Let children learn our proverbs this festive season
When Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithini KaBhekuzulu died in 2021, he was not buried. He actually did not die. The revered man had reigned the Zulu nation for five-decades.
In Zulu custom, the end of the monarch’s earthly life is referred to as “”ukukhothama”, meaning “to kneel”. So the king knelt. That is why he was not buried. Instead, he was “planted” what the AmaZulu call “ukutshalwa”, to imply this is not the end of his influence on the people he ruled.
Zwelithini, the cultural head of the Zulu nation was a man of means. He had six wives and at least 28 children. The Zulu kingdom has over 11 million followers. He controlled 7,413,161 acres of communally-owned land under the Ingonyama Trust, livestock, several palaces, properties-- and fine old wine. More than five million people live on the land.
The king is also responsible for celebrating Zulu customs such as the reed dance, where thousands of young women celebrate their virginity and create awareness about HIV and Aids. The event is a major tourist attraction. But his death in 2021 is now the subject of a fierce court battle among siblings that has left an egg on South African President Ceril Ramaphosa’s forehead.
A local court has reprimanded Ramaphosa for presiding over the official crowning of a new Zulu king last year, saying the process was “unlawful and invalid”.
The court ordered him to set up an inquiry led by experts on Zulu royal matters into whether King Misuzulu ka Zwelithini’s accession to the throne took place in line with customary laws.
This followed a legal challenge by the king’s half-brother, Prince Simakade Zulu, who says he is the rightful heir.
The beautiful thing about the conflict is the debate it has evoked about the place of customs and African cultures in governance and influence on what we call the modern way of life. Here is Prince Simakade’s contention. One, he argues that being the late King’s first-born, the first red-blooded warrior to flow through his loins, he was entitled to the throne. But that is not the major consideration, according to some sages of the Zulu nation. The hurdle is that the prince was born out of wedlock and his mother has no royal lineage.
He grew up under the care of Zwelithini’s late great-wife, Mantfombi Dlamini, with his other siblings. That is why though King Misuzulu was not his father’s oldest son - his mother held the title of “great wife” as she came from royalty.
So, the dispute has boiled down to a conversation about customs.
Maybe it is time to for Kenyans to reflect on whether we have been good at preservation and particularly transmission of our customs.
So, as we descend to the villages this festive season we should ask ourselves, how much do our English-speaking children know of our cultures, symbols, proverbs and folklore?
Why are we bringing up children who are unbothered to sit while elders are standing in family gatherings? What happened to those days we would stand on the roadside to acknowledge the local primary school teacher or chief?
It was heart-warming last week for us to attend and speak at a graduation ceremony of young men who had “faced the knife.” President William Ruto was captured singing at a similar Kalenjin cultural fete.
These kind of cultural events should be used to transfer cultural wisdom. It is important to teach children about our community customs touching on marriages, burials, property, traditional foods and medicine, family webs, treatment of the elderly, protection of women, songs and histories because, like in the case of Prince Simakade, they may in future be used to make far –reaching decisions about their lives and fortunes.
The writer, a founder of the Kenya Speechwriters Clinic, is the political editor at People Daily.
