Animisim And Water

Introduction
The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between animism
And water. Animism can be defined as either "the belief that natural
Objects, natural phenomena and the universe itself possess souls, or the
Belief that natural objects have souls that may exist apart from their
Material bodies1." Viewed in such terms, animistic religions accord water a
Supernatural life force. The manner in which it visualizes this life force
Is dependent upon the specific beliefs of the people in relation to the
Environment that they inhabit. The range of examples for this article is
Not limited to one continent, but as is the case with animism, will take
Into account relevant beliefs from different geographical locations.
Animistic religion may lead to the belief in specific water spirits, or the
Water itself may even be imbued with supernatural qualities, qualities which
Prove to be enduring despite supercedence by Islamic or Christian religion.
In some cases, the influences of animism may lead to attempts to make rain,
Usually through the use of "medicines" to either create rain clouds or act
As a supplication to a supreme being with the power to grant the needed rain
As there is a large scope for study, there will be an attempt to highlight
Common features that will allow comparison between animistic religions and
Their relevance to water. However, the focus will not just include animism
And water, but will also examine a non-animistic religion in Malawi so that
Contrasts and similarities can be drawn.
Contents
Water Spirits
Animistic Properties of Water
Rainmaking
Malawi


Their Nature, Form and Abilities
Where people believe in water-spirits, these entities can take on different
Physical forms. These range from serpentine to human/mermaid forms. In
Some cases the form is interchangeable or undetermined. It can also be
Observed that there is a general trend of a specific form dominating certain
Areas, for example, as will be illustrated, the serpentine form tends to
Dominate in Western and Southern Africa, whilst the "mermaid" entity is
Especially prevalent in Northern and Central Europe.


Serpents
A well-publicised example of a water-spirit is that of the
Nyaminyami of the Tonga people. The spirit is believed to inhabit the
Zambezi River between Zimbabwe and Zambia. The Tonga (who lived on both
Banks of the river before their forced removal with the construction of the
Kariba dam) regarded him as a god. Although only a few sightings have been
Claimed, his physical form is serpentine, with a snake's body and head
Similar to that of a Tiger fish. In times of hunger, he acted as a
Protector to the Tonga, giving them sustenance by providing strips of meat
From his own body.2 In return the Tonga demonstrated their allegiance with
Ceremonial dances in his honour.3 Nyaminyami had a wife, and together they
Roamed between Kariba, the Kariwa gorge and the Mana pools. However, he was
Separated from his wife by the building of the dam at Kariba.4
During the construction of the dam in 1957, the Tonga were forcibly
Resettled from the banks of the Zambezi to the surrounding barren highland
Areas. However, construction was set back by the occurrence of a millennial
Flood.5 The resulting damage was the destruction of the constructional
Coffer dam. Following floods proceeded to remove the suspension footbridge
And road bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Further setbacks occurred
Including the death of eighteen workers who fell to their deaths during
Construction.6 Nyaminyami was claimed to have been involved for two
Reasons. He was said to be lonely as he was separated from his wife who was
Still residing at Mana pools, and so in his anger had caused the floods.
The Tonga people had also claimed that he had acted to defend them, when
They invoked his protection as an act of resistance against their forced
Removal. However, the Tonga also claim that the only reason that Nyaminyami
Did not completely destroy the Kariba project was due to the intervention of
Their elders to placate him so as to spare further destruction.7
Nevertheless, the completion of the dam and the resettlement of the Tonga
People away from Kariba has not destroyed belief in Nyaminyami. Occasional
Earth tremors are felt in the region. These are believed to be caused by
The wandering of Nyaminyami, lonely and still wishing to be reunited with
His wife. This, furthermore, will eventually be accomplished by the
Destruction of the dam.8
The Congo River provides us with another example of serpentine
Gods. It was believed that the river was inhabited by a family of water
Spirits in the form of four serpents. They were not only responsible for
Conditions and phenomenon on the river, they also were attributed the status
Of creator gods:

