The Sunday Mail
Chief Donald Kamba Tracing African Roots
(continued from last week)
THE concept of the extended family is steeped in traditions that treasure co-operation, consensus, and reconciliation.
The nuclear family is incomplete without the complementary roles found in the extended family.
Such close-knit set ups allow for the guidance, advice, and support of members of the extended family in matters of marriage, weddings, disputes, bereavement, among others.
The inclusiveness of African tradition makes it ideal for solving not only community problems, but also national problems, especially if note is taken of the fact that the family unit serves as mirror of society and the nation at large.
In Makoni tradition, if the king and his team of elders could not feel at liberty to pass judgement because of certain aspects that required the input of the female members, they renounced agency of such a matter and requested a team of women elders of wisdom to superintend over the matter.
The judgement of the council of women elders was not subject to approval by the king and his team of elders, and such judgment bound everyone. This is how important the place of the woman in our African religion and culture is. Conflict between the male and female gender are minimal as to be non-existent, noting that a clear chain of command denoting roles between husband and wife, parents and children etc were cast in stone.
African Traditional Religion (ATR) is driven on support, co-operation, and common courtesy, in complete contrast to competition, conflict, and search for personal aggrandisement.
The need to trace our roots with a view to restore the dignity and pride of both the boy and girl child, the mother and the father, the grandmother and the grandfather, the nucleus family and the extended family, is clearly evident.
Zimbabweans need to stand tall once again as God reaches out to those whose works show sincerity of intent, purity of the soul and righteousness of the heart.
ATR abhors self-alienation and upholds a togetherness and closeness that is blessed of God. Little wonder our oneness has no accommodation for designations that promote division and disunity.
We are known to mourn for two to three fathers or mothers who die in a year, and Caucasian culture is confused that there is such a thing in our culture.
My father’s brother is my father, as my mother’s sister is my mother. We do not have uncles and cousins because that kills the concept of the extended family that is key to our being as a civilised and cultured people.
In summary, ATR intricately linked to culture and civilisation is nothing unless close behind it stands a living and public opinion that points to values, principles, norms, and morals of that religion as socially and culturally embedded.
ATR and culture have been most misunderstood, most misinterpreted, most bartered, because there has not been cause for journalistic aggressiveness, or marketing strategy to advance and promote interests that are ingrained in the African.
Over 80 percent of indigenous Zimbabweans believe in African tradition and culture in one way or another. This is because statistics exist that speak to the fact that indigenous peoples consult indigenous avenues for their health problems to the extent mentioned above.
This happens and is done by traditionalists at heart, who masquerade as Christians or Muslims. The notion that African religions are in the minority is a mere public relations sting that inflates the ego of those that own foreign religions and impose conditions for the socio-economic well being of an Africa undergoing massive moral erosion.
The notion that for one to be recognised as modern, one must accept foreign religions and cultures is totally misleading.
Africans must define modernity as they experience it, feel it, enjoy it, see it, and speak it as opposed to having a modernity prescribed and imposed by value systems that are at variance with the road we travelled as an African people.
We must develop at our own pace, if we sincerely seek to drive original visions that take us where we want to go, as opposed to being instructed as to who we must be, by those that are not part of the African story.
True to the nature and principles of the indigenous belief and social system, ATR adherents are at complete peace with both Christians and Muslims, a recognition that all human creation is of God and not of the evil one.
When are Africans going to be tired of being told to do or not to do what they in fact know better? When are Africans going to be tired of being told that their weaknesses are their strengths and that their strengths are their weaknesses? When is the African going to critically appraise himself: admitting weaknesses and working on them; appreciating strengths, and sharpening them?
Chief Donald Kamba’s jurisdiction is in Makoni district, Zimbabwe
