Abathandazi are faith healers who are found accross Africa.They are often associated with the indigenous African churches. They usually use water, candles, milk, eggs, ashes & other objects to conduct faith healing.
2. Faith healers have special garments they wear when conducting their works. They prophesy to their clients & use water and candles to connect with the spiritual world. Their prescriptions are called iziwatsho: eg.a mixture of water and ashes or milk to be used for cleansing.
3. It is believed that abathandazi operate under the influence of a spirit called isithunywa/messenger. This spirit is believed to come from God and heals people using nature especially water and light. Hence abathandazi rely on water and candles to diagnose problems & heal.
4. Other spiritual experts say that izithunywa are ancestors who were forced to abandon traditional healing methods due to oppressive colonial laws and ended up finding expression of their prophetic and healing gifts under the cover of indigenous African churches.
5. When operating in the indigenous African churches they had to use legally/Christian tolerable healing artifacts like oil, water etc However, they were not operating under any Christian spirit but amadlozi & ubungoma under the guise of the church.
6. It is for this reason that some faith healers mix iziwatsho and other traditional African medicines and healing methods now that there are no colonial laws to hinder their traditional healing operations.
7. Some faith healers believe that their healing powers are tied to water bodies like rivers, the sea, dams and water falls and as such they prescribe healing & cleansing of bad luck through baptisms in these water bodies various times depending on the nature of the problem.
8. To operate under isithunywa the faith healers have to fast and pray and through visions and dreams they get a revelation of the colours of the garments they must wear and healing methods they must use.
9. Some of the exorcism and healing methods of abathandazi have been heavily criticized as they involve physical assault with izikhali/wooden rods. For more information on the origins of independent African churches see the thread below 👇🏾
The first Portuguese explorers arrived in present day Luanda around 1500s. By 1575 Paulo Dias
de Novais arrived with a hundred families of colonists and four hundred soldiers. They set up a fort at present day Luanda.
2. The Portuguese gradually took control of the coastal area by a series of treaties and wars throughout the 16th century, and their interest in Angola quickly turned to the slave trade.
3. With the capital at Luanda on the coast, the Portuguese struggled against the kingdoms of Kongo, Ndongo, and Matamba to gain control of the interior.
1. THE PRE-COLONIAL INXWALA CEREMONY OF THE NDEBELE PEOPLE OF ZIMBABWE 🇿🇼
Inxwala was a national ceremony for spiritual renewal and thanksgiving for the first fruits in the Ndebele kingdom. The main Inxwala came a lunar month after the conduct of the minor inxwala.
2. Once the date for the main inxwala was set, a clarion call was
was made at all kraals in the regions of the kingdom for people to attend the big ceremony. ‘Umthwakazi kagcobe!’, ‘Let the nation dress up for Inxwala!’ the town criers would announce with great excitement.
3. All roads would then lead to the capital. The people brought with them food, beer and oxen for slaughter. There were special oxen known as amamvubu, the hippo oxen. These oxen were regarded as sacred animals. It was believed that the king’s ancestral spirits lived in them.
Ancient Ndebele people used celestial knowledge to chart seasons, regulate agricultural cycles and ritual calendars. Celestial bodies determined healing rituals, divination, social and political decisions.
2. The sun, ilanga, the stars, inkanyezi and the moon, inyanga, are the most significant celestial beings that affected several aspects of the Ndebele community. One day is known as ilanga or usuku and a month is known as inyanga.
3. One moon cycle makes up a month and thirteen moon cycles make up a year, umnyaka. Daily time is measured in relation to the movement of the sun and the stars. Different measures of time are divided as follows :
King Sobhuza I was born around 1788. He is considered as the founder of modern Eswatini. His father was King Ndvungunye Zikodze ruler of the Ngwane kingdom. Sobhuza I was also known as Somhlolo.
2. The name Somhlolo ('man of mysteries') is in reference to the mysteries, uncommon wisdom and prophetic gifts that were associated with his life. It is said that on the day that he was born his father was struck by lightning.
3. His reign in the early 1800s marked an important phase in the history of Eswatini. As Sobhuza began his reign, the Ngwane kingdom territory was centered along the Phongolo River to the south of modern ESwatini, and it's northern boundaries covered today's southern ESwatini.
King Soshangana was born in present day KwaNongoma in KwaZulu to Zikode kaGasa, a chief of the Ndwandwe empire under King Zwide kaLanga. The Gasa occupied the Mkhuze region around the eTshaneni mountain.
2. After the collapse of the Ndwandwe empire, Soshangana, along with his four brothers followed the example of other Ndwandwe parties by fleeing King Shaka. They took a route along the eastern foothills of Lubombo through Mngomezulu to the upper Tembe River.
3. In the Tembe area, King Soshangana lived for about five years, fortifying his group by constant raids. In about 1825, he crossed the Tembe River and marched north–west. Between 1825 and 1827 he lived on a tributary of the Nkomati River north of present-day Maputo.
Present day Kalanga people of Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa are believed to be descendants of part of the Bantu people who migrated down south from the Great Lakes region around AD900.
2. The early Kalanga ancestors are believed to be the Zhizo farmers whose descendants subsequently established the Leopard's kopje culture between AD 420 and 1050 characterised by special stone architecture and decorative pottery.
3. The Kalanga, Venda and Bolubedu are believed to have established the kingdom of Mapungubwe around 1075-1220 in the area around the confluence of the Limpopo Rivers. The kingdom flourished and attracted many Bantu migrants including the ancestors of modern day Shona groups.