A Little English and a Little Spirituality
You can’t change the wind
What a day, when we finally watched the World Cup in our own home in Rusape many years ago. One of the players names was Jesus which was pronounced “Hey-soos” but that didnt matter to my mother and some of the of the other people in the audience in the living room. “The world is coming to an end” they were saying. “When people start naming their children the sacred name of our Lord, this is the end” they remarked in various ways and words but with this same meaning. I tried to let them know it was a cultural thing for the somewhat Spanish player. That this name was simply one of the names they have given to their children for eons. I told them Jesus was but a human too in many respects and the names he received were but part of his own culture. I even mentioned Emmanuel - a name that many people in Zimbabwe actually have but when people are decided they tend to hate facts and so I had to shut up or disturb the peace.
Language is a fascinating thing. In Zimbabwe, plenty of political movers and shakers are very much against Western imperialism as they give their speeches in the Western Language of English. Zimbabweans sometimes measure the prestige of a person by how good their English is, and how cool their accent sounds. My siblings have great accents rivaling mine and they never left the country. I find that interesting.
Finding friends and dating in Zimbabwe having spent time in the diaspora is fascinating. I am very fascinated this week. Not enough people have a healthy dose of what I now call the in-between :- The International Zimbabwean blood. Many people leave Zimbabwe and either assimilate way too much in the culture they land, or resist it so much they become old Zimbabweans with old slang and old culture. It makes it quite interesting to interact and negotiate how much of the foreign and indigenous is in a friendship and relationship. From totems, to kneeling down in respect, to even encouraging and supporting one another rather than pulling each other down like the fabled Zimbabwe PhD disease (Pull HIm Down Diseas). And everyone has a level of comfort in this spectrum and that is intriguing. Too sensitive a man is weak and not manly enough for Zimbabwe but is a catch in the US. (Forgive me, I over-generalize) Too hard a man is too much for the Anglicised Zimbwabwen woman but may just be right for the mostly indigenous woman who may have never left the country or who may have rejected the assimilation when she left. Now, like I tell many of my friends, it’s not about women, it’s about “a woman” because in the end, I am only seeking one. But they laugh at me.
The issue of culture and language became a special point of interest after the incident with World Cup and it remains big in my heart. For one I believe every language carries a nugget of essential truth. “Je M’appelle” (I am called) in French shows that what we are called on earth and who we actually are in soul name may just be different things and so on. Growing up in a somewhat Christian nation, I realized that there are words that did sound blasphemous when spoken in other contexts. Words such as
Lord
Prayer
Holy
Blessed
Yet these words have long been in the English language or dictionary, way before the Bible was translated. The recontextualization of words through the biblical lens has had an immense effect on many civilizations. And now I want to touch on “A Little Spirituality”
Realizing that the Bible was translated into Shona gave me pause when I thought of the words above and more, but in Shona:
Lord - Tenzi / Ishe
King - Mambo / Ishe
Prayer - Kunamata / Kunyengetera / Kuteura
Holy - Hutsvene
Blessed - Kukomborerwa / Makomborero
Sabbath - Chisi
Wedding - Svitsa Tsvene
These words have long been in the Shona language way before the Bible and Christianity showed up on the doorsteps of various Zimbabwean villages. Shona words that had religious and spiritual meaning way before they became part of the evangelical movement. Now it can seem strange to think that prayer was a part of the spiritual life of the Shona people before the Bible. That my people too sought holiness or saw it in the world the same way people may seek it or see it today. That they observed the Sabbath and even have a saying, “Chisi hachieri musi wacharimwa” (The Sabbath does not show its powers of sacredness the day it’s violated.) I can’t speak on Ndebele culture or Tonga culture and such, but I am trying to content with how there was a vast, and rich spiritual life in Zimbabwe, way before the missionaries showed up. I want to learn more about this and why this spiritual life is now shunned and why it may be the source of our identity as “vanhu” - the people of Zimbabwe. I think I will be touching more on this next week but for now: This is a Little English and a Little Spirituality.
In conclusion, I have kept so many secrets from you fellow travelers. Such as how many kilometers I drove yesterday and how exhausted I was even to lift a finger when it came time to sending this one out in time. And I still have to hold on to the secrets just a little longer. But it’s going to be intense when I am finally able to share the adventure in its entirety. Returning home to Zimbabwe has been an unexpectedly life-changing homecoming. Since I couldn’t change the wind, I have sought to change my sails, fire some of my crew, and outfit those who remained better. The adventure continues.
Until next week. Signing off for meditations on Migration: I am Allen Kuziwakwashe Matsika
Thank you for reading and supporting this newsletter. The goats are still in my heart!