Zimbabwean Spiritual Practice Chivanhu
The past few weeks, I’ve been exploring the spiritual and religious realms and how different concepts have affected African people. Today, I would like to delve into Zimbabwean traditional spiritual practice – Chivanhu.
Chivanhu is a ChiShona term and in Zimbabwe, traditional spirituality is practiced by some exclusively or in tandem with their chosen religion. From experience, most people are not open about their practice of Chivanhu as it has been historically portrayed as ominous. This portrayal took root during colonial times on the continent.
Practitioners of Chivanhu communicate with God via their ancestors and guiding spirits. During intercession, the practitioners tell their ancestors of their progress in life, what they are thankful for and what they would like to see come to fruition. These messages are then passed on to Musikavanhu/Mwari, the creator.
Photo Credit: Jaredd Craig
Several people have shared their stories with me while going through the process of unlearning religion as presented during the colonial period. They have been learning about Chivanhu and this has turned their worlds upside down at the same time giving perspective to the experiences that they have had in their lives. The remarkable thing according to those I spoke to is that these lessons have lifted “unexplained” burdens and now give a brighter outlook to their futures.
So deep is the knowledge acquired in this process that one of the persons I spoke to who prefers anonymity, asked the question: “what have we been doing with our lives? The answer is of course layered. What we have been doing is living according to colonial dictates. Our minds were influenced by cultures that were introduced into our spaces and we adopted them wholly without much questioning.
Select individuals have taken heed of a calling that they have felt from their forebears and have embarked on a journey that has taught them a new found reverence of God and an acknowledgement of those from their bloodline that walked the earth before us. The massive download of information have made us to understand why we were moved from our form of reverence and worship of God through our ancestors and moved almost exclusively to Christianity or Islam as the case may be. This was a disabling act - an act to make us submit and a good job was done at it.
It was gathered that those unlearning religion and learning Chivanhu have found it preferable and natural to their lives. Not only has it changed their connection with God but a lot of other aspects including living a well balanced life, cleanliness and a healthy lifestyle. This is very contradictory to how we grew up and were taught about Chivanhu. It was and is still in many cases portrayed as a gloomy practice. A lot of the people who also present it as ominous have been revealed to be practitioners of dark Chivanhu or know of only one side of Chivanhu.
Knowledge of the light and dark side of this spiritual practice is coming to light. With the Witchcraft Suppression Act of 1899 passed during the colonial era, a lot of dark spirituality became prevalent. But as we know, light and the darkness coexist in the world. Good and bad also exists in every human being. It depends on which we decide to channel our energies into.
The interesting thing is that apart from Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, schools in Zimbabwe have added Chivanhu to their curriculum. This is an indication that the people are eager and ready to retrace their steps by learning of their ancestry.
Consequently, a lot of children will grow up familiar with the practices of our forebears and will be more comfortable to practice Chivanhu should they choose to do so. Already, parents that are retracing their steps are actively discussing their experiences with their kids. Some also say they can now identify gifts that their children posses and work towards safeguarding these gifts as well as shepherding their wards to live a fruitful life.
Those on this journey say it is eye opening. For instance, through Chivanhu, the concepts of heaven and hell have been expanded; matters of life and death are being better understood; and the importance of birth and death rites has been amplified.
Now we know it is clearer that people possess generational gifts and these gifts have to be carefully honed. In the past, people that possess such gifts are not fully aware of their talent and simply consider themselves “lucky” or just “brilliant.” In cases where one does not know or acknowledge the source of their gifts, they fail to pay attention to happenings in their lives that are important.
Chivanhu practices reveal how gifts come from God, from the paternal and maternal lineages. While gifts from God are absolute, those from the paternal and maternal lineages may be tampered with by dark energies. This is why marriage rites are also important in our cultural practice. Roora/Lobola is not a formality or a show of appreciation to a woman’s family nor is it buying a wife. This marriage rite is significant, much more important than a white wedding or a court union, in my view.
The library is officially open and those that want to learn must gather as much information as they can even when we know learning never ends. My process of learning the practices of Chivanh has been interesting, fascinating, scary, challenging but most of all empowering. The most interesting part of it is that all races have their form of Chivanhu, even while still practicing today’s religions. A lot of people therefore, still practice their form of traditional rites.
Hopefully, one day we get to a point where everyone is secure in their own spiritual and religious practices that we don’t have to look at each other as a lesser being or “unholy.”
Jekanyika is a writer