Conversation between My Father (Mongameli Mabona) and Me 2021

M. Mabona laughing

M. Mabona: And one time i punched a wall so hard, that here…

S. Mabona: …that you injured yourself.

M. Mabona: Yes, ye…

M. Mabona laughing

S. Mabona: Yes I remember that.

M. Mabona: Oh my goodness me. It was nice to have you as children!

Both laughing

M. Mabona: One could do all kinds of funny things.

S. Mabona laughing

M. Mabona: Ayayayay.

Poem by my father Mongameli Mabona (read by my cousin Fezeka Mabona)

DEAD FREEDOM-FIGHTER

Dear brother,

My blood is jarred with grains:

The gritty grains of chilling guilt.

For where was I?

Oh, where was I,

When those slinking cowards

Fell upon you

In a mass ?

The only thing I have wherewith

To stanch

Your fresh bleeding wounds

Is the tattered cloth

Of my torn conscience

And the searing breath

Of my futile chagrin.

Futile, did I say ?

Not the least, comrade brother,

Oh, no, not the least.

You fought

For mother Africa

And your atrocious death

Is the keen lash wherewith

She'll whip her enemies

To cowering shame

And her sons to redeem her name.

Poem by my father Mongameli Mabona (read in Xhosa by my cousin Fezeka Mabona)

Ah, Daughter of the Rain (Ntombenzulu)!

We bow before you, Princess,

With the ancestral praises passed down to us

From our forebears.

They used to address you as:

A princess who does not tire of her purpose,

A traveler who moves among the stars,

A caretaker of the universe.

Your praises were sung:

An immovable tree,

Firmly rooted on the mountainside,

Bearing abundant fruit.

You are Phungela, daughter of the Rain King (Nzambe),

The shining moon and radiant star among women.

All of creation acknowledges you.

Up above, they call you Idemili,

And to us, you are Yemaya,

And here we declare you as Thangalimlibo,

The nurturer, the provider of blessings.

Oh, you who bring rain to the fields,

You who bestow life,

We greet you with reverence!

Daughter of the Rain, who never falters,

Pray for us to the Creator,

For the wisdom of our ancestors,

So that we may stand in unity,

As those freed by the strength of your blessings.

May the rain fall, Princess of the heavens!

Poem by Mongameli Mabona (read in Xhosa by Veronica Gijana Ntomboxolo)

Qamata Dal’ubom,

Today we come before you,

Speaking in the names of our ancestors,

The great ones who called upon you.

We, the abandoned children of the Ntu people,

Left behind to carry their burdens,

Have come to speak with you today.

We build the Ntu home,

Welcoming the eternal light,

Embracing your guidance in our tasks.

We thank you, Qamata Dal’ubom,

For the freedom we now enjoy.

Through the blood of the children of the Ntu,

We celebrate the liberation we have today,

Standing strong because of the sacrifices made.

You, the one with the power,

The one who sacrificed for humanity,

Gave authority to the brave

Who shed their blood to liberate the nation.

Now we are free; we honor you.

We give thanks, Qamata Dal’ubom,

The sun of all suns,

The eternal guardian,

For the freedom we cherish today.

Without your guidance, we would be lost.

The bloodshed of the brave reminds us

That you, Nyulushe (the Almighty), are ever-present.

You, Mzonzima (Bearer of Heavy Burdens),

You, Somandla (The Omnipotent),

Hold the bow of the storm, directing it.

Dal’ubom, we give thanks!

You, the eternal guardian,

Protector of the weak and the downtrodden,

We journey on the path you paved for us,

Through the sacrifice of those who fought bravely.

With your authority, Dal’ubom, we are grateful!

May the spirits of our ancestors guide us,

Offering prayers to you, Dal’ubom,

For the enduring strength of our people.

Letter to Prof. Marschall about the outline of Mongameli Mabonas doctoral thesis 1985 (read by my Cousin Lubabalo Makiwane)

Urgent and confidential Dear Professor Marschall,

I have been examining from various angles some of the concepts I want to use in the thesis… My main pursuit has been symbols… The symbol in general results from the encounter of consciousness with reality. On the part of consciousness the encounter is expressed in the form of experience. It does seem that in the physiological nervous structure experience always produces a permanent modification besides the momentary electromagnetic firing of the nerves. The momentary electromagnetic firing corresponds to perception and short-term memory and the permanent modification to long-term memory. But as far as formal consciousness is concerned, experience is reversible i.e. it can be and per se is always cancelled. But consciousness roots it down and makes it permanent and irreversible by encoding it in a symbol, giving it a name, recording it in a sound or a type of movement, a rhythm etc.

I found that I had to clarify what a symbol is and how it works before I could understand the uses of the symbols in the context of Xhosa traditional religion and divination. It is for this reason that I went into an extensive study of the symbol and read much literature on the subject. Most of the literature is from the field of psychoanalysis but there is much material from anthropology and sociology as well as from the history of religion. The best works on the subject, however, are the ones by Carl Jung and his disciples because he is the one who has penetrated into the psychology and uses of symbols more than any other psychologist. His studies are particularly useful because they are not restricted to Europe but include African traditional societies like those of the Dogon in West Africa and the Bantu tribes of Central Africa. Of special relevance to my studies are his ideas on the archetypes of the collective unconscious and the symbols of transformation.

In addition to these general studies of symbols, I had to look at the role of the diviner as a symbol himself. In the context of African religion, the diviner does not only interpret symbols but is a living symbol. This symbolic role has its roots in the traditional initiation rites which are as much a transformation of the initiate as they are a process of imparting knowledge. This is why initiation can be considered a process of symbolic transformation. The diviner thus becomes a mediator between the world of the living and the world of the ancestors, serving as a conduit for knowledge that transcends the ordinary.

The more I read on the subject, the clearer it became to me that the symbol is not just a device for encoding information but a dynamic force that has the power to shape consciousness and reality. This is why symbols play such a central role in traditional African religion. They are not just passive representations of reality but active agents that have the power to transform the individual and the community. The diviner's use of symbols in rituals and divination is a form of psychological engineering, aimed at bringing about changes in the consciousness of the participants.

One of the most fascinating aspects of African symbolic practices is their non-linear character. Unlike Western symbolic systems, which tend to be linear and sequential, African systems are often circular and recursive. This non-linear structure is reflected in the symbolic use of time in rituals and divination, where the past, present, and future are not seen as distinct entities but as interconnected aspects of a single continuum. This is why the diviner can see into the future, not because he is predicting events in a linear sequence, but because he is able to tap into a deeper level of symbolic reality where time is fluid.

The more I explored these ideas, the more I realized that there is a profound philosophical insight behind African symbolic practices. They are not just a form of religion but a way of understanding reality that is fundamentally different from the Western scientific worldview. This is why it is so important to study these practices on their own terms, without trying to fit them into a Western framework…