earth. The African religion speaks to God through the worshipping of izulu lo mhlaba, the power of the universe through the forces of nature.

To teach the humans the religion of the continent, God provided two hills that spoke to the people of the continent to give those laws and commandments to them. One in Southern Africa is called Shalimane now popularly known as Njelele and the second in North Africa is called the Sinai. Yes bazukulu, that same Mount Sinai that spoke to Moses in the Bible.

Shalimane was for the dark skinned people who dominated the south of the continent, while Sinai was for the light skinned people who dominated the north of the continent. African religious worship was all derived and managed from these two hills. Shalimane to this day is the mother of Sinai and all other hill shrines of the continent. These are hills of peace and power and will remain so for centuries to come.

Now with this background given, let’s focus on Southern Africa. Shalimane is supported by four other hills in Southern Africa all within its range as such an important shrine cannot exist in isolation. These smaller hills/shrines are the founding arrangement of African political governance of the people of the continent, the African political governance structure.

Remember bazukulu that this democracy governance process we are so obsessed with today has nothing to do with us Africans. It is an imported governance product as a result of slavery, then colonisation and efforts to liberate the continent.

Our five religious and governance hills are structured from the smallest Ingulungundu to the highest power Umanyangwa.

Let me run them quickly for you bazukulu. Ingulungundu shrine was used even by those that lived at Khami dynasty and those that lived in the area before them. It is about 4km west of the Khami Monuments. This is where all national rituals by Khami dynasty leaders of the time were carried out. Don’t listen to your white guides bazukulu who tell you that rituals at Khami were done at the main hill complex. Africans of any tribe don’t do important rituals indoors where they have sex with their wives! Never!

The Ingulungundu hill’s universal powers are derived and guided by the movement around the sun of the star called indonsakusa. They call it the morning star in the English tribal language. It is at this hill where all the chiefs, izinduna zeziqinti, get their governance commandments and laws to govern iziQinti. They call them Villages in the English tribal language.

Izinduna zeziqinti are today called oSobhuku, a name they got in 1896 after the Ndebele uprising war when during the disarmament exercise at the hill of Lahlamkhonto the new white administrators demanded that every African man of age had to hand in a spear and a shield to be entered in the register to be kept by the induna yesiQinti who became known from that day on as the uSomabhuku wabelungu. To this day, these chiefs are guided by the laws and commandments from the hill of Ingulungundu and the Indonsakusa star — where the Madzibaba and his little group in white gowns found it normal to climb this hill to pray. This is total disrespect for the heritage hill and those whose religion and governance is guided by the shrine.

The next is the hill of Shilo that is guided by the movement around the sun of the star of Ikhwezi. It is from here where the chiefs, izinduna zezigaba, get their laws and commandments to govern izigaba. Today izigaba is what is called wards in the English tribal language.
The next is the hill of Dula, that is guided by the movement around the sun of the stars of izingulube in the galaxy. It is from this hill that the chiefs, izinduna zezigodi, get their laws and commandments to govern izigodi. Today izigodi is what is called the districts in the English tribal language.

It is important bazukulu to know that Dula passes on laws and commandments that are related to fighting of wars only. For example, today’s method of fighting wars by killing children and women, raping them, targeting buildings and places with missiles where there could be children and women, are foreign to the African continent as they are against the commandments of fighting wars as prescribed by the hill of Dula and the stars of Izingulube and thereby so by God.

It is also for this reason that izinduna zezigodi were all military commanders of sorts as the hill only entertained military laws, information and commandments.

The next hill is the Shalimane, the Njelele itself. Remember bazukulu that the collective name of all hill shrines of peace and power in Southern Africa are collectively called the Njelele. The Shalimane hill is guided by the movement around the sun of the star isilimela. It is at this hill that the chiefs’ izinduna zezabelo get their laws and commandments to govern izabelo. Today izabelo is what is called provinces in the English tribal language.

Shalimane gives laws and commandments related to rain and diseases of the earth only.

Lastly is the Manyangwa hill that is guided by the movement around the sun of the largest star in the galaxy, unyezi, also known as inyanga. It is from this hill where the laws and commandments that kings follow and apply to govern kingdoms and nations come from.

Kingdoms of today bazukulu is what they call countries, izizwe.

Note that on the hill of Sinai, Moses got written commandments. This is simply because they could already write and read. All our commandments from the hills I have mentioned above were not and have still not been written. They were passed on to the chiefs and people via the priests of the hills. The fact that they were not written does not make them any less important than those that were written. Nor do they make them less important than the written laws of today that we do via our borrowed concepts of parliaments.

When we talk of culture and traditions that have been lost, we don’t just mean fine and performing arts (songs and traditional dance or the skin dress attire), we mean the wholesome indigenous knowledge of our religion, economics, social and politics that guided a civilised way of life for the people of the continent.

What we have today led by the UN is a bunch of selfish, greedy, wrongly educated and uncivilised society who will never bring security and peace to the world as long as they fight for their demands by killing children and women sending some to suffer daily for months.

The world citizens may as well forget the UN and forget ever living in a secure peaceful world. World leaders of today are spreading poisonous knowledge across the world and will at some point just have to humble themselves and come to our African hills and get commandments on how to create world peace and security.

It is for this reason that as citizens we should respect our heritage because the only fact that we do not understand it and use it today, does not mean that future generations who will come after us will also remain brainwashed by money, products and technology like our generations and continue to fail to find a meeting point with our African indigenous knowledge. If we have no use for it, let’s just keep it as it is, others will find use for it in the future. Don’t dig it up and don’t build on our heritage sites.

If you see a hill you want to do prayers on, or even some open space, please take time to visit the National Museum at the Centenary Park to ask if the hill is not a heritage site. They will not charge you anything for that information.

You can also ask your local leadership or elders to give guidance about the open space or hill. Some of the spaces and hills that look idle with no ownership are not that. They are very important heritage sites and mean a lot to other people in the community and you may find your activities negatively impacting on theirs.

The fact that you dream and hear those voices that talk only to you does not mean you are the only one that dreams and hears voices.

Some did centuries before you and many still do today and all have the right to their worship. Just don’t infringe on each other’s rights!

It is wrong to see the Madzibaba troops flooding the heritage ground of King Lobengula’s Inxwala Festival on corner Masotsha Avenue and JM Nkomo Street to conduct their prayers on that royal heritage ground just as doing so on the hill of Ingulungundu or at the Indaba Tree at Old Bulawayo. You offend other people whose heritage, religion and culture is attached to those open spaces and hills that seem as if they are abandoned.

I have no objection with people going out to pray in open spaces and hills but I have all the objections if they do not do any background check on the open space they have chosen to a point where they do not care to offend others as if they are the only ones who have a right to religion and worship.

BoMadzibaba, be responsible citizens. Show some respect. Always remember that God is not yours alone. Unkulunkulu ngowethu sonke njalo akadakwa. Let us respect our heritage sites as most of them are the nation and people’s amalinda and have yet so many roles to play to influence and guide the future of the country and this earth. Amalinda are places of peace and power. Some have been so for centuries.

Cont Mhlanga is a playwright and social commentator