Mutwa Passing and Sacred Texts

Mutwa Passing and Sacred Texts
Mocholoko (Dr), Zulumathabo Zulu © 2020

On Wednesday morning March 25, 2020, I spoke to the Mutwa family and they confirmed that the unbought and the unsold architect of destiny and the formidable legend of Azania (South Africa), Isanusi Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa had passed on. May his beautiful ancestral spirit rest in peace!

The great Isanusi, Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa with his powerful spiritual mace on the cover of his book Song of the Stars: Lore of a Zulu Shaman on African indigenous cosmology. Picture Credit: Amazon.

Mutwa passed on at the age of 98 and is survived by his wife Kedisaletse Mutwa and his children from his first wife including Nozipho Mutwa. Mutwa departs from the planet earth exactly one day before the commencement of the national lockdown on Thursday midnight on March 26, 2020 as was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa of Azania on March 23, 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic that has gripped the country with anxiety and panic hoarding of food items and other sustenance supplies.

His Prophetic Gifts

Vusamazulu is known for his prophetic gifts. The passing of Vusamazulu exactly one day before the national lockdown and the deployment of the army to enforce compliance under the state of disaster is congruent with Mutwa’s prophetic gifts. Herein, I refer to one of his prophetic gifts. His passing is omnious and pregnant with lots of meaning. In 2018, we assembled at his home in Kuruman in Northern Cape with my uMsamo group members and other colleagues from North West University – Mafikeng and Durban University of Technology (many thanks to baba Sbu Xulu who sponsored the KZN students and youth to join us and Nomvula Maneli who organised them). It was in the evening when we were having a powerful conversation about African cosmology and the star systems. A few weeks prior, we had all experienced the phenomen of lunar eclipse that we observed on July 27, 2018 in Azania.

South African National Defence military drill in Western Cape. The President of Azania Cyril Ramphosa has decreed the deployment of military force to assist the police to enforce the national lockdown against the dangerous Covid-19. Picture Credit: Western Cape Government.

Among the Basotho ancients, a lunar eclipse is described as “kgwedi e ila phepa” the invocation of stringent abstinence of stellar light. Phepa refers to the cosmic light of the stellar bodies like the moon. Abstinence is associated with pain as is the case with death wherein the berieved must strictly observe the stringent rituals of abstinence for a certain period.

While sitting alfresco around the fire on Saturday August 11, 2018, one person asked the question regarding the implications of a lunar eclipse. Vusamazulu responded with a solemn voice and declared that it was a sign of bad things to come. It sounded very serious like a futuristic war-like event. That painful and war-like event has arrived in Azania with the advent of the national lockdown and deployment of the army of Azania in response to the coronavirus and the Covid-19 pandemic. Incredibly, Vusamazulu departs exactly a day before the commencement of the pain that he prophesied. It does not get more painful than this.

In addition to the above, it is prudent to point out that we were meant to come for Mutwa’s birthday tribute and healing gathering on July 21, 2018 but this was postponed on account of a sudden passing of a village chief. In accordance with local cultural protocols, we could not host a birthday tribute event under the circumstences. We ended up coming to Vusamazulu a few weeks later in August 2018. Had we successfully effected the birthday tribute cellebration, it would have happened prior to the lunar eclipse and we would not have gained an epistemic access to Mutwa’s prophecy with respect to the cosmic event of the lunar eclipse.

We Mourn The Legend!

We mourn the passing of the perpetual legend who has selflessly done more than his fare share to document in written; artistic and prophetic form the african origins of cultural knowledge; identity; healing; architecture and cosmology.

One of the greatest passages from his book Indaba My Children reads thus:

“Even the sweetest honey can produce excess of bile, and there is death in every pleasure”.

This is one of the most profound teachings from Vusamazulu that the messenger of the ancestors must transcend the material conditions and arrest the physical urges to engender and to lead the life of sacredness; self-discipline; cosmic genesis and terrestrial purpose for the benefit of the future generations. It is never about the self. It is about the higher purpose for the survival benefit of others,

The Basotho cosmology encapsulates this philosophy as Ditaelo Tse Tharo (Imiyalelo Emithathu; The Organising Principles), namely (1) hoila (abstinence); (2) hohlweka (cleansing) and (3) hoboka (veneration). The indefatigable Vusamazulu lived this exemplary life of self-discipline as an unblemished messenger of the ancestors teaching us to defeat the pervasive evil that seeks to derail and to engulf us.

