Rain and Water Symbolism in Southern African Religious Systems: Continuity and Change
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Abstract
This article presents a diachronic perspective on rain and water rituals in southern Africa. The authors claim that contemporary rituals can only be properly understood when cognisance has been taken of their deep roots into the past. The authors indicate how water and rain rituals show signs of continuity between past and present, in spite of the dramatic upheavals created by the arrival of colonialism and missionary Christianity. The authors furthermore argue that such rituals are not only of ‘religious’ importance, but also indicative of the material concerns concerning the environment in the communal consciousness of ordinary people. The popular interest in these types of rituals may indeed be understood as the refusal by ordinary people to submit to a dominant globalisation paradigm which has a vested interest in casting them in the role of permanently helpless victims.
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1
J.D. Lewis-Williams, ‘Wrestling with Analogy: A Methodological Dilemma in Upper Palaeolithic Rock Art Research’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 57 (1991), 149-162; S. Ouzman, ‘Spiritual and Political Uses of a Rock Engraving Site and its Imagery by San and Tswana-speakers’, The South African Archaeological Bulletin 50 (1995), 55-67.
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3
A.H. Anderson, ‘The Lekganyanes and Prophecy in the Zion Christian Church’, Journal of Religion in Africa 29 (1999), 308.
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6
J.P. Kiernan, ‘Poor and Puritan: An Attempt to View Zionism as a Collective Response to Urban Poverty’, African Studies, 36/1 (1977), 31-42.
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8
J. Comaroff & J.L. Comaroff, ‘Christianity and colonialism in South Africa’, American Ethnologist, 13/1 (1986), 1-22. See also R. Moffat, Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa. London: Snow 1842; D. Livingstone, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa. New York: Harper & Brothers 1858.
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16
See J.P. Feddema, ‘Tswana Ritual concerning Rain’, African Studies 25 (1966), 181-195.
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17
Bruetz 1991.
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19
J.H.N. Loubser, ‘The Ethnoarchaeology of the Venda-speakers in Southern Africa’, Navorsinge van die Nasionale Museum 7 (1991), 146-464.
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23
See R. Horton, ‘African Conversion’, Africa, 41/2 (1971), 85-108.
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25
See A.H. Anderson, ‘The Lekganyanes and Prophecy in the Zion Christian Church’, Journal of Religion in Africa 29 (1999), 285-312.
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28
See Schapera, ‘The “Little Rain” (Pulanyana) Ceremony of the Bechuanaland Bakxatla’, Bantu Studies 4 (1930), 211-216.
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31
Stayt 1968.
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38
N. Walker, ‘In the Footsteps of the Ancestors: The Matsieng Creation Site in Botswana’, The South African Archaeological Bulletin, 52 (1997), 95-104; cf. Ouzman 1995.
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40
Ouzman 1995.
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41
Kiernan, ‘The Work of Zion: An Analysis of an African Zionist Ritual’, Africa 46 (1976), 340-356; Kiernan, ‘Variation on a Christian Theme: The Healing Synthesis of Zulu Zionism’, in C. Stewart and R. Shaw (eds.). Syncretism/Anit-Syncretism: The Politics of Religious Synthesis. New York: Routledge 1994; Müller, ‘Rain Rituals and Hybridity in Southern Africa’, Verbum et Ecclesia 29 (2008), 819-831.
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42
Ouzman 1995.
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45
See A.H. Anderson, ‘The Hermeneutical Processes of Pentecostal-type AICs in South Africa’, Missionalia 22/2 (1996), 171-185.
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46
See Bernard 2001.
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47
P. Fihlani, ‘Battle to Save South Africa’s “Sacred Sites” from Tourist Chalets’, BBC News, 2 August 2010, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10793664, accessed 3 August 2010.
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Rain and Water Symbolism in Southern African Religious Systems: Continuity and Change
In: ExchangeSearch for other papers by Retief Müller in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Frans Kruger in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
This article presents a diachronic perspective on rain and water rituals in southern Africa. The authors claim that contemporary rituals can only be properly understood when cognisance has been taken of their deep roots into the past. The authors indicate how water and rain rituals show signs of continuity between past and present, in spite of the dramatic upheavals created by the arrival of colonialism and missionary Christianity. The authors furthermore argue that such rituals are not only of ‘religious’ importance, but also indicative of the material concerns concerning the environment in the communal consciousness of ordinary people. The popular interest in these types of rituals may indeed be understood as the refusal by ordinary people to submit to a dominant globalisation paradigm which has a vested interest in casting them in the role of permanently helpless victims.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 3332 | 719 | 80 |
| Full Text Views | 215 | 6 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 112 | 22 | 4 |