My short prayer for the Jahundas: My Jahunda ancestors are turning in their graves that their systems of living has been terrorized by those of the new world. I cry and weep that our children of the Jahunda people deny their Jahunda identity; I cry that the Jahunda people have been swallowed by other tribes. Where is your pride the Spirit of Jahunda when we are belittled and disappearing as such? What spirits will you be if the jahunda blood is converted into other tribes, whose spirits will you be if there are no more people of your own, I cry, weep and morn the Jahunda crisis of extinction. Amen.
Mountain ( Intaba in Zulu South African language and Mzilikazi’s Ndebele language of Zimbabwe) Chigwenyemba in Jahunda a type of Kalanga language of Gwanda area in Zimbabwe. It is sad that people of Jahunda have learnt to speak and understand Shona language but the majority can’t speak a single word of Jahunda their native language which is inches to come to an extinct. This is my concern as a traditionalist, a spiritualist and a Jahunda Guru to be. I grew up there were elders telling the stories of the mysteries of the mountains of Jahunda and its supernaturalism. These elders were speaking Jahunda and were not very fluent in Ndebele language which was born from Zulu and brought to Jahunda by the coming of Mzilikazi to this land from Zululand; you would hardly hear somebody speaking Shona language in this area. The original Jahunda people were hammering most of their words if they had to speak Ndebele language.
Amalinda (The mountain spirit guides): are known as mystical spirit guides on the mountains, they are frightening but harmless, they will frighten you to death if you do things opposed to the places they are guiding. They may appear to you in a form of ghost, big fearsome and ugly snake, a lion or anything that may frighten you. The word Linda means guard, so these spirits are the guards for both the mountains and the people of that land.
These mountains generally seem to play a greater role as heritage sites for mysterious and supernatural things of the Jahunda people of Gwanda Zimbabwe. These mountains have ghost like things doing things that seem very frightening especially when they are angered disobeyed or disrespected. They have been the part of Jahunda people ever since. These mysteries are so old and evidently that they should be recognized or known by the whole world, but because Jahunda has been belittled and ignored they are less known.
Jahunda is a small group of people in a district called Gwanda in Zimbabwe. The names of this place have been spelt in many ways such as Jaunda, Jawunda and Jahunda with Jahunda being the main and officially used. This name is derived from the hill or will I say a mountain in that area. Jahunda is a bit out of the world map when recognition of importance of tribes and people of the world are concerned. We cannot always think of shona and Ndebele people only when Zimbabwe is concerned, there are of course Jahunda people the natives as far as Gwanda area is concerned, a small group but spiritually the strongest.
Most of the children in most parts of this Jahunda area hardly finish their education, some hardly reach the secondary level, I don’t even want to mention tertiary, and this is because of the gold panning that takes place within these areas. The land is rich with gold but the people are poor they have to survive through doing gold panning and a child will drop school to help the parents to pan gold in the rivers, abandoned and disused mines. Nobody is worried about reviving Jahunda language and try to honor the mysteries of its mountains and forests. The only thing happening Shona language is dominating even the Ndebele language which is the official first language of the region, even an old person who suppose to teach youngsters the Jahunda language understands shona better than that Jahunda native language. It is so sad.
Lushongwe: is a mountain that you need not to dare climb to the top end of it, but remain at the foot of the mountain, I have never heard of anyone going to the top end of this mountain. It has kind of small heals and mountains surrounding it with lots-lots of Gold. Even some gold shafts and the mines around it are mystical and superstitious. Locals say that when you come across a strange three legged pot, a clay pot and a wooden bowl full of coins or gold pieces or bullions of gold, it’s best to pretend you have not seen anything and move on. They say that if you try anything stupid, you will get lost in the bush and wander all the area maybe for days, two or three and come back home half your memory lost (half mad). The mountain is the highest in the village, and is amongst the most feared ones, of course no one have died from these ghost like happenings of this mountain and came back to be buried in the village or was found dead on the mountain except Sunduza who climbed it and went forever years-years ago.
People feared to follow and do the search for Sunduza, it was understood that Sunduza’s climbing of the mounted was intended suicide because he knew the consequences of climbing to the top. He might have been testing if such stories did exist trying to be a hero of times but the price he got is ugly he never came back. These mysteries do exist Jahunda is a marvelous place touched by the Gods.