"Four spirits resided in the water beneath the rapids in the Congo River, in
The form of four serpents, Kuitikuiti the Waving one, his wife Mboze the
Fertile one, and their children Makanga and Mbatilanda. They lived in the
Infernal Cauldron, as the white men call it, the maelstrom where the
powerful current of the Congo meets the rising tide at every noon. The
people say that Kuitikuiti has been seen in many other parts of the river as
well.
Long ago there was only the earth with the bushes on it. Then Kuitikuiti
rose out of the water and created all the tail-less animals, and Mbatilanda
created all the animals with tails. When they came home they found that
Mboze was pregnant. She had committed incest with her son, Makanga. Furious,
Kuitikuiti seized a club and beat her to death. Dying, she gave birth to a
serpent daughter, called Bunzi. Bunzi is the goddess of rain and fertility.
She gave birth to another water spirit called Lusunzi, who comes to visit
his mother regularly, and whenever he does, there is -kalema-, springtide,
in the vast estuary of the Congo.
Kuitikuiti resuscitated his wife Mboze, but now her skin was white instead
of black, so he also exchanged his black skin for a white one. Kuitikuiti
also lay with his granddaughter, Bunzi, and the issue of this union was a
daughter, Kambizi the Storm, who floods the low lands of the delta and drags
the sailors and bathers down so that they drown. On the bottom of the sea
she makes love with them, like the princesses of the old days who had the
right to pick any man they fancied to satisfy their desires."9
As can be observed from this, the river gods were not exempt from
taboo practices such as incest or murder. Indeed the fruit of the
incestuous union between mother and son results in the goddess of rain and
fertility. They show examples of benevolence in creating the animals that
inhabit the world, but could equally be responsible for such malignant acts
as drowning men or sending floods. They reflect human nature in possessing
both good and bad natures. There is no strict dichotomy of good and evil.
For example the creator Kuitikuiti committed murder in killing his wife
Mbonze, yet he demonstrates forgiveness and regret and brings her back to
life. However, despite his action against his wife for her incest, he
himself sleeps with his granddaughter Bunzi, product of the initial
incestuous act!

One finds in Lesotho a number of animistic beliefs despite the
prevalence of Christianity; indeed, it is an example on how existing beliefs
can be assimilated and survive despite the best efforts of a proselytising
religion. The deep points of lakes or rivers are held to contain monsters
or snakes that hypnotise people into entering the water and drowning, these
areas are called koeetsengs.10 Subsequently, there is a fear of approaching
the water in areas of Lesotho.

