22
Voices Forest Tony Dold & Michelle Cocks Celebrating Nature and Culture in Xhosaland from the

Voices from the Forest

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Voices from the Forest is a fascinating book which explores the journey of celebrating the link between people and nature, the book reveals how plants, animals and landscapes are profoundly reflected in Xhosa language, stories, poetry, religious rituals, healing practices and everyday customs that define Xhosa culture. Over the years cultural and spiritual meaning of nature in South Africa has been poorly recorded and often misunderstood.

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Page 1: Voices from the Forest

Tony Dold is a plant taxonomist and ethno-botanist and is the curator of the Selmar Schonland Herbarium at the Albany Museum in Grahamstown. Michelle Cocks is a research offi cer at the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at Rhodes University.

A husband and wife team, Tony and Michelle both grew up in rural Transkei. They are passionate about the link between different cultures and the environment, and for the past 20 years have documented and photographed indigenous plant use in the Eastern Cape. They believe their shared passion has birthed a new vision for the conservation of biological and cultural diversity and together they facilitate a schools education programme called “Inkcubeko nendalo – Bio-cultural Diversity Education Programme”. In 2009 they were awarded a certifi cate in recognition of outstanding accomplishments in the category “Preserving Customs and Traditions” by the Provincial Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts & Culture at the annual Achievers Award Ceremony. In the same year Michelle received the prestigious Achiever Award for Woman Researcher in the category “Indigenous Knowledge Systems” from the Department of Science and Technology.

VoicesForest

Tony Dold & Michelle Cocks

Celebrating Nature and Culture in Xhosaland

from theMichelle Cocks and Tony Dold have spent many years documenting the role that nature plays in the cultural and spiritual landscapes of the Xhosa people in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Voices from the Forest presents, for the fi rst time, this poorly understood theme in the context of sustaining cultural heritage and conserving biodiversity in South Africa.

The book is not only a record of knowledge about Xhosa people and their use of plants, but serves as a pointer to sustainable practices in the future. In our modernising world, cultural diversity is threatened by the loss of natural diversity, and fi nding ways of protecting the region’s biodiversity and cultural diversity is of vital importance.

Voices from the Forest includes a wealth of information on Eastern Cape plants and animals, Xhosa culture and the environment, which is not recorded as comprehensively, accessibly and authoritatively anywhere else. It is a unique and vital record of information. It also gives moving insights into the Xhosa people’s hold on their culture, their sense of place and of their history. As a focussed social record, it is exceptionally valuable – and it also has a far wider application: what you learn from it, you know must also apply in different ways to countless other peoples whose way of living has been changed and uprooted.

9 781431 402991

ISBN 978-1-4314-0299-1 www.jacana.co.za

Tony D

old &

Michelle C

ocksC

elebrating Nature and C

ulture in Xhosaland

Voices From The Forest

Page 2: Voices from the Forest

— iii

Tony Dold & Michelle Cocks

Celebrating Nature and Culture in Xhosaland

VOICES FROM THE FOREST

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Voices from the Forestiv

First published by Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd in 2012

10 Orange Street

Sunnyside

Auckland Park 2092

South Africa

+27116283200

www.jacana.co.za

Job No. 001667

© Tony Dold and Michelle Cocks, 2012

Photographs © Tony Dold and see photo credits overleaf

All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-4314-0299-1

Printed and bound by Craft Print International Ltd

See a complete list of Jacana titles at www.jacana.co.za

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The sponsorsThe authors gratefully acknowledge the generous financial contributions made by the following sponsors:

The South African Netherlands Programme for Alternative Development (SANPAD), South African National Biodiversity Institute, South African Botanical Society, South African National Heritage Council and the Eastern Cape Provincial Arts and Culture Council.