Sunduza Nkala was nowhere to be found. What exactly is the story behind his disappearances? Psychic researchers have in recent years become accepted even by police detectives and the law at large as an option in solving such mysteries world-wide. One thing for sure is that when a person vanishes under such mysterious circumstances it is proper to consult the Sangomas, psychics, Clairvoyance, Fortune tellers and Spiritual elders of that particular area first before rushing to launch the search. These elders and their spirit mediums will give guidance to what exactly has to be done for the person to be recovered. In this case of Sunduza Nkala, it was during those times when people were very much bound by traditional laws and fears of these mysterious and superstitious mountains, so nobody would dare follow. Rituals had to be done may be like others he would have come home of course with a memory half lost but recover in a short space of time.
The proper rituals needs to be done, but it is a pity that the elders and the people who had the knowhow of all these things have passed on and those who remain have been converted to some foreign religions such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam and so on. These foreign religious people say that we Africans ascribe to everything we cannot explain to superstition, forged myths & spirits, but those foreign religious people consult with our spirit mediums, and those whom they blaspheme. When they come across situations that need the services of such superstitions and what they call forged spirits they do consult.
When you get lost in the Jahunda Mountains and forests in a place that you know very well that it amazes everybody you were lost, the Jahunda people say that Udzimile or Uzimire it all depends on which part of Jahunda area how they say it. This is because the language has been mixed with many others such as Ndebele and Shona. Some young generations speak a lot of Jahunda words thinking that they are speaking Ndebele or Shona this is because Jahunda language is the native it was there in this area before any other.
Every land has its own custodians; our people have been programmed to understand that they are more Europeans than Europeans, that they are whiter than white people. They are robotized to understand that being an African and doing Africans’ customs, cultures and traditions is inferior. We are still Africans nothing will change, we will remain Africans, and our mountains will remain ghostly, superstitious and fear some as they used to be. We are Africanized by nature, trying to run away from that will be running away from our own shadows and our shadows will never live us and we will never live them. Even if we may claim to be sophisticated, our elders delivered justice and knowledge of these things ever since than we do with our modern justification. Sunduza went on top of Lushongwe Mountain and never came back until today. He is now got great grandchildren but still has not shown up, he is just history, but still an ancestor and now a spirit guide of Lushongwe mountain, he has added to the number and doing his own mysteries up there. Oh what a next life, this is the eternity I believe and understand (the ancestors)
There were rumors that he was metamorphosiszed into a goblin (Umkhoba, Isituhwane, Umantindane or Undofa in Mzilikazi’s Ndebele language of Zimbabwe. Utikoloshe or Umkhovu in Zulu language of South Africa. Chikwambu or chidoma in shona language of Zimbabwe. Matutwane or Zwitudwane in Venda language of South Africa. All these names mean a person that has been turned into something ghostly of some sort. The area people suspected Sunduza’s son by the name Khezi Nkala to have metamophosized Sunduza to farther his wealth of stock farming. Khezi his son had a lot of livestock, may be more or less a thousand.
Lushongwana for the rain Goddess, people used to consult in terms of making requests for enough rain for their animals and crops and even for themselves. Now Lushongwana has become the Ruins of the rain Goddess, nobody seems to follow what the elders used to do. Women would gather, sing the songs of the rain Goddess and demonstrate, run, scream all the way from a certain point in the village to Lushongwana to ask for rain and good harvests. Lushongwana is a very small stones of about half a meter high and about two meters in width. Looking at it, you will be tempted to think that it was done by the hands of a man but it has been there naturally. It has given people of Lushongwe village in Jahunda water for their crops and livestock.
It is to me a living proof that Lushongwana was a provider for water and rain that since people have forsaken the services of Lushongwana water Goddess, Lushongwe village and its surroung villages have become a very dry area that people hardily harvest and they have been hit by drought several times; a thing that never happened before they abandoned their customs and traditions of their rain Goddess for the dominating foreign traditions and religions.
Going to Lushongwana women would carry whips, canes, rattans, and sticks. They would be flying their skirts in a way that you would see their under pants or private parts if they didn’t wear underwear. No man was allowed according to that custom and tradition to get anywhere closer. If they would meet man/men they had to beat them thoroughly and nothing men / man could do about it, it was the law. Lushongwana means a little Lushongwe, I think it existed for the fact that people wouldn’t climb the main Lushongwe otherwise all the events would have been done on the main Lushongwe.
