A Swazi College For Diviner-Healers
My major exposure to ngoma activities and institutions in the North Nguni setting came through several extended visits to the ngoma training college and clinic of Ida Mabuza of Betani, midway between the industrial center of Manzini and the capital of Mbabane.
Ida Mabuza had trained in the Tshopo area of Mozambique. She enjoyed royal patronage from King Sobhuza II to follow through on her therapeutic initiation. When she experienced kwetfwasa , the call from the ancestors to enter a life of ngoma, she was ill for five years before beginning her training, suffering from back pains and difficulty in walking, as well as other serious problems that included vomiting blood. As her illness progressed, she became solitary, hostile, and withdrawn. She had many dreams of people with sangoma-type hairdos. Her condition worsened, leading eventually to daytime visions, so that others and she herself feared she would become totally mad. When her condition became unbearable, her husband took necessary steps for her to be healed. As she began to train, the spirit literally "came out" in her dancing; a song was given to her by the spirit. Her family and healer realized she was possessed by a Thonga spirit; indeed the spirit had announced itself. In due course she, a Swazi, became the channel of Thonga, Zulu, and Shangani spirits. These spirits drive you about, she said, they possess (femba ) you, speak through you, particularly the Manzawe spirits. The Benguni spirits are the main ones behind the div-
ination with bones; they are mainly Zulu (victims of Swazi wars), although some are Thonga. Others give insight as well, including Thonga and Shangani spirits.
The main points here seem to be that these shades that aid in divining and heating are alien Nguni ancestors, and that they speak directly through the medicines and diviners. This is in contrast to most Zulu (and other) tangoma, who work with or in power of their own shades, and seemingly the Xhosa, who work similarly. Harriet Sibisi, who was with me and interpreted the interview, pointed out that Zulu tangoma would try to get rid of an alien spirit and try to bring in a person's own shade to inspire divination work. They would not work exclusively with alien spirits.
The contrasts between Zulu tangoma and Mabuza's approach seemed sufficiently pronounced that when I asked about the meanings of the term ngoma she noted that, although they accept the appellation sangoma, technically they call themselves takoza mediums, distinguishable by their red ochred and oiled dreadlocks, whereas tangoma wear their hair black with beads woven in them. According to Mabuza, the takoza have spirits speak directly through them, whereas the tangoma listen to spirits (or sometimes their ancestors or deceased grandparents) and use their own judgment. Thus the difference is in methodology. The takoza's spirit sees right into the cause of illness; for example, one may be limping today, but the cause is an ancient childhood injury. Tangoma are more skilled at reading the present, or they tend to restrict their work to present-day issues. The takoza, because they are mediums, get much more excited, said Mabuza, who sat there before us with great composure, looking very professorial through her glasses. The takoza combine mediumship (ukufemba ) with bone-throwing, or inspire their bone-throwing with mediumship from spirits directly. The tangoma learn divination from other tangoma. The tangoma figure out the problem and refer more readily to other types of practitioners.
One of Mabuza's twenty apprentices explained her own training and her introduction to the hierarchy of spirits. Novices learn many songs, both those taught by their teacher Mabuza, as well as their own, which they receive in visions and dreams from the amadloti (ancestor shades), the Manzawe spirits, and the Benguni "victims" of wars, killed by one's paternal forebears. These several spirit or shade categories were represented by the bead strings across the novices' shoulders (see fig. 4). White beads represented the Benguni autochthonous victims; the red, the Amanzawe (nature spirits); the mud-colored, the amadloti (lineal
Figure 4.
Body and neck strings as used in ngoma to represent categories of
spirits. This example is from Swazi takoza mediums: (a) amadloti (lineal
ancestor shades), mud-colored beads; (b) Amanzawe (nature spirits), red
beads; (c) autochthonous Benguni victims of Swazi wars, white beads;
(d) Tinzunzu victims of drowning, white beads.
ancestor shades); another white string, Tinzunzu (victims of drowning). She had other necklaces and beads that had been donned at points in her training. The fuller bead bracelets and anklets indicated her completion of training.
