Summer presents various significances to Swazis down south in sub-saharan Africa. For all countryside dwellers, it signals the farming season. The royal bird, Ligwalagwala herald this auspicious ancient activity by it musical voice interpreted to means ''phezukomkhono'' (on your arm). It will be hard work and less play till April, the end of the farming season. To traditional Swazis it means more than that. For them summer calls for all obedient Swazis to refrain from spilling water haphazardly as that offends the god of light and thunder. People need to refrain from standing on doorways and children to stop playing soccer within home compounds. These are all religious tenets embedded within the wide-cutting social indigenous religion of Swaziland and largely Africa.
Summer means something more than what u grew knowing, observing, practising and what has been cultivated within me in my tender years. It evoke the deep-seated curiosity that has been awakened by academic strides in my two final years at the University of Swaziland. It steams my appetite that no western scholar with his scientific explanation have succeeded to quench.
Sadly, no African scholarship has made an attempt to research about. Available literature is vague. It means the story of Inyoka Makhandakhanda returns. Since my childhood, a stormy rain is attributed to this religionised creature. Destroyed buildings and washed away crops remain the manifestation of the seven-headed mystical creature. According to Swazi traditional dictates, a pseudonym should be used in reference to the monster. Direct name call aggravate it. As far as I recall, it has never been portrayed as an animal great in mercy. It reputation spits that of the Old Testament deity. That is not to say good tales have not been told of it. Traditional healers attest to have been trained by it under water for at least seven years. Children disappear around water ponds and tradition would say that the snake took him. There are many forwarded reasons for such, and it does not mean that healing training is always the objective.
The issue of Inyoka Makhandakhanda is not a belated one in academic discipline and research endeavors. Rather, it remains one of the fertile place for research. Swazis across all the regions would agree with no doubt that this mythical creature lives. Sadly, no one possess any graphic evidence. This is an area upon which western scholarship has dismissed this as a myth. This is scholarship injustice. We have no graphic evidence that God exist,only chronicled histories of the Israelites affirming His existence. Of course it is not enough for me as a scholar to say this creature lives, and everybody say so and end there! What empirical evidence exists that gives weight to this Swazi belief? There are many. Religious rituals such as praying in the ponds in rivers have given rise to the existence of Inyoka Makhandakhanda. Sacrificial offerings in the form of money and animals remain as outstanding testimonies.
A classic case is the dam of Manganganeni in the outskirt of Mankayane town in the Manzini region. It is known for the sole use of Pastors Bhekibandla and Khanyakwezwe Vilakati's Jericho Churches. We also have another dam of national Religious significance, the Mantjolo dam overseen by the Mnisi clan. It history is well chronicled in Swazi literature especial regarding its sacredness. This close attachment of dams and animals with sacredness is hardly an odd encounter because Africans are known to be religious. Religion exerts great influence upon the Africans worldview. It is the strongest element in traditional background. Religious sensibilities are conspicuously expressed in traditional ceremonies and custom, such as the dance of the first fruit, traditional known as Incwala. Animals feature abundantly in African religion, a feature that made western scholars view African religion as an animated, barbaric and primitive thing. How wrong! Dams, rivers, trees, caves and mountains occupy sacred position. The African try as much as he can to live harmoniously with nature. It is unscholarly to dismiss the existence of the godly water serpent on lack of an image. Do western scholars have the devil's image. I would appreciate to have a copy. Like a spitfire, once this creature makes a movement, like visiting a female,evidence remains. Some say it is immortal while others argue otherwise.
However,much evidence suggest it is mortal . Traditions stipulate that it changes it appearance shaped by a number of factors. It can change to floating money on the surface of the water or soccer balls. It can transform itself into a beautiful, sexy and curvecious lady.
All these depend on the thing it is targeting to woo, with an insight into that person's interest. Indeed, Inyoka Makhandakhanda is powerful. How do you know a pond or dam house the seven-headed monster? As a person who grew up tending flocks in the countryside and swimming in river ponds, elders gave us signs of its presence. For instance, a pond that always has a rainbow, a small one, signifies its presence. Moreover, a hanging mist-like-fog is its sign. Then, point hard to explain well was by observing the stillness of the water,the colour and the movement of the water.
In conclusion,the mistake African students make is to assume that through educational strides and civilization, the snake's existence is nothing but a myth. They argue so silly on why technology has failed to capture it. This mistake is not isolated to Africans. Western scholars have the same stupid mentality. It is as if African religion and beliefs can be reduced to simplicities that can be explained away by the use of a camera and technology.
Khayelihle Simelane is a former BA in Humanities student at the University of Swaziland. He majored in History and Theology and Religious Studies. He is also a former contributing writer at the Times of Swaziland.
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