BY Thomas Sibanda
The Ndebele people have a special ceremony called ukuthethela. Ukuthethela is communicating with ancestors for a variety of reasons such as thanksgiving, petitions or to make some enquiries.
Each homestead had a sacred cow, inkomo yamadlozi, that was separated for the ancestors to protect the family. The cow was selected by the head of the homestead after consultations and guidance from usiyazi, the seer.
In most cases, the cow was a black bull or brown one. The cow had to have one colour and no other marks or spots. This cow was revered and well taken care of. It did not participate in any manual labour in the household. It was called ubabamkhulu, the grandfather.
The cow was treated like the grandfather and even addressed as such. It was not beaten, it was respectfully addressed when leaving the kraal, to drink water or going to the pastures. There was also a sacred black goat, imbuzi kagogo, the late grandmother’s goat.
Like the sacred cow, the goat was selected through divination. Also, in the same process, one of the daughters in the homestead was selected as ugogo. The selected child was honoured as ugogo and was informed of all important family matters. She was also addressed as ugogo.
Even when she got married, the inlaws were informed that they had married ugogo of the homestead and as such every now and then she would be requested to come back home to assist with umthethelo and other family ceremonies.
As ugogo of the home, the girl was given her own goats by her father. These goats were her personal wealth that was looked after for her. If she got married these goats remained at home and people were assigned to keep and preserve them for her.
It was generally believed that since the ancestors were spirit beings, they needed animal and human hosts to enable them to see and actively protect their families whilst at the same time being a link between the physical and spirit realms.
The seer, usiyazi helped to interpret and decode messages from the inkomo yamadlozi or imbuzi ka gogo. The girl child appointed as ugogo was often inspired through dreams and special messages from the ancestors to guide the family or warn them of impending danger.
Umthethelo was done annually to thank the ancestors for good health, blessings, good harvests and success. It was, however, also done when misfortunes struck a home and the family had to seek help from the ancestors, or ask for forgiveness or seek vengeance or protection.
