Zimbabwe's Cultural Heritage

Mbanje originally entwined with culture

115 Mbanje originally entwined with culture “THERE are a lot more stories that I did not tell you last time,” exclaims Nyumbana Dube of Sankonjana. His face that has defied the ravages of time breaks into a broad smile. “Did I tell you how the whites came into this country?” he inquires. He goes on to narrate how Zimbabwe was colonised. “And have you heard about Mgandane Dlodlo?” he asks, in between pinches of snuff. Though I admit I had heard about him, he goes on to narrate how the Ndebele hero of the 1893 Anglo-Ndebele war met his death. The whites from Fort Victoria (Masvingo) were able to identify him as a leader and shot him in cold blood. Indeed, I have listened to various versions of how Mgandane Dlodlo, chief of Inxa village, was killed by the whites. One very popular version says he was decapitated and had his severed genitals stuffed into his mouth. The last story Nyumbana Dube tells me is about why the growth and consumption of mbanje (insangu) was prohibited in the Fort Usher area. Ndebele men and women both took snuff. Traders and hunters coming into Matabeleland in the 1860s and 1870s left behind written records of how Ndebele women, particularly, used to pester them for kwayi. In those days, the best tobacco came from Chief Nyoka’s people in the Gokwe area. However, tobacco or mbanje smoking was the preserve of men. “Smoking is indulged in by men and boys and its main object seems to be to provoke a strong flow of saliva” (Krige, 1977). The object was, surely, much more than the provocation of a strong flow of saliva. Mbanje gives the smoker a ‘high’. It is said to give a soldier Dutch courage. Mbanje is not indigenous to Africa. It has, however, found its way into the African religious sphere. For example, some people use it to scare away goblins, imikhoba, known as ondofa. “In the past, when we went to pay homage at the Njelele shrine, we used to take with us several cat skins (insimba), leaves of tobacco and some mbanje,” says Lot Mathiba Nyathi during a group interview at Sankonjana. Mbanje was smoked through the aid of a device known as igudu. “Mbanje is put into the bowl of a smoking horn (igudu) and a coal of fire is placed on the top of it. The horn is half filled with water, the mouth placed at the thick end of the horn and the smoke drawn through the water by deep inhalations from the chest producing frequent coughing all the time” (Krige, 1977). Men used to take turns to inhale the smoke from igudu. The Ndebele saying indaba esegudwini (talking around the pipe) derives from the smoking 116 sessions. The matter under discussion during smoking is indaba esegudwini. Herd boys used to engage in various games in the veld. Charles Celt Thomas, in his book, ‘Thomas Morgan Thomas – Pioneer Missionary 1828 – 1884’, describes one game that the boys engaged in. “At the edge of every pool or stream, large numbers of small clay cones could be seen in the water. They were an inch-and-half in length, tapering from half an inch to a point. They were made by rolling a small lump of clay between the palms of their hands. “The little, or even the big, boys would sit at the edge of the water, each with a big lump of clay at his side, roll a cone, and then, holding it loosely in his curved fingers, toss it in the air with a spinning motion, the sharp point downwards. The object was to try and get the cone to enter the water without making a splash.” (Courtesy of Dr JoAnn McGregor and Marieke Clarke). I was to learn later that this particular game, popular in the past, was called inyonganyonga (interview with Hudson Halimana Ndlovu, 1999). At times, the boys stole their father’s mbanje and made their own version of igudu by the poolside. This version, according to Nyumbana Dube, was called umbhansi. The boys made umbhansi by “... making two holes in the shape of the two sides of an inverted triangle and meeting at a point under the surface where a small earth bottle was formed for holding the water. The pipe was fitted in one of the holes and the reed in the other, and the substitution is complete” (Nyathi, 1970). “Boys from Fort Usher used to look after...