The San of the Central Kalahari believe in an evil god !Kaonxa
responsible for death. For them, there is, "a subterranean realm, occupied
by these spirits (g/amadzi) and “monsters” or “angry things” (//a:xudzi) who
surface and “impinge on human lives when angered by the breaking of certain
taboos” (Silberbauer 1982:113). Valiente-Noailles (1993:196-99) obtained a
detailed account of !kaonxa as the source of evil from a //gana man. !Kaonxa
was described as “coming back” from the west; he became a big snake and was
said to be still alive (indeed, immune to death). He was said to be living
“in places where there is big water. And when a person comes to get water he
may just splash him a lot of water and dig him into the water” [i.e. drown
him]. He is the “master of all illnesses” and brings violent winds and
rainstorms (Valiente-Noailles 1993:196). He is also associated with the
//gamahare, or spirits of the dead."11 The Khoisan believe in a rain being
called !Khwa. "In /Xam lore, !Khwa is the embodiment of the rain and of the
water in the water hole, his home; he is particularly linked to violent and
dangerous rain storms. Like the Nharo /gauwa, he is attracted to women
(Guenther 1989:117) and is particularly linked to initiation (amongst the
/Xam, female initiation). Most of the !Khwa stories pivot on his attraction
to female initiates in seclusion. One narrator, Dia!kwain, described drowned
female initiates as “the water’s wives” (Bleek and Lloyd 1911:395). !Khwa
appears in herbivorous form, including the eland, or, generically as a rain
animal or rain bull."12 !Khwa is viewed a wrathful deity, and his
punishment for wrongdoing, especially breaking taboos is severe. "The
girl’s story; the frog’s story” (Bleek and Lloyd 1911:198-205) exemplifies
the tenor of the menarcheal stories. A female initiate, unhappy in
menarcheal seclusion and with the associated food rationing and taboos,
sneaked off to the waterhole, killed a “water’s child” (described as “like a
calf”) and cooked and ate it while her relatives were out foraging. On her
next attempt, an angry !Khwa enveloped her in a whirlwind and deposited her
in the waterhole, where she was drowned. Frogs and reflections of stars on
the surfaces of the water were said to be disobedient initiates abducted and
killed by !Khwa. Her family was likewise afflicted - abducted, drowned and
turned into frogs. Their possessions revert to an unworked state: mats and
arrows become grasses and reeds respectively. In a similar narrative, skin
karosses revert to being springbok (L V-20:5612-5617)."13 As can be
observed, !Khwa possesses the ability to change his form at will, and was
not only responsible for the providence of rain but the observance of rites
and taboos. Viewed in such terms, !Khwa is not only a rain-giver, but also
a death-giver. His abode is the waterhole, which is seen in terms of a gate
between the worlds of the living and the dead. "The waterhole in /Xam myths
and stories is primarily a place of death and the home of the death-giver,
!Khwa (Solomon 1989, 1992a, 1994). It is this symbolism which, I propose,
supports Qing’s contention that the painted rhebok-headed figures [found in
rock art] represented men who had died and now lived in rivers. In terms of
/Xam mythology, death and underwater are equivalents. In Lewis-Williams’
argument, “underwater” describes the sensations of trance experience;
however, a strong case may be made for the reverse, namely that trancers or
curers construe their experience as a journey to the realm of sickness and
death, conceptualised as a nether realm accessed through the waterhole, the
home of the death-giver, !Khwa. (The curer’s task in the underworld is to
wrestle with the spirits who cause illness.)"14 As well as the importance
of the waterhole, and the equivalence of underwater and death, one can also
note that rivers are believed to be inhabited by spirits of the dead, and
the conception of curing illness by combating spirits through the medium of
trance, trance itself being equivocated with "underwater".
Lake Fundudzi in the Northern Province of South Africa is
treated as sacred. The only natural lake in South Africa is fed by the
Mutale River. There are several different beliefs held about it, one of
which being that it is inhabited by a god of fertility in the form of a
python. As is the case in other animistic religions, ancestors are employed
as intermediaries between the people and the god. They are invoked by a
ritual in which a maiden with a pot of beer is sent into the lake. "She must
then pour the beer into the water and if the water and beer mixes it is
going to be a good season. If not, then other measures must be employed to
enlist the help of the ancestral spirits to have a good season."15

Outside of Africa, the form of the water-spirit is rarely a snake. However,
in Russia, there is a folktale of a snake and a Russian girl. The snake
inhabited a pond and wished to marry the girl. The girl was abducted from
her home after promising to marry the snake without any intention of
honouring her pledge. This was achieved by a mass of snakes breaking into
her house and carrying her off to the pond, where underwater they took human
form and the girl had two children by her husband.16

Mermaids
In Northern and Central Europe there is a trend for the physical form of
the water-spirit to be half or wholly human. In cases where they are half
human, their lower body tends to be that of a fish. On the west coast of
Ireland, the merrow was a form of mermaid, the sighting of whom heralded the
coming of gales. Some were believed to have taken humans as partners. They
also possessed the ability to metamorphose into little hornless cows when
taken to wandering on land.17

In the Baltic region, Votian beliefs included the presence of water-spirits
of both sexes in the sea, rivers, springs and lakes. The fishermen regarded
them as the guardians of fish. These beings, half human, half fish, were
supplicated by fishermen anxious for a good catch and safe trip, as some of
the spirits were held to either prevent catches or to cause boats to lose
their way. Offerings of a first catch or the head of a black cat were
commonplace.18 Water-spirits, whether at sea, or in lakes and rivers, could
also be malignant. They were held as the cause of drowning. In many cases
it was believed that spirits of the opposite sex to the victim(s) carried
out the drowning. In these cases, "the water-spirit as an empirical
supernatural being could be perceived for only a short period of time: a
criterion for the supernatural is the sudden disappearance of an
anthropomorphic being, particularly when an observer happens to expose its
proximity. References to the places where spirits were most often seen or
were believed to live are more general. Such places in bodies of water
could be, for example, sites where water suddenly swirls upstream, sites
with a deep bottom or those where people had drowned. Although the time of
the water spirit's appearance is often unspecified we should note that in
several reports and memorates the supernatural event has taken place at high
noon."19

