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Rock Art and Township Diviners
Some of the San rock art in Southern Africa show dance scenes with people clapping , rattles strapped to their feet, while some individuals enter trance and bleed from the nose. Is it possible to find a connection between these two dance scenes, one painted thousands of years ago, and the other played out in the year 2000 in a Xhosa household outside Cape Town? According to Professor Hammond-Tooke, an anthropologist from Wits University the answer is yes; there are certain aspects of the San religious cosmology which through contact between the San and the Nguni (Xhosa and Zulu), beginning around 1100 AD became part of the Nguni divination systems. As a result parts of this ritual are still alive.
The strong differences between the Xhosa and other Southern Bantu divination systems is also explained through incorporation of certain aspects of the San cosmology into the Xhosa divination system. However the most significant feature to be integrated was the ecstatic healing dance of the San which was adopted by the Xhosa as the ritual and dance ( the intlombe) which is part of the healing of the initiatory illness of Xhosa diviners. The dancers go into altered states of consciousness through song, drumming and dance. In this state they have visions, and make contact with the ancestors who speak to them and guide them, leading to both development of psychic powers and the healing of the initiatory illness, 'ukuthwasa.' According to Hammond-Tooke, this has strong parallels with the medicine dance of the San, which also leads to altered states of consciousness. The difference is that the San medicine men have direct out-of-body experiences, travel to other realms, and heal the sick. This reflects the difference between the clearly shamanistic hunter-gatherer society of the San with no emphasis on the ancestors, and the cattle-owning Xhosa with a strong emphasis on patrilinial descent and respect for the ancestors. The other incorporation into the Nguni cosmology, according to Hammond-Tooke, is the linking of wild animals with altered states of consciousness. He sees shamanism as essentially the religion of hunter-gatherer societies with two common aspects, an experience of an altered state of consciousness and the use of animal helpers in this trance state.
These hypotheses concerning San/Nguni cultural interchange are indeed extraordinary. They indicate not only that the San shamanistic tradition of thousands of years, reflected in the rich rock art of Southern Africa, is still a living tradition amongst the San communities in Botswana, and Namibia, but also that threads of this tradition live in the healing tradition that is still vibrant in many Xhosa communities in the present.
Hammond-Tooke, W. 1998. Selective borrowing? The possibility of San shamanistic influence in Southern Bantu divination and healing practices. SA Archaeological Bulletin 53 : 9-15. CONTACT BRETT HILTON-BARBER primeorigins.co.za is an iafrica.com Private Label site |
It is dark in the diviner's home in the informal settlement outside Cape Town. Around and around in a circle, the Xhosa initiates (those called to become diviners through an initiatory illness) and the established diviner (igqirha) sing particular healing songs, tremble and shake and call out to their ancestors as they become visible to them. Around their ankles are rattles, and in the hands of a diviner is a flywhisk made from the tail of an animal.
That there was mutual influence between San groupings and the Nguni group is demonstrated in several ways. The clicks of the Xhosa language were introduced into the language through contact with the San. Other Southern Bantu languages do not have these clicks. It is also most probable that the / Xam (San) term for shaman, gi:xa was adopted by the Xhosa for their diviners, igqirha.
In Nguni divination culture, part of a cattle owning culture, images of cattle appear in the dreams of initiate diviners. These are interpreted as the message from the ancestors that the initiate can graduate and should sacrifice a cow. However, wild animals also appear in dreams and visions and are understood as the ancestors communicating with the initiate. Wild animal imagery is understood by Hammond-Tooke as another incorporation from San culture, for in this
culture, animals play many roles in assisting the medicine-man/trancer. The potency of certain animals is harnessed by trancers to gain access to altered states. While in this state the trancer can transform into animal form and manifest as a lion, for instance.