The African Goddess

By Vusi Moloi © 2009

Excerpt from the book A Goodbye To My Little Troubles by Vusi Moloi.

In the dark days
of my unhappy youth
I heard of your truth
Oh African Goddess, Mantsopa.
You forewarned the advent
of the invaders of the indigenous land

When I wandered blindfolded
to your historic cave near Ladybrand
your admirers spoke well of you
as a purveyor of ancient African wisdom
Nonetheless, my disdain,
blindfolded me from seeing
your physical and spiritual beauty
inside the cave
Your heart dripped with blood.

Oh African Goddess, Mantsopa
Today I sob in North America
cut off from South Africa
greatly saddened by what
the blindfold had done to me.
Mantsopa, Motherland Goddess,
My disdain was a brain drain,
and my adage that of mundane
So that I knew little
of my African heritage.
Maybe I fit Dr. Bhengu’s book:
Chasing Gods Not Our Own

Today across the Atlantic
I have shed the blindfold
like Shaka Zulu wiping izembe
or the great black mamba
shedding its fearsome skin
My wounded and parched soul
has vehement desire for you
grant me another chance
that I may have the experience
of that ancient African wisdom

Contextual Commentary

The great King of Zululand, Shaka, regularly performed a cleansing ceremony referred as “ukusula izembe” whenever he returned from a battle. The purpose of the ceremony was to remove or cleanse the blood stains from the spear. A female was believed to possess the cleansing powers.

Dr. Sibusiso Bhengu was named to the cabinet of President Nelson Mandela in 1994. Dr. Bhengu’s book, Chasing Gods Not Our Own, was based on his academic work on the process of acculturation.

The author gratefully attributes his appreciation of the great spiritual work of Mantsopa to the women of QwaQwa. These beautiful and kind-hearted women shared their cultural knowledge of indigenous spirituality with the author. The highly revered Mantsopa Makhetha (1793-1905) was a spiritual prophetess and also advisor to the great King Moshoeshoe of the Basotho people.

The scholarly friend of the author Dr. Tladi Lerotholi of the University of Lesotho pointed out, while meeting with the author at the University of St. Paul in Ottawa, Canada that Mantsopa had a contrarian view of the proverbial narrow path vis-à-vis the broad path in that she consistently asserted that it was the broad path that led to the heavens in order to accommodate more people and not the narrow path as professed by the European missionaries.

It’s the author’s view that the missionary declaration of a narrow path seems to mirror the capitalist societies where the missionaries originate in that the path to the heavens is equivalent to a scarce resource afforded only by the selected few. The author is also grateful to other sons and daughters of the African soil who continue to pay homage to the great Mantsopa like Ntate Thabo Makotoko, the highly respected social scientist and former Ambassador of Lesotho to Canada Dr. Gwendolyn Malahleha, former Minister of the Lesotho Embassy in Canada Ntate Sofonia and his family, the late Princess Maseiso of the Lesotho Royal Family and descendant of King Moshoeshoe and numerous others.

Mantsopa was later exiled by King Moshoeshoe to Mooderpoort where the author visited her sacred cave. The sacred shrines of Mantsopa enjoy active pilgrimage from various parts of South Africa and Lesotho and her sites are a candidate for the UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

About the Author

A former South African Television Journalist, Vusi Moloi is a published author of a contextual poetry book, A Goodbye To My Little Troubles, and maintains a blog, Zulumathabo on the Internet.