Njelele Shrine is a significant spiritual site in Zimbabwe, located in the Matobo Hills, in the Khomola communal area. It is the holiest of the Mwali Religion’s shrines and is visited annually between August and September for ritual purposes. The shrine is dedicated to a spirit medium, uNgwali (rainmaker), who some Zimbabweans believe has extraordinary powers to bring rains. The shrine is manned by Priests of Ncube (wudo), and the clan totem indicates that baboons/monkeys are taboo to eat.
The Njelele Shrine is a traditional sacred shrine within the Kalanga people, with its primary purpose being communicating with God. The rainmaking ritual at the shrine brings to the forefront the interplay between nature, culture, and spirituality. At the center of these rituals is the Mwali or Mwari Deity, a hierarchy of his rain priests, and related dances called wosana.
The two dances performed at the Njelele Shrine are woso (amabhiza) and wosana. In August-September, the two dances are performed by rain-making suitors, who bring stones from mass graves to conduct cleansing rituals as they believe they are haunted. One of the enduring and respected rituals is the first harvest, conducted by elderly women and children below puberty.
Their main purpose was for rainmaking ceremonies and thanksgiving, as rain was responsible for the sustainability of people in the region. Traditionalists, known as wosanas, villagers, and other groups perform a traditional dance on Saturday at the Njelele Shrine.
📹 Njerere Shrine and Not Njelele is in Matombo not Matopo nor Matobo #history #ndebele #shona #njelele
The Njerere shrine predates the arrival of Zwangendaba and King Mzilawegazi which means that it was established long before …
What are some examples of shrines in Zimbabwe?
This study explores the concept of sacred spaces and their relationship with other religious groups, particularly the Johane Masowe Chishanu yeNyenyedzi Church in Zimbabwe. The study focuses on two indigenous religious shrines, Chivavarira hill and Gonawapotera pool, which are considered renowned and sacred by the indigenes. The research aims to understand what makes these sacred spaces different from ordinary spaces, as they are considered authentic and represent the manifestation of the divine.
Sacred spaces are considered authentic sites, while profane spaces are indistinctive and lacking in quintessence. A sacred space is a concrete and permanent site that generations will point out as sacred or holy, while a profane space is an amorphous area without quintessence. A sacred space is considered a place where the divine meets human beings, while a profane space is an amorphous area without quintessence.
The study aims to understand what distinguishes a sacred space from a profane space, as it is a place where the divine meets human beings. It also explores the relationship between sacred and profane spaces, as well as the potential for sharing sacred spaces with other religious groups.
In conclusion, this study aims to explore the distinction between sacred and profane spaces in Zimbabwe’s religious landscape. By examining the factors that make sacred spaces sacred and profane, it can provide valuable insights into the relationship between sacred and profane spaces in religious institutions.
What is the rain making ceremony?
A traditional rainmaking ceremony is a day of singing, dancing, and festivities, during which traditional beer and food are consumed. The beer, brewed from millet malt, is served in gourds, and no metal cups or pots are permitted in the vicinity of the ceremony. The ceremony is conducted by a local leader and is thought to result in abundant rainfall and crops. The ceremony requests precipitation from the ancestral and rain deities.
What are the 3 rituals?
There are three principal types of rituals: mythological reenactment, rites of passage, and family rituals. Each of these has a significant impact on society.
What are the 4 types of rituals?
Gluckman distinguishes four kinds of ritual, with rite of passage being a typical constitutive ritual. However, the terms “rite of passage” and “ritual” face difficulties as analytic concepts, making it difficult to differentiate between common behavior, rite of passage, and ritual in a strict sense. Van Gennep’s original expressions of the basic features of the rite of passage are vague, and the core problem is what people want to change through ritual.
Travel away from home but not for subsistence is a human behavior that has been widespread in all societies since ancient times. It wasn’t until the late twentieth century that tourism became a general necessity of life, promoting the development of related industries around the world. Determining the coordinates of tourism in cultural anthropology and establishing an analytic framework of tourism are frequently the focus of research for tourism anthropologists.
Graburn and Nash, two important researchers in the anthropology of tourism, have debated these basic questions. Graburn suggests that tourism is a “modern ritual” in contemporary society, where people are outside of their daily lives and in the travel life, which differs from routine work and life. He divides the life of the tourist into three stages: secular work-divine travel-secular work.
Nash later proposed that the purpose of travel, attitude toward travel, and the traveler’s behavior vary from person to person, and not all kinds of travel are similar to pilgrimage. While Graburn’s points of view can be useful for analyzing tourism, it’s important to be wary of being trapped into any one conceptual scheme, particularly one that may acquire a quality of truth in the minds of its proponents.
Who is allowed in Njelele?
The priest of Njelele was selected through a process of possession and spirit mediumship. Only those who had been designated as priests, messengers, dancers, and pre-pubescent girls or post-menopausal old women were permitted to enter the shrine.
What is the ritual ceremony in Zimbabwe?
