Читать книгу Indaba, My Children: African Tribal History, Legends, Customs And Religious Beliefs - Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa - Страница 17

POSTSCRIPT

Indaba . . . Let us pause here, oh my children, and reflect most seriously upon the rather lengthy legends we have heard.

It is said, briefly, that the Great Spirit had created the Universe for reasons that nobody must endeavour to fathom. The Great Spirit used a being called the First Goddess, who worked as a tool under His directions. In answer to a request she was granted as a companion a weird kind of ‘being’, half plant and half animal, the Tree of Life. This Tree of Life is the most revered deity throughout Bantu Africa, even today. Numerous representative designs are engraved on clay pots, burnt on wooden spoons, trays and other vessels. It is also frequently depicted in all kinds of ornamental carvings, in ebony, ivory and mahogany. Some of these designs are illustrated in the accompanying figures.

The Ndebele tribes of the Transvaal are the most fanatical worshippers of the Tree of Life, south of the Zambesi. The Zulus, too, are strong believers in this deity, but some interpret it as a huge hollow reed, rather than a tree. They call it Uhlanga Lwe Zizwe, which means ‘Reed of all Nations.’

We then came to Za-Ha-Rrellel (Tsarelleli or Sarelleli to most tribes today), who was said to have been responsible for the infection of all mankind with mental diseases like ambition and a love for all the wicked things that mostly ensue from it, including bloodshed.

The main reason why the Africans used to destroy crippled and otherwise deformed children was to prevent this fabled tyrant from ever being reborn or reincarnated, to spread his evil and dangerous knowledge amongst men once more.

Many of the mighty cliffs in Zululand and the Transkei stand today as dumb witnesses of many sacrifices of deformed children that have been made in the course of time.