Xhosa Heritage - African Traditional Religion

Religious Leaders

• The Elderly
The elderly, both men and women, are the leaders in African Traditional Religion. Owing to their wisdom and life experience, they are able to see when harmony is disturbed and also if ancestors are displeased. There is no general trend of gender differentiation as that depends on gender roles in different ethnic grups. What is common is that each elderly person has a role to play, sometimes depending on the birth right, age, and gender of the individual.

When there is a clan problem, the elderly of the clan, as kinship leaders, take the first initiative to solve the problem. If misconduct is believed to be due to an unperformed ritual, the kinship leadership takes responsibility.

• Chiefs
Chiefs are cultural, political and religious leaders who look after the social order of the entire community, the chief is the highest court of appeal. The chief is a member of his/her own clan and has no religious leadership in such a situation.

Sometimes harmony and balance within the society are distrubed by natural forces like drought or pestilence. In such cases the chief is the authority who calls the people to camagusha (pardon, plead, invoke) izihlwele, (all ancestors collectively, irrespective of clans). In this case, the whole community is involved.

• Diviners/Traditional Healers
Izangoma/dingaka/amagqirha(diviners), are special people who are called by the ancestors to heal the living. Diviners receive their call from their clan ancestors either in dreams or visions. When people are called by the ancestors they undergo special training under the guidance of ancestors who show them various ways to heal the sick. Their main duty is to heal and never to kill as no person has the right to kill other human beings. Killing is despised by God and the ancestors. Any person who claims to be a diviner but is invoved in an evi work of killing, either physically or emotionally, is believed not to be a true diviner but a fake who is using evil powers in order to fulfill his/her evil and selfish purposes. Ancestors never send anybody to kill, as killing would disturb harmony which is the primary concern of the spiritau world.

In the training of diviners for their profession, the elderly of the clan play a very crucial role. In all diviner's rituals for the ancestors a sacrifice is performed. When an animal is being killed, a special person called intlabi - the man who has religious duty to kill sacrificial animals- has to be informed to ensure the ritual will not be a failure. The clan elderly must utter ritual speeches to the ancestors so as to heal the initiated. The use of the clan's sacred assegai for the killing of the animal and the kraal also accelerate the success towards the profession. All the above could not be a success without the involvement of the clan.

The diviner, who has a special gift of communicating with the ancestors, is under the guidance of the clan eldery as s/he cannot fulfil the instructions alone without their experience and wisdom.