Teaching and practice in this tradition, which combined the sangoma and takoza, appeared to consist of the two standard components, divining and singing rituals. The former mainly consisted of "throwing bones" (pengula ), the latter the singing-pronouncing of the affliction or announcement of spirits (ukufemba ) in which drums were used. Ma Mabuza had twelve tigomene drums for these ukufemba sessions (see plate 6), although not all were used at any one time. The drums, made of cowhide membranes on oil barrels, were huge and sonorous, recalling the sacred royal drums of the north Sotho, Venda, and Luvedo, or the
Luvedo tigomene initiation drums. Ida Mabuza's own patron spirit was a male iloti , which was why whenever a request was made, the apprentice who was our guide had to go ask "him" (through Mama Mabuza) for permission.
Mabuza, when asked about the prevalence of types of cases brought to her, noted that daily she has about ten clients. Even though she does not keep records, she noted the following types of issues brought to her in order of frequency. There are both "African" and "non-African" problems. She has both African and white clients. The most common African problem is vague pains and anxieties, explained by umbelelo or mego , harm or sorcery resulting from interpersonal tensions. The next most prevalent illness is amakubalo , resulting from broken social or moral precepts, such as illicit sex with a protected married woman. The first type of problem brings both men and women, the second mostly men. Further, there are many young people who come to her wishing to learn of their fates, seeking good fortune in job applications, exams, and love.
Whites' main concern, she said, is fear of poverty—that is, their inability to hold on to their money and property. They also come for help in promotions and other work-related matters. They come with illnesses not properly diagnosed in the hospital or not effectively treated, such as especially high blood pressure, whose root cause frequently can be traced to tensions or conflicts with domestic workers or subordinates who, they fear, have retaliated against them.
Mabuza told us of a case she had recently done that illustrates her approach. A white woman came in, accompanying someone else. Mabuza divined for her that she was involved in a struggle with her family. The woman did not believe it. Two weeks later she returned, acknowledging that, indeed, in their purchase of a farm, payments had been embezzled by another family member, and they had been doubly charged.
One day as we arrived we saw another car parked below the compound. It belonged to a well-dressed Swazi couple who had just emerged from one of the divination rooms and a consultation with Mabuza or an apprentice. Later, as we were waiting on a mat outside the rooms, another car drove up with a grandmotherly Swazi woman at the wheel. She had come for a consultation, either for herself or another family member. She waited on a mat beside us while one of the staff prepared to see her. Clients who do not have their own vehicles, or who cannot
walk or take public transportation, may call Betani by phone and be picked up in one of the center's vehicles. Since Betani is midway between the industrial center of Manzini and the capital, Mbabane, and not far from the royal Swazi capital, Mabuza's work is tied into the vibrant pulses at the center of Swazi society.
The narrow line between conventional clients and those who eventually become apprentices is articulated by the etiological category kwetfwasa , to be called by a spirit to enter the life of the sangoma. Although she commonly diagnoses cases to be of this type, it is an article of emphasis in ngoma circles that the master-novice relationship must be entered voluntarily. The diviner-healer who makes the diagnosis is not necessarily the one with whom you apprentice. Clients are quite free to go elsewhere, with whomever they feel comfortable. Those who do come to Mabuza stay in residence five to six years; for the first four they are counseled and participate in the sessions. Then they become involved in intensive training. During this time she delegates responsibility in pengula bone-throwing divination and in the femba mediumship. Anyone who is available gets an opportunity to learn through practice. If one's spirit cannot read a case, another helps out or takes over.
The novices must be sexually abstinent throughout their stay with her. They do not shake hands with others; they are ritually apart. Mabuza was surprised at the pictures of the Cape Town novices who held wage-labor jobs, wondering how apprentices could be part-time or intermittently in isolation.
The presence of clients who stay in residence overnight or for longer periods (in addition to whom there are up to twenty apprentice diviner-heaters) suggests that Mabuza's establishment at Betani is very much an institution, with anywhere from thirty to fifty people "in residence" at a given time. The institutional dimension of ngoma at this place was apparent to us one day when, driving up the steep road to Betani, we came upon two young apprentices working to get the Datsun truck, heavily laden with groceries for the college, up the hill. They had to unload some of the flour sacks so the vehicle could drive up a particularly steep eroded passage. Later, I saw them unload thirty dozen eggs, a fifty kilogram bag of mealie flour, bags of wheat flour, cartons of canned condensed milk, sugar, and the like—food for twenty novices and their families, as well as the inpatients. Six times a month they send to town for such a load of groceries. It was reported that the tazoka
novices, conspicuous in their red ochre and sand hair-dos and loin-cloths, are frequently seen in the bank in Mbabane drawing money from the Betani account for their shopping.