GOLD

There were powerful civilizations with which our people traded in gold. The most expensive items of all most expensive of all were the tiny beads our kings manufactured in the Northern Transvaal.

Gold beads of very, very, very fine character were made by cross-eyed men and women according to our folklore. It was believed that a crossed-eyed person could see the tiniest detail on anything. I think that those little beads are the beads that found their way to Egypt.
For centuries our people used to believe that gold dust was a medicine and that one kind of gold which is white in colour, that kind of gold dust has power to make one invisible and invincible.

For hundreds of years our kings used to swallow a tiny quantities of gold dust, believing that it would sweep away all diseases in their bodies.

Zulu kings and BaTswana kings used to swallow a small quantity of gold, when they were fortifying themselves against being poisoned.

A king used to eat or drink small quantities of known poisons over a number of months and years and then to end that ceremony by swallowing a pinch of gold dust.

We knew that gold which we called TUSI, the frightening metal was a metal which was powerful against negative entities.

We believed that gold could prolong human life.

We believed exactly the same thing regarding silver, that it had the ability to prolong human life and science has proven this to be a fact, that silver is a powerful anti-biotic and a powerful fungicide.

STONE AND WATER

Black people believe, like most of the ancient people of the world that there is power, very great power in stones and crystals. If we look at the many unbelievably ancient sacred sites in South Africa … stone temples, stone circles and even solitary stones which were used for healing, we shall find that most of them are sited very close to rivers.

We shall also find, interestingly enough, that most of them stand in those parts of South Africa where diamonds used to be mined.

Let me tell you please what our people believe.

Our people believe that every stream and every river creates a spirit, a spirit which flows along with that river its entire length and that this spirit can easily be tapped into with the use of certain types of stone.

There is the stone which is called by our people IWAGDLAWAGDLA. This is a rough stone, the kind of stone that white people call granite.

Then there is another stone the people call INTSHENTSO, the stone of the kidneys. This is the type of blue stone which you find all over South Africa, which is red on the outside, but which, when smashed with a hammer, reveals a dark blue interior.

The IGWADLA stone, which is granite and this blue stone, whose English name I do not know, these are stones which our people believe possess great healing powers if placed near water.

In Mafeking where I live, there are huge standing stones. They are stones of volcanic origin. They are oxidised red on the outside and blue or greyish blue when broken to pieces on the inside. These are stones that our people say possess great healing power but they have got to interact with water.

If you want to create a place of power, you must plant such stones in a circle or in a row, either in a stream, a river, or in a lake.

There is power in quartz, ordinary quartz, there is power in crystal, there is power in diamonds and there is power in verdite.

We believe that on this the grass and trees are green, because there is Verdite underground, which gives the trees this beautiful green colour.

We believe that flowers have got such beautiful colours, because underground there are stones which are the same colour as these flowers. Red Jasper gives birth to red flowers, verdite gives birth to green grass.

DIAMONDS

Let me tell you a very sad story… All the biggest diamonds found in South Africa were not mined. They were found in the possession of black shamans and shamanesses.

The diamond which was found and whose finding led to the Kimberley diamond rush in the 19th century was found in the possession of a Khoi Khoi shaman.

The diamond which now forms part of the jewellery of the British sovereign, the so called Cullinan diamond, was found in the possession of a Batswana healer. He was a rainmaker and he used this diamond in rainmaking ceremonies.

Two rascally white men caught this man with this diamond. The white men beat up the black man, kicked him, broke his ribs and smashed in half of his face, demanding to know from him exactly where he had found this large diamond.

After the black man had died, we are told, the superiors of the two white men arrested them, took away the diamond from them, a diamond which was bigger than any diamond ever found on South African soil.

It was said that this diamond was almost the size of an ostrich’s egg.

It was split in two and only one half went to the to the British King. The other half was divided between the men who had taken away the diamond away from the drunken rascals who had killed the black man.

We believe that any stone which is in colour like water, has got power to see things. It has power to hear things. It also has power to speak, we are told.

Zulu kings, who were not feeling secure regarding their wives, used to put amethyst crystals in their huts where their wives stayed, so that these crystals could listen if one of the wives is unfaithful and would report to the king.

It was said that if an amethyst became very dark it is because it has heard something juicy happening inside one of the kings huts.

Our people believe that not only do crystals have the power to heal, but under certain circumstances, crystals have the power to destroy.

Some kings in Africa used to give lumps of crystal or even diamonds to favourite wives, to lessen the sex drive of those women.

If a king gave a red stone to his favourite wife it was supposed to enhance her sex drive.

If a king gave crystal or diamond to his favourite wife, this was supposed to lower the woman’s sex drive so that she would desire no other man except the king himself.

What I find interesting is that white men give diamond rings to their wives; the one stone that we believe has the power to reduce a person’s sex drive.

Is there something here we should know about? Why don’t white people wed their wives with stones of different colours, such as sapphires, rubies and so on?

Why do they concentrate on the diamond? A stone which many centuries ago was at one time regarded as evil.

There was a time when black people and white people alike used the diamond as a tool not as a magical stone.

My grandfather told me that these things around my neck were carved using diamonds as well as diamond powder.

It is said in our mysteries that the stone was the grandmother of the tree, that the stone provides the tree with power and that if there were no stones on earth, trees would not be able to grow.

There are riddles that we use among ourselves which involve stones and trees.

If a person comes to me claiming to be a Sanusi or Sangoma and if I am filled with doubt as to the genuineness of this person, I will ask him following riddle question: “Which is the hard thing which is the grandmother of the soft? Which is the hard womb from which the green came?”. The answer is: The stone is the mother and Verdite, the green stone, is the mother of all green things in this world.