Water-spirits were also held to be responsible for the drowning of livestock
In such cases, attempts were again made to placate the water-spirit with
animal sacrifice and monetary offering so that the entity would not deprive
the community of this important resource. A distinction has been made
between the water-spirits of the sea and those of the inland rivers, springs
and lakes. Based on the different environmental circumstances, experiences
and concerns of the fishing and agricultural communities, the water-spirits
were accorded different natures. Whilst the fishing community held that the
water-spirits had a clear form and tended to be occasionally malign, but on
the whole once placated, benevolent, the agricultural community treated the
spirits as demons. " Observing the tradition of water spirits in Estonian
folk religion Ivar Paulson (1971) argues that according to the religious
phenomenology the guardian spirits of fish, mother of waters and images of
animate, personified bodies of water are relevant for the fishermen's
ecotype. The demonic water spirits are but characteristic of the beliefs of
agricultural and cattle-breeding people."20

In Poland and Germany, there was a belief in the water-man or nix and his
wife. He possessed a human form, with a malevolent nature. Inhabiting
lakes, rivers and ponds he "tempts passers-by to go bathing, in order to
drown them. This he does to everyone who trespasses into his domain while
bathing. Blue spots on a drowned person's body are a sign that the nixes
caused the drowning."21 He was held to be powerless on land, and like the
Irish merrow, he could interact with humans and was indistinguishable from
them. To have observed his wife on the banks of a river bleaching her
laundry was an omen of rainy weather or high water. He and his wife were
also held to be responsible for price fluctuations for products (butter and
grain) that they sold at the market.22

Animistic beliefs in water-spirits were not simply confined to
the regions where the beliefs originated. In essence, the water-spirits
could travel with peoples, even across vast distances from continent to
continent. The Atlantic slave trade running between West Africa and the
colonies of North America not only transported beleaguered peoples, but
their belief systems as well. For this reason, water-spirits almost human
in form by the name of "cymbees" inhabited springs in the Low-country of
South-Carolina. These spirits were very similar to those believed to exist
amongst indigenous peoples inhabiting the Congo, who feared the power of the
"simbi" spirits.23 The "simbi" spirits, (plural Bisimbi), of the Congo were
those of ancestors, who over time lost links to the community to become
general guardians of certain regions. They had great power and were feared,
"Truly they have great power and authority, for their power is revealed by
the force they show in the water and in the gullies. They stir up very high
winds and unleash tornadoes, so that the bodies of people are filled with
fear and trembling. They break people's courage and render it feeble, weak,
limp, petrified, hollow and fevered; they are stunned and grovel in terror.
This is how the Bisimbi show their strength: if they see someone come to
draw water from the pool where they reside, they rise to the surface and
cover it with foam and turbulence, turning and twisting. So the person
drawing the water is scared stiff when she sees how the water boils in the
pool. She may tumble into the water because she is dizzy. If she does not
cry out so that those who remain in the village hear her, when next they
meet her she may be dead."24 The water-spirits of the springs of South
Carolina were based on these beliefs, and were adapted over time. The
water-spirits were as feared as the Bisimbi of West Africa and threatened
especially in instances when individuals (usually women) tried to draw water
or children endeavoured to swim in the springs. Enslaved people described
the spirits as vaguely human in form, each possessing unique characteristics
and later informants related various names for the spirits such as The Evil
One-Eye (at Eutaw, Pooshee, and Lang Syne plantations), and The Great
Desire of the Unrotting Waters. Indeed, from these accounts "cymbees" appear
to fit within the category of malevolent spirits that populated the
Low-country's forest and swamps and included such spectres as Plat-Eyes,
conjur-horses," and spirit bears."25

The North American Indians also believe that the rivers and
lakes contain water-spirits. They treat water with great respect, and
recognise its many uses. In doing so, they not only give offerings to a
creator god, but also to the water-spirits by giving tobacco, food and gifts
Water plays an important role in their beliefs, and responsibility for it
is held to have been delegated to women by the creator god. As an example,
'When babies are born, that water comes first. It clears a path for our
babies to travel to mother earth . . . The teachings tell us to treat that
water and all of her aspects as you would your mother.'
'It's the woman's responsibility to teach her daughters and grand-daughters
to make offerings to the water spirits. The water spirits, in turn, will
take care of children playing in the water, whether they are swimming or
skiing.' "26 Therefore, in return for supplicatory offerings, the
water-spirits give protection. The water-spirits in this case do not have
any specific form.