Bira is a traditional ritual in Zimbabwe, celebrated by the Shona people, where extended family members call on ancestral spirits for guidance and intercession. The Shona people believe that ancestral spirits, or dzavadzimu, can only communicate with the living and God. Bira ceremonies use music and ritual dance to summon these spirits, and they also welcome ancestor spirits back into the home. The ceremony involves singing, dancing, and hand clapping, with mbira players playing and singing improvised off familiar patterns. The music used in the ceremony is favored by the ancestors, allowing the spirits to possess living mediums, preserving older musical practices and preserving the religious belief system.
What is done at the Njelele shrine?
The Njelele Shrine is a significant spiritual site in Zimbabwe, located in the Matobo Hills, a world heritage center. It is believed to be the rain-making shrine, where pilgrims visit annually for ritual purposes before the beginning of the rain season. The shrine is situated in a solid granite kopje and has three naturally hidden entrances that wind up and down among overhang granite boulders. The cave is not the main feature of Njelele but the gallery in the rocks, with several small tunnels leading to its various chambers from the narrow entrance between two tall rocks.
The shrine is known for offering an assortment of skulls, horns, iron hoes, clay pots containing water, cloth, beads, piles of tobacco, hatchets, and spears, some of which were offered to the presiding deity. In the 1960s and 70s, the shrine was consulted by politicians and liberation fighters, including Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo, then leader of ZIPRA and former Zimbabwean Vice President.
Njelele is popularly known as Njelele, a Tjikalanga term meaning “the place of spring waters” or “Malindidzimu”, meaning “The Sacred Place for Our Ancestors”. It is also known as Matonjeni.
Located on the Matobo Granite, which is believed to be over 2. 65 billion years old, Njelele has three naturally hidden entrances that wind up and down among overhang granite boulders. The voice from the Njelele rocks instructing visitors on what to do was last heard in 1974, but disappeared due to the desecration of the shrine.
What were ritual dances used for?
In 1923, W. O. E. Oesterley proposed that sacred dance had several purposes, including honoring supernatural powers, uniting the dancer with supernatural powers, making the body suitable for deity dwelling, encouraging crop growth, consecrating a victim for sacrifice, paying homage to the deity, helping warriors in battle, averting dangers associated with marriage, and honoring the dead person during funerals or mourning ceremonies.
Dancer and scholar Harriet Lihs divided religious dance into dances of imitation, “medicine dances”, commemorative dances, and spiritual connection. Contemporary sacred dance, practiced at the Findhorn Foundation, aims to be inclusive, mutually supportive, and connect with the earth, spirit, and each other. It is a means of channeling healing energy for dancers, their families, communities, and the whole world.
Laura Shannon, a teacher of sacred dance for women, stated in 2018 that the purposes of contemporary sacred dance are to be inclusive, mutually supportive, and connect with the earth, spirit, and each other, becoming more whole. It is a means of channeling healing energy for the dancers, their families, communities, and the whole world.
What are the dances performed at the Njelele shrine?
The study focuses on the symbolism behind rain dances associated with the Njelele Shrine and other related shrines in the Matobo Hills. Two dances, hoso (amabhiza) and hosana, are performed during the shrine’s open period in August-September. Supplicants from various parts of the country visit the shrine keeper’s homestead, bringing gifts and wild dancing. Local groups perform the hoso dance, which precedes the hosana. Both dances are drum-based, with the hoso dance featuring three drums with Kalanga names.
The big drum, called tjamabhika, is played first and provides the timeline. The dance is about rain-making, which ensures good agriculture and the resulting grain is cooked as a staple for the people in question. The basis for the name has been lost over time.
What are the ritual dances in Egypt?
Ancient Egypt had various types of dances, with the word “in” representing dance. These dances were performed at various events such as births, marriages, funerals, royal functions, and ceremonies for the gods. Reliefs and murals depict various figures, including children, men, women, dwarfs, pygmies, kings, queens, animals, and gods like Thoth, Horus, Isis, and Isis. Hathor was the mistress of dance, and divine dwarfs performed the “dance of the gods”. Professional dancers were either priests or slaves who performed in temples or wealthy homes.
Dances were also part of harvest festivals, where peasants sacrificed fruits to Min the god of Koptos and goddesses Hathor and Bastet. Dancers held sticks in their hands, and the procession accompanying the statue of the deceased was generally headed by dancers.
Sacred dances were directed to goddesses, such as Hathor, Isis, Mut, and gods like Amun, Min, and Maontus. These dances were featured in the Festival of the Erection of Djed and the month-long Opet Festival. Dances were also performed to honor the king when he received foreign dignitaries, and dances were performed in association with harvest and post-circumcision initiation rites.
In addition to combat dances, dances were also performed to entertain the king and queen.
What is the other name for Njelele?
NJELELE, also referred to as Mabweadziva or Matonjeni, is a renowned rainmaking shrine located in the Khumalo communal area, approximately 100 kilometers south of Bulawayo.
📹 Matopos – Spiritual significance
The Mambo hill and spiritual significance documentary – history of the people of Zimbabwe. The voice that whispers.