African Sacred Text Predates The Bible

It is noteworthy that long before the bible was birthed as a compilation of selected individual scriptures in the conference of Nicea in 325 AD (1,695 years ago) on the basis of the Nicene Creed that became ratified through a vote, the African Natives of Kemet (present day Egypt) had long written and preserved for posterity sacred texts such as The Papyrus of Ani known as The Book of Coming Forth By Day which preexisted the Christian bible by more than 3,000 years. The African plethora of the culturally rich texts represents an impressive array of philosophical; intellectual; scientific; engineering; medicinal; cosmic; mathematical and spiritual achievements of the erudite African ancestors who have gone before us. It was this high calibre of intellectual achievements that inspired the great Isanusi, Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa as evidenced by the impressive Ankh that he wore and his fervour of traversal across the African continent in search of cosmic; medicinal and geomancic knowledge from doctoral traditions of many diverse African nations. The Basotho refer to such an indigenous multi-doctoral expert as Nkgege.

Sacred Text of the African Ancients

I am reading from the segment Hymn To Osiris in The Papyrus of Ani. Osiris is the God of Makolobe (Orion constellation in the Southern Hemisphere). Osiris is venerated thus:

“Homage to you, Osiris, Lord of eternity, King of the Gods, whose names are manifold, whose forms are holy, your being of hidden form in the temples, whose Ka is holy”.

Now I read another segment The Chapter of Not Letting The Body Perish in which Nu worshipfully addresses Osiris:

“….Deserved tribute to you, O my divine father Osiris! ….”

“Come then, strengthen my breath, O Lord of the winds, who does magnify the divine beings like unto you. Fortify me, fortify me, and fashion me strongly, O Lord of the funeral chest. Equip me that I may enter into the land of immortality, according to that which was done for you, along with your father Tem, whose body never saw corruption, and who himself never saw corruption. I have never done that which you hate most. I have acclaimed you among those who love the KA.

Let life rise out of death. Let not the decay make an end of me, and let not my enemies come against me in their various forms”.

The Spirit of the Ka

The Ka refers to the spirit of transcendence. When the Basotho make an ancestral invocation, they say “Dikakapa tse kgolo!”, thus venerating the spirit of the Ka. In isiZulu they say “Izinkalakatha ezinkulu”, the invocation of the spirit of the Ka. The reptilian God Kganyapa in Sesotho and Inkanyamba in isiZulu and isiXhosa, among others, is highly venerated because of the spirit of the Ka. Tsamaroko! Ezamathongo! Badimo ke bao! Thokoza Makhosi! Mocholoko, Zulumathabo Zulu.

References

Brown, The Da Vinci Code

Budge, E. (1913). The Book of the Dead – Papyrus of Ani. The Medici Society: London.

Constantinople (325 AD). The Nicene Constantinople Creed.

Brown, D (2000). The Davinci Code.

Moloi, V (2012). “Design Theory of Letanta”, African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, Volume 1, pp. 217-234, URL = https://journals.co.za/content/aa_ajstid/1/2_3/EJC10508, (accessed May 14, 2019).

Mutwa, C. (1999). Indaba My Children. Grove Press: New York.

Zulu, Z. (2014). The Sacred Knowledge of the Desert: African Philosophical Transcendence. Johannesburg: Madisebo University College Press.

Zulu, Z. (2009). “The African Philosophy of Coexistentialism”, Unpublished, Ottawa, Canada. Zulu, Z. (2018a). “African Metaphysical Science and Decolonisation”, Faculty of Education, North West University – Potchefstroom, North West Province, Azania.

Zulu, Z. (2018). “Africography of Language: African Metaphysics, Mathematical Linguistics and Cosmology”, 7th Africa Century International African Writers Conference, University of South Africa, Pretoria, Gauteng Province, Azania.