Kupfupira: Appeasing sacred land

17 Jan, 2016 - 00:01 0 Views
Kupfupira: Appeasing sacred land

The Sunday Mail

THERE are many sacred places in Zimbabwe. These include the Mabweadziva, Zame, Manyanga and Chirorodziva, among others. Jinda Mutinhima
Religion Writer

These places are of great value and should be respected always. A negation in their values has resulted in conflicts between the spirits and the living.
Such conflicts has seen people disappearing in mountains, rivers and forests. They have also resulted in droughts, crimes and accidents. Some areas on our roads are now being referred to as black spots.
Since time immemorial, Africans have had ways of resolving these conflicts with the spirits, appeasing the spirits and finding harmony. Kupfupira is one such way. Although very broad and with different interpretations depending on the case and area, kupfupira involves appeasing angry spirits.
During this process, land is appeased through a ceremony which is like many African spiritual ceremonies.
The ceremony is led by mediums. Brewing of fermented beer is done by the elderly who are no longer sexually active.
The brew is used at most traditional rituals such as marriage, birth and bull enthronement ceremonies. However, this type of beer differs from one region to the other, depending on the culture of a particular people.
Beer brewing basically involves malting, drying, milling, souring, boiling, mashing and alcoholic fermentation. The process starts by identifying hoko (traditional pegs) that were put by the first inhabitants of the country when they migrated from Guruuswa in Tanganyika in the north.
These pegs were installed in the casting process called kupinga nyika. The process cast away all the bad spirits so that they wouldn’t get into the country.
These spirits lead to murder, war and other such bad things. After identifying these pegs, a pot of traditional brew is put on each one of them. An African traditionalist, Ferdinand Tahwa who was initiated in the African traditional ceremonies from birth, explained the process.
“Pakupfupfira nzvimbo dzinoyera, vanotanga vaenda nzvimbo dzese idzodzo vachinoisa fodya yebute inenge iri murutsanga senhekwe(mutete), ndoo yavachaturira nayo zuva rese nzvimbo dzese idzi.
“Pese pane hoko dzavo dzenyika zvisinei kuti pana umwe mambo vanotokumbira kuita basa sezvo kare yaiva yakakura nzvimbo yavo.Vozotevera nehari dzedoro dzonosiiwa mumakomo nekumadziva iwayo.Vanhu vanozorara vachitamba nekufara pabira guru rinenge riripo rinoitirwa pasango pasina dzimba.
“Mangwana rungwanani vodzokera kunotora hari idzodzo zvatopera,” he said.
The ceremony is conducted at open spaces in the forests. Song and dance will characterise the all night festivity. Song and dance play a significant role in African culture. Songs communicate with emotions. Song accompanied by traditional instruments such as mbira invokes the spirits of the land.
The following morning as people return to their homes, they will collect the empty pots where they would have left the day before at the pegs. The spirits of the land would have feasted on the beer and therefore the appeasement would have been achieved.
All the mishap that would have happened because of the angry “land” will be reversed. This applies to those that would have disappeared in rivers, mountains, and sacred forests. If there were any other super natural forces affecting the area or country, they will cease.
This is the reason why spirit mediums back then would always conduct kupfupira. This process gave the land a new lease of life, cleaning away all the dirty and undesirables caused by human error and impunity.
Appeasement of the spirits through this process brings peace and harmony to the society.
South African writer, Allan Anderson in his writing says the spirits are believed to be those who have died, who exist in some usually undefined and unknown place to which the living have no access. There they look after their descendants’ welfare, and expect their cooperation in return. They have power to both help and harm their wards and only passively bring harm, by withdrawing their protection when their instructions have not been carried out.
In his journals, Anderson contends that the internal violence that characterised South Africa among blacks just before their independence in the early 1990s was because of the angered spirits. ln that same way, the spirits of the land can bring droughts and misfortune to the living if they are not being respected.
One respondent to Anderson’s writings said Nelson Mandela went on to rule South Africa because after being released from prison in 1990, he paid homage to his ancestral home in Transkei in the Cape Province and conducted traditional rites.
“When Mr Nelson Mandela was released from prison, he went back to his birth place to tell the ancestors that he had been released from prison and was now on a mission to liberate the country. All the blessings and the changes which are coming to us with him are because the ancestors are backing and helping him.”

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