Other Forms
Bodies of water are not necessarily inhabited by a specific entity with a
certain physical form or nature. Instead, they may contain an undetermined
number of spirits or ghosts. These cases, again, can be found all over the
world.

In Scotland, deep pools were held to be inhabited by water
demons, or guardian spirits, who on the whole tended to be malevolent. In
cases of the sack of a castle, the laird's precious possessions may have
been thrown into a nearby deep pool for protection. "On one occasion a
diver was going to the bottom of such a pool to fetch up the plate of the
neighbouring castle. He dived, saw the plate chest, and was preparing to
lift it, when the demon ordered him to go to the surface at once, and not to
come back. At the same time the demon warned him that, if he did come back,
he would forfeit his life. The diver obeyed. When he reached the bank he
told what he had seen, and what he had heard. By dint of threats and
promises of large reward, he dived again. In a moment or two afterwards his
heart and lungs rose and floated on the surface of the water. They had been
torn out by the demon of the pool."27

Another example of the interaction of animistic beliefs with
Christianity can be found in Germany, "At the time of Burkhard, the
twenty-seventh archbishop of Magdeburg, who served from the year 1295 to the
year 1304, this lake was filled with spirits and ghosts. They often
frightened the fishermen and boatsmen, and caused them much harm, drowning
and causing the miserable death of many a man. When Archbishop Burkhard, a
very pious and God-fearing man, heard of this, he went to the lake with
great sincerity, and blessed the place, driving the evil spirits away, and
they have never been seen there again."28

In the Venda region of the Northern Province of South Africa,
the people maintain their all important relations with their ancestors by
means of placating the water spirits by leaving offerings at "the Phiphidi
Falls and in Gubukhuvo, the pool into which the water flow below the falls.
Although these water sprites can trap their own meat, they cannot grow grain
under water and therefore beer and grain are left on a sacred stone near the
top of the falls to foster good relations with the ancestral spirits."29

Water-spirits, usually inhabiting springs and streams, in the
Baltic area were believed to be able to cause illness. According to Votian
thinking, by making offerings to the spirits and asking for forgiveness at
the springs or streams, one could be cured.30 The belief in the healing
power of the spirits in springs was not just limited to the Baltic, it was a
common phenomenon across Europe. However, with the coming of Christianity,
the springs became rededicated to the cult of the Saints. In some cases
where the indigenous belief was strong, the Church simply made the god or
goddess a saint, (as in the case of Saint Bridget in Ireland) and
assimilated the local belief. Those suffering from illness still came to
the spring for healing although the credit went to a Church sanctioned saint
instead. There are many contemporary springs at which people still flock in
hope of cure, Lourdes in France being only one of them.



Aside from the presence of water-spirits, the water itself may possess
supernatural properties of its own. These can be healing, harmful or
protective qualities. The belief in these qualities can exist alongside the
major religions of Christianity or Islam, illustrating the resilient nature
of animistic religion.

The waters of the previously mentioned Lake Fundudzi in South Africa are
held to have supernatural qualities. Only a maiden can enter the waters to
give the offering of beer to the ancestors to intercede for them with the
python god of fertility. “No one is allowed to look at the lake directly –
one must look through your legs at the lake – and no one is allowed to touch
the water – your skin will break out in sores if you do so.”31 The reputed
harmful nature no doubt adds to the sacredness of the lake.

In North American Indian religion, water in the form of a vapour bath has a
cleansing effect on the soul. It was also held to have a healing and
restorative effect, being used to bring the first man back to life. “In our
Creation myth or story of the First Man, the vapour-bath was the magic used
by The-one-who-was-First-Created, to give life to the dead bones of his
younger brother, who had been slain by the monsters of the deep. Upon the
shore of the Great Water he dug two round holes, over one of which he built
a low enclosure of fragrant cedar boughs, and here he gathered together the
bones of his brother. In the other pit he made a fire and heated four round
stones, which he rolled one by one into the lodge of boughs. Having closed
every aperture save one, he sang a mystic chant while he thrust in his arm
and sprinkled water upon the stones with a bunch of sage. Immediately steam
arose, and as the legend says, "there was an appearance of life." A second
time he sprinkled water, and the dry bones rattled together. The third time
he seemed to hear soft singing from within the lodge; and the fourth time a
voice exclaimed: "Brother, let me out!" (It should be noted that the number
four is the magic or sacred number of the Indian.)”32 Water-worn boulders
are regarded as sacred, the ‘eneepee,’ (vapour-bath) is used by the doctor,
and is followed by a cold plunge into water. It is used on occasions of
imminent danger, possible death or spiritual crisis.33