AcknowledgementsThe following people are thanked for their assistance with this project over the last ten years: The Masakhane Community, Alice, the residents of Tharfield village, Bira, the residents of KwaTenza village, Gatyana, the medicinal plant traders from King William’s Town taxi rank, Susan Abraham, Nomtunzi Api, Nomiki Benya, Victor Biggs, Phumlani Cimi, Prof. Richard Cowling, Robert Hart, Lungisa Klaas, Nkosinathi Ladlokova, Liziwe Nkwinti, Nogajini Nxakala, Ras Mpho Molapisi, Nokaya Mhlabeni, Pakama Mkulungu, Nombi Nakhupi, Nontobeko Nakhupi, Mike Ntwanambi, Daniswa Tlede, Andile Thole, Prof. Jeff Peires, Zaitoon Rabaney, Domitilla Raimondo, Zandisile Sakata, Sally Schramm, Sibusiso Sizane, Sive Sizani, Tim van Niekerk, Zameka Nxakala, Dr Freerk Wiersum, Igqirha Dwili, Igqirha Nondaba, Igqirha Nyamezele, Igqirha Zanendaba and Igqirha Ginyabatakathi.

We also thank Rhodes University and the Albany Museum for their support.

Photo creditsDr Johan Binneman (Kouga mummy, page 84)Dr Gareth Coombs (Nile monitor, page 179)The Duggan Cronin collection, McGregor Museum, Kimberley (abakhwetha ca 1930, page 96; Xhosa women with pipes 1928, page 141; traditional tattoo 1928, page 167)Dr Craig Peter (sneezewood tree, page 173; glossy starling, page 188)

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— Contents 1

Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

1 Ihlathi lesiXhosa — Fish River Bush to Albany Thicket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2 Amayeza esiXhosa — Xhosa Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

3 Ubugqi namakhubalo — Magic and Charms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

4 Amasiko esiXhosa — Rituals and Rites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

5 Ulwaluko — Rite of Passage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

6 Imifino neqhilika — Pot-herbs and Honey Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

7 Ubungcibi kwaXhosa — Ceremonial Crafts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

8 Iimbhola zesiXhosa — Xhosa Cosmetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

9 Inkcubeko nendalo — Dance of Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

10 Imithi yesiXhosa — Medicinal Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Glossary of Plant and Animal Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

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DisclaimerThis book contains information on both edible and medicinal plants. Many of the medicinal uses referred to in the text have not been scientifically tested and cannot be guaranteed as safe. If medicinal or edible plants are misidentified or misused there is a danger of poisoning. It is therefore recommended that you do not eat wild plants such as imifino unless you are confident that you can identify them correctly. It is also recommended that you do not experiment with medicinal uses (particularly internal ones) without seeking further advice, including accurate dosage instructions. Some plants are protected by law and may not be picked or uprooted in the wild without permission.

The authors and publisher of this book cannot accept any responsibility for any medical problems suffered by readers as a consequence of experimenting with plants, nor for any breaches of the law regarding protected species.

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— Contents 3

The current trade of medicinal plants is destructive and

unsustainable. We believe that working together with the medicinal

plant traders in Xhosaland to find solutions to over-exploitation offers

better prospects for long term sustainability than the conventional

“fence and fine” approach. At present large quantities of plant material are lost due to the lack of storage facilities resulting in theft, vandalism, short shelf life of fresh

materials and general wastage. Royalties of this book will

go towards providing suitable storage facilities for the informal

medicinal plant traders at the King William’s Town taxi rank.

Mazenethole (we thank you with “a cow and a calf”).

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Preface

The culTural and spiriTual meaning of nature in South Africa is poorly recorded and often misunderstood. Natural resources have come to be viewed as a “safety net” for poor people who rely on wild plants for food, fuel, medicines, and building materials. Very often, however, their daily utilitarian use belies a deeper significance that is seldom probed and recorded. This book is based on 10 years of personal discovery and research by the authors, and with unique photographs complementing their text, it shows that both contemporary rural and urban South Africans still find great cultural and spiritual value in nature. Many traditional cultural practices make regular use of wild plants and animals, making nature inseparable from cultural identity. The authors provide insight into this fascinating world with topics such as the exclusive use of the sacred wild olive tree (umnquma) branches as a platter for the consecrated meat (intsonyama) of ritually sacrificed animals, and African dream root (ubulawu) to facilitate communication with the ancestors through vivid dreams.