Having read Chigwedere, he states that while there are no differences between Karanga and Kalanga, the original name was Kalanga. Karanga came from the Portuguese who refered to them as Mocaranga. This has me thinking that ‘Njelele’ may be the original name. That said, I’m not really fussed with either reference. Just as long as its historical and spiritual significance is not eroded.
You will find that a number of Shona/Karanga/Kalanga places were changed to ndebele names in the same manner with Vic Falls, .Danamombe Ruins in Fort Rixon were renamed to Dlodlo Ruins, so is the NJERERE to Njelele. I also understand that even the spirit mediums or caretakers of the njelele shrine now speak ndebele.
The Matobo area belongs to Kalanga people for sure. Therefore stop lying please. The last time I heard, the Kalanga do not have the “r” in their language and DO NOT consider themselves Karanga. The Matobo area NEVER belonged to the Ndebele people who hail from KwaZulu since, obviously, they came from KwaZulu. The Ndebele have never claimed to own Njelele. When they came over they found Mambo being the ruler and they acknowledged that. Now there raids and all that, which is a sore point to the Shona people to this day. We obviously can’t change that, and the Shona can’t reverse that by suppressing descendants of the Ndebele in the most cowardly way.
You want to Shona lie abt everything in this country, Njelele is Kalanga. We will never forget that it is the 5th brigade which bombed the Njelele when it was unleashing the Gukurahundi genocide, The same Njelele was bombed around 2014 by the same Zanu government, why are you troubling the Njelele, you also went with Bones of Chimoio guerrilas to Njelele, what is yo problem you pple?
You are very wrong Sir. Njelele is a Kalanga/Venda word. Yes the Karanga/Venda/Kalanga are related. It is not true that the Ndebele changed the shrines names. Shrines like Njelele, Dula etc were found by the Ndebele and they never interfered with them but rather respected them. The custodians of these shrines are descendants of the Venda people of the Lubimbi/Thovhela of the Mbedzi/Wudo clan. Both Kalanga and Venda have the letter “L”. Njelele is also a Venda word sometimes written as Nzhelele, both in Zimbabwe and South Africa. The Kalanga/Venda are closely related to the Banyai/Vhanyai. It is not the Ndebele who introduced the letter “L” in Kalanga and Venda.
What is the difference between Karanga / Kalanga and Ndebele customs ? Nothing except languages. These people shared similar customs so it would be natural for any tribe to be attracted to the same shrine . What difference does it matter if a Ndebele calls it njelele or Karanga calling it njerere. These southern Africans were not as divided as we would like them to be based on our colonial and political mentality. There was no South Africa or Rhodesia . There was just a vast land of people speaking different languages sometimes clashing and at times forging relationship. No one in Zimbabwe can prove that there were no Ngunis around till Shaka came .
Point of correction my good sir, the original Karanga people was comprised of one Clan which is Mbedzi. Njelele is one of the largest eagle that preys on wild antelope, Vultures baby birds, baboons etc. It hardly prey on domestic chicken, or it doesn’t at all. It is not gondo because gondo in our language is Funguvhu white necked raven. Chapungu/njelele/Luvhimba is one but different names. Right now you can say Njelele is a place of many people,but it is a known fact that it is Vhambedzi/Luvhimbi/Dzivha place worship for the longest time before invasion of the land Zimbabwe, they are the Coptic vhakalanga.
The idea that the letter ‘R’ was introduced into Shona language by the Portuguese is foolish colonial propaganda of which many people believe. The ‘R’ existed in Shona long before contact with the Portuguese. The Shona believed that they migrated from GuRuSwa where their ancestors came from in Sudan GadziGuru being the Mother of the first Mutapas. As you can see the ‘R’ is already in full use.
..you just don’t know anything about all this..,Bakalanga(Khalangas are the rightful owners of much of Zimbabwe..,only that their side of the story is kept to themselves much..,starting with Njelele in Matombo is one of their shrines..as they had so many..,they are the ones who constructed the Zimbabwe ruins..not Shonas.,there is no such a tribe called ‘Karanga”.The Kalanga people never migrated ..only they welcomed and accomodated a variety of tribes…,their civilization and much of their territory was destroyed by the present day borders.When the Shonas arrived..the Khalanga Kingdom welcomed them..they showed to them their shrines and places of cleansing i.e a( Lusvingo). Their territory stretched from parts of Botswana,..northen regions of South Africa,most of Zim..all the way to Zambezi river where you get Tongas and Nambiyas…,Bulawayo used to be Kame..a very big Khalanga strong hold..,their shrine there is the one in Matombo..,they had many other shrines..big and small since they strongly believed in Mwali..not Mwari..,only the Shonas after being welcomed they started witchcraft in most of those shrines they asigned to keep.King Mzilikazi..and King Tjibundule of the Khalangas never fought or harrased each other since Tjibundule was very wise to convince Mzilikazi that he had powers from the shrines..,for example Tjibundule stabed a rock with his spear…,so please never ever mention Shonas and Karangas…linking them to any of the Holy shrines and Holy land of the Kalangas.