Religious Change In Zambia by Van

Author:Van [Van]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781136134746
Google: aSWGZmaX8FsC
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2012-11-12T05:44:46+00:00

Bituma

The development of Bituma is much less of a success story. Simbinga's first attempt to found a cult failed. Public opinion rejected his claims to prophethood. His first activities (which included the propagation of unusual healing methods and the free distribution of his herd of cattle) were considered the acts of a madman. His early attack on what he considered the impurity of established healers and diviners, including his cousin Kapata, contributed to his public rejection. He left the area. When he returned in the late 1930s he was in possession of an elaborate collection of paraphernalia45 and much more developed views concerning the nature of the affliction-causing Angel. The affliction henceforth became known as Bituma (‘sent him’) or Chituma (‘message’), referring to Simbinga's prophetic commission or (according to other present-day informants) to the Angel, who sends affliction and is himself sent by the High God. Simbinga shifted the area of his activities towards the east: the central and eastern parts of Kaoma district. There he treated his first seven patients, including Kapata. Kapata, and several others among these first followers, only joined Bituma after a career of intense personal crises involving previous initiation into such non-regional cults of affliction as kayongo and mayimbwe. In this respect they were Simbinga's junior colleagues, rather than his disciples; they had access to experiences similar to those on which Simbinga's charisma was based.

Simbinga built for himself a small, hut-like shrine (called kreki, ‘church’) and made his initial followers do the same at their own places of residence. At these shrines healing sessions would be held at irregular intervals, according to the demand from patients. The session would start and conclude with prayer, and be structured around songs featuring Simbinga and crucial signs of his prophetic calling: his communication with heaven, and his rising from death:

1

Tukuyako, tukuyako We are going, we are going

Ku ngonda, ku ngonda To the moon, to the moon

(allegedly the first song Simbinga composed when he rose from death, claiming that he had been at the moon).

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