Despite almost 50 years of imposed racial segregation under the South African apartheid government traditional Xhosa culture persisted and continued to evolve in the Bantustan homelands. A massive informal trade of plants used for various ritual

The time when the sky reddens, just before dawn, is called umsobomvu (the rosy face of the morning).

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— Preface 5

and spiritual practices continues to grow. Rural people earn “cash from town” in exchange for “culture from country”, whilst city dwellers continue to practise cultural activities and reinforce their cultural identity. The authors follow the trail of plants from forest to village to township, documenting each step along the way. A fascinating glimpse through lens and pen of a modern day culture emerging from tumultuous times, still troubled by lawlessness and desperate poverty, yet nurtured by layers of deeply spiritual customs and traditions closely linked to nature at every level.

This book is not only a record of knowledge about the Xhosa people and their use of plants but serves as a pointer to sustainable practices in the future. In our modernising world cultural diversity is threatened by the loss of natural diversity and finding ways of protecting the region’s biodiversity and cultural diversity is of vital importance.

Each time one of us touches the soil of this land we feel a sense of personal renewal.

President Nelson Mandela, inaugural speech, 1994

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— Introduction 7

Introduction

however disconnecTed modern people may feel from nature, the cultural legacy of our natural environment continues to leave its mark on us. While the South African landscape has for centuries been moulded and manipulated by humans, the country and its plants and animals have in turn influenced our cultural and spiritual development. These influences are woven into the languages and place-names describing our environment, as well as the religion and folklore supporting spiritual and cultural life. This web of associations, with both ancient and modern strands, forms an important part of South Africa’s national identity. This book is a celebration of the link between people and nature, and reveals how plants, animals and landscapes are profoundly reflected in Xhosa language, stories, poetry, religious rituals, healing practices and everyday customs that define Xhosa culture.1

LEFT A diviner and her student in their seclusion lodge in the forest.

ABOVE Most villages in Xhosaland, such as Ntlalwini in the Keiskamma River valley, are within walking distance to Xhosa forest.

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Voices from the Forest8

INTO THE FUTURE

From policing to participation

For most Xhosa people environmental conservation is understood to be the complete exclusion

of ordinary people from certain areas and, in general, the strict control of natural resources

by white authorities. Indeed, until fairly recently this was the case with most state-owned and

private land, and several generations of Xhosa people have accessed resources, such as

medicinal plants, illegally. Although legislators and legislation have changed somewhat in the

last decade the stigma remains and we are faced with the challenge of shifting a paradigm of

policing to one of participation. Unless the custodians of Xhosa forest themselves begin to

understand that its resources are fragile, finite and should be used with care, we will continue

to lose our natural resources until only those in protected areas remain.

Education

State and private nature reserves in the Eastern Cape are important but few and far between.

If one looks at a map of protected areas it shows only a fraction of the total land cover. There

remain vast areas of communal land in the former Transkei and Ciskei homelands, as well as

smaller pockets of land on municipal commonages, where access to natural resources is vitally

important to the people living there, while at the same time urgently requiring conservation

measures to ensure sustainability. State initiatives such as the Working for Water and Coast

Care programmes are providing much needed jobs while at the same time educating

communities about the benefits of nature conservation. The change in community attitudes

prompted by these programmes is obvious and proves that education is a key ingredient in

conserving unprotected areas. For ten years the Selmar Schonland Herbarium has facilitated

an education programme aimed primarily at schools, for this purpose. The lessons focus

broadly on useful plants and the importance of conserving them for future generations. Based

on this experience the authors have recently implemented a more formal approach that is

designed to accommodate school curriculum requirements and is taken directly to schools

rather than waiting for them to come to us. The programme, called the Inkcubeko Nendalo —

Bio-Cultural Diversity Education Programme,2 has official approval from the Department of

Education and has thus far been well received by educationists and learners. The lesson

plan introduces the concept of bio-cultural diversity by demonstrating the close link between

Xhosa cultural practices and biological diversity. Nature-based cultural and religious practices

persist in Xhosa culture, even in modernised urban society. We believe that our efforts

contribute in a small way towards sustaining Xhosaland’s rich bio-cultural diversity.

