Tracing African Roots: Ancestors inspired our freedom

19 Apr, 2015 - 00:04 0 Views

The Sunday Mail

Traditional healers, ancestors and spirit mediums played a pivotal role during liberation struggle. During this period the African tradition believed in ancestors and spirit medium.

Sekuru Friday Chisanyu

They would always consult them for guidance; before the struggle started the spirit informed the people that there was going to be a war for them to regain their land back.

This is because the ancestors had the control over the land and its natural resources before the advent of colonialism. During the liberation struggle the spirits medium and the ancestors played a very important role in giving different guidance, awareness and strategies on how to overpower their enemy.

They helped the guerillas with traditional medicine for the treatments and prevention of different types of health problems. They agreed to unite and stand together during the liberation struggle as their strategic plan involving self discipline. The ancestors as pharmacologist of traditional medicine have a high degree of influence among the people of African religion and trust that led the guerillas to sacrifice themselves to go for the liberation war.

The ancestors, through mysterious powers performed using traditional medicine, motivated Zimbabweans to have confidence in recovering their land and form a good government.

The people of Zimbabwe also had previous evidence that the ancestors had control over the land, natural resources, disease prevention methods, treatment and advice.

For example the way the ancestors cured diseases foretold the future and how they would ask for food under the tree and get it.

The spirit mediums would ask for the rains and it would come and they would speak to ancestors.

In that process the ancestors would foretell different diseases that would attack the community or area and would tell them the medicine to cure the diseases. The guerillas were trained for the war and would consult the spirits before they left for the warfront.

The spirits would direct them to sacred areas where they would hide .These were places were the enemies would not see them. The use of herbs like “chipofu” would make the enemy blind. The other traditional medicine used by guerillas was “changatira” which confused the enemy, making him feel weak and slow to react.

A lot of dos and don’ts came from the spirits and the guerillas would follow them. The ancestors, spirits and traditional healers were respected very much during this period.

The “chinyavada” system of communication was used to transfer information from one person to another with a traditional secret code from the spirit mediums, either using signs or verbally.

Through the use of spiritual powers and medicines, the guerillas were sometimes given directions by birds, animal sounds and even the formation of mist to hide the members of the liberation war struggle.

The use of stars showed that the ancestors worked hand in hand with God. This shows that the liberation struggle was blessed.

The guerillas were immunised with traditional medicine to remain alert and strong.

Many of the strategies the guerillas used during the liberation struggle all the way to Independence were from the ancestors and spirit mediums with the help of local communities and not forgetting the mhondoro and svikiro.

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