Perceived Ancestral Practices of Cultural and Religious Beliefs in Modern Life of Bapedi People

Abstract

people express their traditional beliefs in rituals, mythologies, and taboos. Among Bapedi people witchcraft is linked to all illnesses and fears, and as such constitutes existential threat to the Bapedi community and culture. For medicinal, ritual, sacred purposes and reasoning, some trees or herbs are known to be more important than others in the Bapedi culture and tradition. Religion is an important part of Bapedi tradition. Religion and spirituality are used to create greater understanding and harmony, promote social cohesion and cement friendship. Traditional Bapedi religion is very popular, and is based on oral tradition, which means that the basic values and way of life of the Bapedi people are transmitted from elders to young generation. Bapedi tradition is not a religious principle, but a cultural identity that is transmitted through indigenous music, tales, myths, and storytelling. In the Bapedi culture, there are mystics or traditional healers who are responsible for healing as a cultural phenomenon and ‘divining’, and divination bones are used to diagnose witchcraft, health-related problems or ailments, fortune, good health, wellbeing and appropriate traditional medicines for prevention or elimination of the diagnosed problems and/or illnesses. In the Bapedi culture, like in other cultures in the continent, traditional healing profession is a calling, and not everyone can wish to become a traditional healer. Traditional healers have to be called by their personal ancestors to become traditional healers. During intensive training, they acquire many skills on the selection and use of herbs for healing purposes, singing, instrumental playing (drumming), dancing, and more mystical skills, like communicating with the personal ancestor of a trainee to disclose the colour of either the goat or cow to be slaughtered for the ancestor veneration. This study seeks to examine ancestral beliefs of the Bapedi people and the relationship between ‘belief’ and ‘ritual’ within Bapedi people’s cultural context. The focus of this study is to explore and document these links within the context of the Bapedi culture. Three interrelated research questions therefore guided this study: a) What is ‘myth’ and how does it differ from a ‘belief’? What is the cultural relevance of ancestral beliefs in contemporary Bapedi society? and c) how do ancestral beliefs relate to modern Bapedi cultural practices? To address these questions, three major categories of stories (stories of origin, didactic stories and explanatory stories) in the Bapedi culture were discussed. These stories emerged from observations, interviews, and analysed research data. The study employed a contextual approach and data was collected through observations, face-to-face interviews, and video recordings of religious rituals. Secondary sources included published books and Journal articles. The investigation has revealed that belief and ritual in the Bapedi religion and belief systems complete and complement each other, thus allowing the harmonious unison of meta and paralinguistic elements in religio-cultural discourse. During the study, it was also established that indigenous Bapedi spirituality involves rituals, myths, ancestral beliefs and practices, perception, values and attitudes based on ancestors’ experiences. It was concluded that myth should not be reduced to ritual nor ritual to myth, because they complete and complement each other.