Water could also be used for protective purposes against evil
spirits or designs. There was a long tradition in Germany, predating the
Reformation of using holy water to protect oneself and one's goods and
belongings. On buying holy water from the priest, one could hang it around
the neck in an amulet to ward off evil spirits, or put it above the door of
the house to keep them from entering. Livestock could be brought to the
church to drink from a trough of holy water so that protection could be
gained for them also. The walls and roof of a house would regularly be
blessed by a priest with holy water to imbue it with resistance to any
misfortune. The priest would bless the boundaries of the parish with holy
water to ward off plague and evil spirits. These well established practices
did not die out overnight, and are good examples of how Christianity could
gain animistic qualities.34


In African communities dependent on the resource of regular,
adequate rainfall, animism allows for a process of rainmaking with the use
of "medicines" in times of drought, and also provides for the darker
medicines for preventing rain from falling on ones enemies. By use of
medicines," an appeal can be made straight to a supreme being with need of
intercession from the ancestral spirits.

The San of Lesotho made a direct appeal to the god !Khwa by use
of a blood sacrifice, "which entailed medicine men of the rain capturing a
rain animal by enticing it from its home in the waterhole. It would be
slaughtered, and where its blood ran, rain would fall."35 It would appear
in this case that the blood of the animal, usually an eland or a rain bull
represented the rain that they hoped would fall.

Modjadji the Rain Queen of the Lobedu mountains in South Africa
was, as her name illustrates, famous for her rainmaking abilities. "Her
history can be traced back to Zimbabwe 400 years ago. She was a princess
that had to escape her father's wrath after having fallen pregnant by her
half-brother. Her mother helped her to steal her father's rainmaking
medicine and with this and some of her followers she fled south. Eventually
they came to settle in the mountains at the cycads forest, first at Lebjene
and then where her royal enclosure is now. Here the Modjadji (as she was
called) practised her rainmaking and as her reputation grew, her influence
began to spread. As water is a scarce commodity in Africa all the other
groups thought twice before messing with the Rain Queen. As a result, the
Bolebedu people were unaffected by the many wars that ripped through the
area and eventually the members of the Boer Republic of the Transvaal
visited her."36 Her example demonstrates the great political potential that
rainmaking could have. To be denied water by your enemies would spell
disaster. As such her "medicines" gave her kingdom greater power than it
could otherwise have expected. Particular value is given to the person of
the Queen herself, who is trained to succeed her predecessor. On death,
some of her skin is added to the "medicines" to maintain their power.


The information for this article has been taken from the book
by Brian Morris, "Animals and Ancestors, An Ethnography", (2000.) His book
is based on the matrilineal peoples of Malawi, the Chewa, Chipeta, Nyanja,
Mang'anja, Yao, Lomwe and Tumbuka. Their importance to this article is that
they possess a non-animistic religion that allows comparison with what has
been previously written.

Their world is essentially a dichotomous one. In their polar
world, there are two principle elements of hot, (da'a) and cold, (a i).
Everything belongs to one element or the other:
HotCold
MenWomen
SunMoon
DayNight
FireWater


