LYRE
PAGE 132
‘This is the most soul-moving thing I’ve seen. It was owned by a number of princesses, each one of whom left a necklace to be passed on with the instrument.’
SOUL BOAT
PAGE 248
‘I see something of great interest and importance. This is a soul recovery vessel. The vessel is shaped like a boat and in the boat are lying two figures which represent the souls of men.
This is a very heartbreaking instrument this one because it is a likeness of a boat in which two men had drowned.
Our people believed that when a person dies by fire and when a person drowns in water, his or her soul is totally obliterated. So there are special rituals which are conducted to restore the soul back to the dead person.
This instrument that we see on this page was used for that and the very fact that this model boat is heavily smeared with red ochre, the symbol of resurrection, confirms what I am saying, that it was used for the ritual recovery of the soul of a man or two men who had died when their canoe sank.’
GOD THE FATHER
PAGE 400
‘This so called mudfish head figure is God the Father with the horns of the ram or heavenly bull. God the Father, as Creator of the Universe, his features may not be shown. They are tabu.’
BARK CLOTH
PAGE 305
‘This is not merely a cloth. It is a book of knowledge written in the ancient Kulu script. This is writing. You will find this in Barotsiland.’
THE NOMO OR NOMMO
PAGE 393
’These are not human beings. These are star creatures – the Nommo. They are riding their fearsome ship, which our people mistook for a monster. A tradition which is being repeated. Their mouths are open to show the important messages they brought to us. On the heads of two of the Nommo are symbols of the human soul taking off toward far stars.’
HAND AXE
PAGE 186
‘This is the oldest known human – made object, made 600,000 years before the present.
Some of these axes are very big in size, ten to twelve inches. These weapons were used by giant people, who lived in Lesotho area until within historical time.
These giant people existed. They were there and not anybody’s imagination. They always carried such objects. They go very far back and existed in South Africa until 15th or 16th century. These were the cannibals; huge humanlike creatures, very dull-witted, unable to talk properly. They fought terrible wars with BAKWAKWA people, the first tribe ever to settle in South Africa.
Ask any Zulu what we call the southern region of the world.
We call the east MPUMALANGA – where the sun rises,
the west NTSHONALANGA – where the sun sets,
the north NYAGATU – the place of great movement
and the south NINGIZIMU – region of many cannibals.’
FUNERARY POSTS
PAGE 145
‘Arabs who died had poles over their graves so that their souls should ascend.
What do you observe about the last one? It looks so European. It was an actual attempt at a portrait. The design tells us he was a man from the sea, a drowned person who died in a shipwreck. This was part of his ship.’
Credo pages further through the glossy catalogue, exclaiming and shaking his head from time to time.
POT FROM ZAIRE
PAGE 255
‘But why are there designs inside?’
BUNGA VESSEL
PAGE 222 – 223
‘We are shown two containers which are described as lidded vessels and the writers of the catalogue are not sure if the things come from Swaziland or Lesotho.
These things come from Kwa-Zulu. These are pure Ndwande Zulu. They were very abstract in their carving. In my younger days I saw many things belonging to kings.
Each vessel is carved in a strange way to represent a seated king or queen surrounded by servants. These things are containers for either salt or roasted monkey nuts which were very precious things to our kings indeed.
In the second carving, stylized bodies supporting the king or queen can clearly be seen. The instrument used to carve these containers is a chisel-like instrument which our people call Ingwetu the gouge.
These vessels belonged to a king probably either Dingane or Mpande. They are in a style that died out forever after the great Zulu wars, during the middle and closing years of the nineteenth century. They are called Bunga vessels or “Surround the King Vessels”.’
MEAT TRAY
PAGE 224
‘We see a beautiful meat tray which was used during a wedding. This meat tray is carved in the likenesses of symbols for women. The round bowls symbolize women and the symbol in the center represents men. The unity of man and woman.
On the same page we see a very interesting meat tray. This tray represents a woman. The head of the woman is intended to contain rock salt.
In the length of wood that joins the head to the larger bowl are shown two tiny breasts. The large bowl represents the swollen belly of a pregnant woman and the hook represents the deflowered female organ. This meat tray was therefore used to celebrate the birth of a child or a married woman’s first pregnancy.’
THE BAFUMI GODDESS
PAGE 225
‘This was a very ancient people who lived in Mozambique, who worshipped God the Mother and these three figures show God the Mother in her aspect as a young woman, a middle aged woman and an old woman with the feet of an antelope.
To say that the figures are Tsonga is wrong. They are Bafumi figures and I find it very interesting to notice how this sculptor, (and the figures were executed by one person) went out of his way to show the Great Earth Mother as a powerfully legged middle-aged woman, as a long legged young girl and as a beast-legged old hag.
Three such figures were placed inside the shrine of the Great Earth Mother.’
SUFFERING GODDESS
PAGE 226
‘A figure whose hands have been deliberately chopped off… One ear also is missing. The figure represents the Great Earth Mother as the suffering Goddess. The hands were chopped off as a result of the death of the woman who was the original owner of the carving.’
MEDICINE DISPENSER
PAGE 229
‘Here is a ritual instrument that has been wrongly described as bellows. This instrument was used to blow powdered medicine into the hut of a sick king.
Powdered medicine was put here and blown inside the king’s hut. It used for exorcising an evil spirit. You put the powder in front of the snout and operated it. This sent the powder snouting out into the air.
It was not used for blowing on a fire at all.’