Zhomba: Everyone in this part of Jahunda area will tell you to approached Zhomba Mountain with great caution. This is a mountain alongside the river or will I call it a stream called Tundutule, this stream or river leans on the mountain to the north of it facing/flowing to the west and Zhomba mountain is a long mountain not a range of mountains facing west from east in parallel with Tundutule stream. To the front nose of the mountain in the stream lies a dam wall of which makes Tundutule dam at Zhomba. The banks or edges of the dam are at the foot of Zhomba mountain, this dam had a hell lot of fish at had never dried come what dry season.
People had to go to Tundutule dam at Zhomba to catch fish and cut (Imizi) some grass type to make African mats, (Ilala) some type of indigenous plant used to make bowls, hand bags, hats and other decoration units; some would go there just to hunt. Everyone that does so is urged to seek permission first from the elders who lived in that area long back before the land was taken by the white famers or go there to the stream and the mountain at selected points and ask for permission before venturing into any activity in that territory. The permission is asked in a way of sniffing tobacco or burning impepho and other plants that serves to invoke the presence of the spirits.
If one would ignore these rules he would be frightened to death by the mysteries of this territory, you can see a very big and one of the most poisonous snakes or just a big fearsome snake standing at its tail looking ready to sink its teeth into you. You will drop whatever tool you were using and run like mad, sometime it is said that you may see the lions called Amalinda, they will roar and split the soil all over you and you will run for your life, sometime you may see a very thick army of old times singing some strange songs and shouting the appraisal names of their old kings carrying spears riding bulls, buffalos and cows and you will run for your life. When you get home to the elders tell the story, they will laugh at you knowing that you disobeyed at that territory.
In all of this, these things have never killed anyone but have helped to limit people from overly caching fish, destroy the surrounding forests and kill animals they don’t need for meet. On top of this mountain are lot of features that evidently show that people once lived there, did their Jahunda rituals there, hunted there. That mountain can change into all sorts of supernaturalism from bright and sunny, to a misty, cloudy and shinny in a day to ghostly and all sorts of fears.
Nsetshe: this mountain is a rock bold mountain at the other side of Thulu river that has trees only at its base, at the top it’s bold and ball like that nobody except Mankomo has climbed it. Mankomo a rural Mafuku Lushongwe area woman once got “lost” for nearly four days when she was a young woman. But when she was eventually found, it was as if she had been missing only for hours. She said she was not hungry and showed no signs of exhaustion or dehydration. She said that she got to some places of the mountain which seemed like a certain world and she was given traditional food of the likes of Amantongomane (groundnuts), Indumba (some African type of beans) Umcaba (a mixture of cooked/boiled mabele and masi) Umkhomo ohlanganiswe nobisi / uchago (baobab fruits mixed with milk) and many to eat.
Her getting lost is called (Ukudzimila/Ukudzimira in Jahunda language, a language which is about to extinct like its ancient sister languages namely Romwe, Peri, Talahunda (Talahundra). Traditional leaders in that area apparently played a major role in her reappearance because some cultural ritual was performed to appease the spirits surrounding this mystical mountain. It is also believed that this mountain could have swallowed many fighters during the war of the liberation.
All these cases seemed to point to the fact that these people would have wandered in wrong directions and got captured by the invisible inhabitants of this mountain. It has hence become very difficult to talk about Mount Nsetshe without mentioning the mysteries and magic surrounding this vast natural wonder.
Mount Nsetshe used to be seen burning on its bold part which is the three quarter part of the mountain to the top end from the quarter bottom which is filled with trees. Flames would be seen fuming in a hot sunny weather or at night when the flames are clearly noticeable and that would be a sign of good year as far as the rains and good harvest are concerned. The burning of the mysterious mountain Nsetshe was the sign from the rain Goddess that she would be giving the land lots of water.
The burning of Nsetshe Mountain was an alert massage for people to expect too many rains even more than they would require. It was the sign of very harsh rains and weathers of angry spirits. It simple meant that something has not been conducted in a right way and the elders and the mediums need to plead for clemency and forgiveness with the spirits so that they give them calm and well-mannered rains.
There are lots of mysterious places of Jahunda we will cover them in the next phase of this article