Page 35 - Heritage Streets of KwaMashu 2025

izalwa ize intombi noma insizwa. For example, besides family rituals, there were common rites of passage generally accepted in a Zulu community set-up.
Umhlonyane, ukuqatha, umemulo/icece, umbongo/umbondo/ ingqibamasondo, umkhehlo, udwendwe/umgcagco, isigodo, etc.
Every homestead needs water (amanzi) – for drinking, cooking, washing, mixing herbs and medicines, for plants, etc. That is the importance of Section C’s Street names relating to the home. Water is life to every living being. Therefore, African cultures characterize water, by its life-giving nature, as both physical and spiritual essence – but even of greater spiritual utility than physical. My granny (MaMchunu from the paternal father’s side) used to say: “When the chicken drinks water, it shows it to God “ – without raising-up its head to the sky the chicken cannot drink – but also to declare that for the gift of life and what sustains life, all creatures, and human beings in particular, need to lift-up our heads to the Creator in grateful acknowledgment of his power and goodness. Water plays an important role in African spirituality for reasons that are not difficult to discern. Water is not only the element uniquely identified with physical existence and the survival of human, plant, and animal life, water is also the vital common link between all living things– the element that all living things share
In Africa, water is used in important prayer forms in various acts of libation. It is used in ritual acts of purification, sacralization, reparation, and revitalization – and both for blessing and cursing. Water is used in social interactions, and in the making and breaking of social relationships. As in life, we cross many rivers to reach various destinations; water and water bodies also play a role in rites of individual and collective transitions from
the irreligious to the sacred state. According to Goerge Hagan (2020) nowhere, however, is the spirituality of water more evident than in the general mind-set and conviction that water connects all living things directly to the Supreme Being making manifest the importance of the divine in human survival. In the African mind, drought, unfavorable patterns of rainfall, famine, and the conflicts that result from these are the consequences of the individual and collective moral and spiritual offenses that humans commit against nature and the Supreme Being. In all African cultures, droughts and famines bring communities to reflect on their state of spiritual pollution, degradation, and weakness due to various acts that offend the Creator (Supreme Being). Rainfall is the common origin of waters in all water bodies. Oceans, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, wells, and springs are all receptacles of water from above; and so, as God begets rain and rains give life to water bodies, water bodies are begotten by God.
Water also creates awareness of the fundamental qualities or properties – as distinct from substance – that are critical to sustaining human life in the spiritual as in the physical state. Water gives life and well-being only when clean and pure. The purity of water is what assures the wellness of human life, and impurity or pollution of water causes illness and compromises life. As water makes evident the need for purity for good physical health, so does it make evident the need for purity, truthfulness, goodness, honesty, and transparency as qualities of personal life that cultures make the hallmark of moral discipline, spiritual health, and vitality of individuals and communities.
Regular rainfall and proper seasons we take as a sign of God’s favor, and we see irregular droughts and famine as a sign of God’s displeasure for human offenses – a constant reminder that we have obligations to the Creator as well as to nature.
Mostly, rivers pass through the mountains on their journey to the lakes and the sea as final destination. Section D’s street names are of important KZN mountains. Each homestead, isigodi and community is endowed with beautiful mountains, some are sacred and some hide exquisite caves. Some areas and neighborhoods are known by their mountains. An example, is my rural area of Nkwenkwe, under Mthonjaneni – known by its Nkwe-Nkwe mountain. At Kwa-Maphumulo there is an area of Ntunjambili, with Ntunjambili a mountain. Isandlwana is also an example because of the historic mountain Bayavungana/ Isandlwana. So is the Impendle area because of Impendle Mountain, Maqongqo, Nhlangakazi, Ndundulu, Mandawe, etc.
The huge history and knowledge is written in the names that our forebears left us, it is up to
us to preserve the language
so that the information left for us in the names of rivers, mountains, trees, birds, ceremonies, etc., is not forgotten. We shall not be the generation that watched the disappearance of our heritage.
HERITAGE STREETS OF KWA-MASHU 31
Edmund Qhawelenkosi Mhlongo