They are not, as has already been stated, animist. This is because,
Malawians affirm that humans are 'animals', but animals are not necessarily
persons', either in the ontological sense, or normatively, even though in
specific contexts spirits may take animal form (lion, puff adder, python)
and thus the animals may be conceptualised as 'persons' (as chief or a
grandparent.) Only spirits, (or humans with special powers - medicines) not
animals have the ability to transform themselves into other forms of being.
37 As animals, (or for that case plants, stones or water) are not held to
possess a soul, the Malawians are not an animistic religion.
They possess a supreme being, whose name in Chewa is Chiuta. This supreme
being is not an interventionist god. "Only in 'calamitous circumstances'
was assistance sought from the deity - yet dependent as people are on
agriculture, and on rainfall in the appropriate amounts and at appropriate
times - the relationship between humans and the supreme being has never been
too distant." 38 As social and individual wellbeing in rural Malawi is
fundamentally focused on agricultural prosperity, and this is dependent on
the fertility of the land and a controlled supply of rain, he is the deity
to whom the people turn when the rains fail (he manifests his presence
through the provision of rain).39 The Malawians regard water and fire as
two creative transformations. Both are associated with important processes
- the social and ecological cyclic processes.40 Whilst rainfall, as has
already been mentioned, is important in regard to agriculture, fire is
important in hunting. The men use fire to drive animals out of the bush
when hunting. The smoke produced by these fires has great importance. "The
smoke from bushfires form the rain clouds that eventually bring
rain…Schoffeleers suggest that the myth embodies an implicit cosmology, with
several important symbolic contrasts: between earth and sky, water and fire,
and between downward and upward movements."41 This fits perfectly into the
dichotomous world in which the Malawians live.
Certain animals are associated with the rains and the supreme being. "The
Nile monitor…often shares its name, chiuta. According to Schoffeleers this
lizard - the largest in Africa - is thought of living above the clouds and
is linked to such phenomena as lightening and thunder. The monitor is
highly sought after for medicine and its skin is the only one used for the
sacred drums of the Mbona rain cult."42
One animal that is not killed, but on the contrary is treated with utmost
respect is the python or nsato. This is because it is believed to be the
physical manifestation of a spirit, which is also associated with the rains.
To kill one, and leave it unburied would bring madness and death upon the
perpetrator and drought and disaster upon the village as Chiuta would
withhold the rains. If it should happen, it must be buried with black
chicken feathers and black cloth placed on top of the grave.43 The
symbolism of this will be dealt with later. A great python-like serpent
spirit called Thunga, "habitually lived in the mountains or in some deep
sacred pool, and it was seen as moving from place to place and as
controlling the rains. Thunga was associated with the mountains and hills
throughout the central region."44 If Chiuta tended not to interfere
directly, then Thunga was definitely an interventionist spirit, actively in
charge of rainfall. The hills and mountains are important for two reasons.
They tend to be the charge of the spirits of powerful chiefs, who were used
as mediators with Chiuta. The hills are also home to many rain shrines
dedicated to Thunga and his namesakes. These were run by a celibate
priestess or spirit-medium who was the earthly representative of either
Chiuta's or Thunga's wife, depending on the shrine and region. She acted as
a direct conduit to either the supreme being or Thunga, and was responsible
for enacting rainmaking rituals with the aid of local chiefs. Sacred pools
play a prominent role in the location of rain shrines, acting as a home for
the travelling serpent-spirit. Hunting was forbidden in such areas, as it
is a "hot" activity, likewise sexually active adults were not allowed to
approach the shrine in order to conserve its "cool" status which encouraged
the rains (again "cool"). In some shrines during the rainmaking ritual, the
spirit-medium was decorated with black and white spots using flour and
charcoal to represent clouds and a balanced rainfall.45 "Only black/dark,
(wokunda) cloth and animals were accepted as offerings at the shrine, and
the animals were killed using a short stabbing spear, (kathungo.) Offerings
were reduced to ashes, then cast into the sacred pool of Malawi."46 Black
was an important colour as it symbolised rain clouds, and the smoke from the
offering was believed to ascend and cause rain clouds.
Another serpent-spirit, Napolo, is rarely invoked by the Malawians. It is
also held that the person that observed him would die. On the whole he
tends to be viewed of as a "huge subterranean serpent-spirit, associated
with water. It is invisible, but it has the form of a huge snake, (njoka,)
and is active like a wild animal (chirombo) destroying people and property
as it makes it way, at intervals, to the lake."47 The spirit, tending to
move between Michesi Mountain and Lake Chilwa seems similar to the
Nyaminyami of the Tonga. However, this serpent-spirit brings only
destruction. It is associated with torrential rains and flash floods that
destroy anything in their path. The last time that Napolo was believed to
have struck was in March 1991, when an immense flash flood destroyed bridges
and the town of Phalombe, resulting in the deaths of around 470 people out
of a population of 21 000.


Written by Christopher Redmond



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