Culture and nature have co-evolved over time to become intertwined and mutually dependent. We lose one, and we lose the other.3

RIGHT Unless the custodians of Xhosa forest begin to understand that natural resources should be used with care, we will continue to lose them and only those in protected areas will remain.

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— Introduction 9

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Voices from the Forest10

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Ihlathi lesiXhosa — Fish River Bush to Albany Thicket 11

This book relaTes mainly To The uses of plants in the Great Fish River region of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The province incorporates two of the former homelands of the apartheid era, namely Ciskei and Transkei. This territory is called emaXhoseni, meaning “place where the Xhosa people live”, that is Xhosaland1. Although a number of different vegetation types occur in Xhosaland, there is little doubt that what early writers called Fish River Bush is the most important to the Xhosa people living in the region. This is reflected in the local name ihlathi lesiXhosa, or “Xhosa forest”, which conveys a sense of cultural identity and distinguishes it from all other types of bush or forest.

In botanical terms, ihlathi lesiXhosa is not a true forest but refers to what botanists call Albany Thicket: relatively impenetrable, woody, semi-succulent, thorny vegetation of an average height of 2–3 m. It hosts a remarkable diversity of plants, especially succulents, bulbs and climbers, many endemic to the region, and has the widest range of plant forms found in any of South Africa’s vegetation types.

The earliest written use of the term “Fish River Bush” was probably by Royal Engineer Cowper Rose who wrote in the mid-1820s:

The country I was now traversing, that through which the Great Fish River winds its course, is of a very singular character. In many parts it is covered to an immense extent by a thick jungle called the Fish River Bush... hill and hollow are equally clothed with the same dusky foliage.

LEFT The Great Fish River, iNxuba, flowing through a vast swathe of impenetrable thicket, called ihlathi lesiXhosa.

CHAPTER 1

Ihlathi lesiXhosaFish River Bush to Albany Thicket

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The botanist Charles Bunbury, who visited Grahamstown in 1838, added that “Hill and dale alike are covered with impenetrable thickets as dense as the undergrowth of a Brazilian forest and much more thorny. I never saw, in any other part of the world, anything resembling the Fish River Bush; nor, I should think, does there exist a tract so difficult to penetrate or to clear. The vegetation is so succulent that fire has no effect on it even in the driest weather, and at the same time so strong and rigid, and so excessively dense, that there is no getting through it without cutting your way at every step, unless in the paths made by wild beasts. Yet the [amaXhosa] make their way through with wonderful skill and activity”.

This early description already makes reference to the fact that the amaXhosa were perfectly comfortable in a landscape that Bunbury perceived to be completely inhospitable. Indeed, during the War of Mlanjeni (1850–1853), the British colonial forces made several attempts to flush out their enemy by burning the bush, but it was too succulent to catch fire.

Historically this rich and unique collection of plants, known by various names such as Valley Bushveld, Valley Thicket and Subtropical Thicket, has been neglected and poorly understood by ecologists and scientists. For years it was denigrated as a “false” or transitional vegetation type. Only lately have its secrets begun to be uncovered, and scientists have gone so far as to call it the “mother” of South African vegetation because of the many ancient plant lineages it encompasses. It is now believed that Albany Thicket, being more than 50 million years old, came before grassland, savanna, karoo and perhaps even fynbos. Experts estimate that there are approximately 6 500 plant species in Thicket, as well as an impressive number of animals, including 5 species of tortoise, 48 large mammals, 25 ungulates and 421 birds.

