Taboos

Taboos, or zviera refer to statements that forbid certain forms of behavior in children (Tatira 2000, 147). Each taboo prohibits certain forms of behavior and gives the reason for such prohibition (ibid). In their youth, children are very adventurous, doubtful about many things and fond of questioning and experimenting with things, including their bodies. Hence, in order to curb the excessive desire to venture out, there is a ready consequence for each prohibition (ibid). Taboos, like other African oral art forms, are based on the immediate environment and are passed from one generation to the next. They are part of the early oral art forms children are exposed to, meant to inculcate in them an indigenous philosophy and worldview. Thus, taboos are also an expression of culture as lived and celebrated in society. The Shona and Venḓa taboos presented here are meant to vindicate that the people were neither primitive nor backward, but advanced and humane, for they were aware of and could handle issues that modern society is currently battling to contain.

Taboos and Morality

Morality was one of the highly celebrated virtues in traditional Africa. From childhood right through marriage, the people highly regarded moral uprightness. Sexual liaisons before and outside marriage had no place in society. What Chiwome observes among the Shona equally applies among the Venḓa, that premarital sex was a taboo and pre-marital pregnancy a disgrace (1996b, 53). While they loved children, the Shona and Venḓa believed that a child born out of wedlock disgraced the parents.

The following taboos bear testimony to the morality of the people:
Ukadongorera mukadzi akashama unoita shohwera

The Shona and Venḓa knew very well that the habit of looking at naked women or touching their body parts would never be an end in itself, but it would become a means to an end. Such would invoke in men the desire to sleep around with women. To curb such irresponsible behavior, they made it heinous to look at naked women. To the Shona and Venḓa, one may not see the naked body of members of the opposite sex unless they are married (Chiwome 1996b, 54).

This is why at night, boys and girls slept separately. The distinct bedrooms helped especially keep the body of the woman sacred. In addition, girl-children were bathed separately from boy-children, and when they were grown-up, boys were always expected to shout “Pane vari kugeza here?” (Are there any people bathing?) each time they approached a place where women may use for bathing. Boys and girls were taught and expected to uphold chastity until marriage. This is why the Shona and Venḓa, occasionally undertook virginity tests to establish if girls especially, had not been defiled. Marriage was considered a goal that everyone strove to achieve. Taboos thus helped Shona and Venḓa make sure children were safeguarded against irresponsible behavior. In doing so, they avoided a host of problems which modern society has failed to deal with.

Through such taboos, society treasured the collective sense of responsibility meant to nurture its citizens. The task was not left to the individual or a naïve child who often would be vulnerable and succumb to the challenges presented by life. Taboos on morality successfully kept especially boy children’s eyes away from naked women, something contemporary society has unsuccessfully struggled to do. At the same time, girl children were taught to sit, dress and walk in manners that would not expose particular body parts. Thus Shona and Venḓa taboos successfully outlawed pornography in whatever means or form.

Both young boys and girls were discouraged from actions that would arouse their feelings or the feelings of others that would persuade them to experiment with their bodies before being mature enough to assume parental responsibilities. This discouraged unwanted pregnancies, cases of baby-dumping, and in the same environment, abortion. Rape cases were very rare and sexually transmitted diseases quite uncommon. Through taboos, it was fashionable for boys and girls to safeguard their virginity and morality well before, and outside marriage. Girls who safeguarded their virginity were not lampooned as backward and naïve. Rather, they were highly rewarded with the chimanda ceremony where an animal was slaughtered in their honor. There was no need to teach about or distribute protective and other family planning materials as it happens today. Taboos were the condoms and family planning material of the time. Having stayed among African people and having understood a lot about their morality, Gelfand writes in awe, “The morals of the African as I know him, are exemplary and I doubt if they can be improved” (1968, 36). He adds that adultery was considered one of the worst offences. Thus, a re-look at Shona and Venḓa taboos shows that today, society can still revisit African tradition as a way of curving out African solutions to problems posed by modernity.

Taboos and Position of Women

Many conferences and fora today are inundated with debates about the position, image and attitude that society has towards women. There are even efforts to abolish African traditional customs and ways of socializing children, most of which are criticized as backward and primitive and blamed for women’s suffering and disadvantaged positions in life. Today’s argument is that African women have, since time immemorial, been oppressed, looked down upon and that African ways of socializing children need to be abolished in order to change the way women are perceived. As a result, resources, time and efforts are being channeled towards fighting African men and customs.

However, a look at Shona and Venḓa taboos shows that most of these efforts and criticism of African ways of socializing children are clear cases of misdirected anger. It shows that modern society is grappling with symptoms whose underlying causes, they are unable to decipher. The following list of taboos shows how women were regarded, and how children are taught to view them in traditional Africa:

Ukagara huni iri pamoto mai kana mukadzi wako anofa
(If you sit on a log in a fire your mother or wife will die)

Whilst these taboos were used to stamp out mischievous behavior among especially boy children, they at the same time exude a Shona and Venḓa worldview about women. In many of the given cases, the immediate concern of the elders was that the child should avoid burning itself or that it was unhygienic to sit where mealie-meal was ground. However, the elders knew that the child could argue that it knew how best to sit on the hearthstone without burning his or her self (Tatira 2000, 147). Therefore, to pre-empt such an argument or any other arguments, the threat was not of burning oneself, but of losing a very important family member, one’s mother or wife. An African child shuddered at the thought of losing a mother, or worse killing her themselves. Killing her would result in ngozi, an angry spirit which would gruesomely avenge the death of its bearer. Hence, the Shona have a taboo which states Ukatuka kana kurova mai unotanda botso (If you scold or beat your mother you will suffer terribly), and similarly, the Venḓa have U sema mubebi zwi khou ḓisa tshinyama / maṱudzi (If you scold your parent you will experience bad luck).

More Taboos (Zvieraera)

Ukacheresa mvura nehari ine matsito tsime rinopwa
(If you fetch water using a pot with soot, the well dries up)

Ukawetera mumvura hauzozvari
(If you urinate into water you will not sire children)

Ukaitira tsvina munzira unoita mamota pamagaro/ magaro anosvuuka
(If you excrete along a path you will develop boils on your buttocks/ your buttocks will
become sore)

Mvura yagezeswa mwana hairaswi pose pose, mwana anozoondoroka
(Water that has been used for bathing a baby should not be thrown everywhere; the child will
become thin and frivolous)