We know this forest because we grew up here. These trees are imihlontlo trees. They protect the other trees and plants from the wind and the sun, like a blanket. The forest never dries out, nor does the soil dry out, even in the dry season. There is always food and water for our animals here. We like the forest because it gives us everything we need. We get medicines, fuel-wood and food from the forest. We visit the forest because this is where the ancestors are and we must talk with them from time to time. Bhuti Mzwabantu, Peddie

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Voices from the Forest14

In spite of this, little reference has ever been made to local Xhosa people’s understanding of Albany Thicket and the value they attribute to it. Botanists have focused on recording the uses of plants, for example for food, fuel and building materials. Anthropologists have recorded the roles of culturally important plants, such as those used in religious ceremonies and rituals. The cultural meaning of natural landscapes and places within the landscapes has for the most part been ignored.

People living in rural villages visit Xhosa forest almost every day. Women and girls walk deep into the forest to collect water and fuel-wood, medicines and food plants; men and boys collect building material, hunt for small game, birds and honey, carve sticks and search for stray goats and cattle. Besides these daily activities, the forest also functions as an educational environment for

children who are probably most influenced at this young age by being exposed to nature through play. Children collect fruit, hunt birds, swim, climb trees, make clay toys, carve fighting sticks and ketties (catapults), catch fish, and generally play in the forest.

The thicket provides many valuable resources such as aloe sap that is harvested by individuals and sold to commercial buyers.

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Voices from the Forest16

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Tony Dold is a plant taxonomist and ethno-botanist and is the curator of the Selmar Schonland Herbarium at the Albany Museum in Grahamstown. Michelle Cocks is a research offi cer at the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at Rhodes University.

A husband and wife team, Tony and Michelle both grew up in rural Transkei. They are passionate about the link between different cultures and the environment, and for the past 20 years have documented and photographed indigenous plant use in the Eastern Cape. They believe their shared passion has birthed a new vision for the conservation of biological and cultural diversity and together they facilitate a schools education programme called “Inkcubeko nendalo – Bio-cultural Diversity Education Programme”. In 2009 they were awarded a certifi cate in recognition of outstanding accomplishments in the category “Preserving Customs and Traditions” by the Provincial Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts & Culture at the annual Achievers Award Ceremony. In the same year Michelle received the prestigious Achiever Award for Woman Researcher in the category “Indigenous Knowledge Systems” from the Department of Science and Technology.

VoicesForest

Tony Dold & Michelle Cocks

Celebrating Nature and Culture in Xhosaland

from theMichelle Cocks and Tony Dold have spent many years documenting the role that nature plays in the cultural and spiritual landscapes of the Xhosa people in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Voices from the Forest presents, for the fi rst time, this poorly understood theme in the context of sustaining cultural heritage and conserving biodiversity in South Africa.

The book is not only a record of knowledge about Xhosa people and their use of plants, but serves as a pointer to sustainable practices in the future. In our modernising world, cultural diversity is threatened by the loss of natural diversity, and fi nding ways of protecting the region’s biodiversity and cultural diversity is of vital importance.

Voices from the Forest includes a wealth of information on Eastern Cape plants and animals, Xhosa culture and the environment, which is not recorded as comprehensively, accessibly and authoritatively anywhere else. It is a unique and vital record of information. It also gives moving insights into the Xhosa people’s hold on their culture, their sense of place and of their history. As a focussed social record, it is exceptionally valuable – and it also has a far wider application: what you learn from it, you know must also apply in different ways to countless other peoples whose way of living has been changed and uprooted.

9 781431 402991

ISBN 978-1-4314-0299-1 www.jacana.co.za

Tony D

old &

Michelle C

ocksC

elebrating Nature and C

ulture in Xhosaland

Voices From The Forest