HIGHLIGHTS OF LIFE IN LUNGA- PART 2

ABA- UNGA NEVER DIE!

Yes, you read right. Ungas never die! They only transform. To know what I mean, read on.

I lived in a village at the northern end of Bwalya Mponda chiefdom. The next, known as Maishike was north-east. There was my grandfather’s desolate village of Matolongo, otherwise known up to now as Chibolya, somewhere in between. Most of the evenings, we could see some huge bright torch light further down Chibolya and occasionally some sound of gunfire.  One day, I asked my mother where the bright torch- light was coming from:

“It’s Musanika (Torchbearer). He’s a dead person walking by the shores of Chibolya.”

“You mean a ghost? What about the gunfire?”

“Oh, I never told you,” she said, with a gentle love tap on my shoulder. “The gunfire is real and it’s coming from another dead man called Sande Puwa.”

“Who is Sande Puwa and why does he fire guns and at what?” I asked out of typical child curiosity.

“Sande Puwa was a skillful hunter. During one of his hunting trips, he was shot dead by Game Guards near Chibolya. But then, his ghost comes back and hunts from his favourite hunting ground, along the same shores, hence the sounds of gunfire,” mom said without any speck of doubt.

“So, dead people can come back and do what they loved to do when they were alive?”

“People never die. They just transform. They either go to heaven, purgatory, hell or just hang around after burying them,” she said, obviously drawing from some of the basic teachings of her beloved Catholic faith.

Most evenings when we, as children, asked parents to tell us some folk tales, a good number of stories involved the interactions of ghosts and the living. I grew up knowing that some ghosts are actually our relatives. They watch us do certain things, they can harm or protect us. But then, when I became one of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, I learnt that when people die, they cease to exist in any form.

 But do my tribesmen accept this?

The answer is NO.  Ungas never die! Here is their fundamental belief about death.

As you may be aware, Ungas are matrilineal. We cling to the mother’s side more than our father’s.  If, for any reason, you anger your mom, aunt or uncle (mother’s brother) or even your father for that matter (we call our father’s young or elder brother as father and not uncle), they can pronounce a curse on you which is dreaded just as much as an ecclesiastical anathema. Now, the curse is believed to be invoked by talking to the spirits of dead relatives. If your elders ask from dead ancestors that something happen to you, it does happen. Bad or good.

If it’s a blessing they want to be upon you, so it will.  They would smear cassava meal powder on your forehead or/and arm while invoking spirits.

Another way that promulgates the belief that Unga’s don’t die is if you took part in causing death of someone, openly or clandestinely. Ungas believe that they can invoke the spirit of a dead person to come and cause turbulence in the family of the killer by either killing his relatives or causing sicknesses.

In such cases, if the victims of revenge suspect that the problems in the family are caused by avengers, they would  admit and seek forgiveness by paying some reasonable ransom (Icifuta mulandu).

Upon admission, the relatives to the avengers will say something upon satisfactory discernment that you have shown genuine remorse and agreed to pay prescribed ransom. This is no ordinary words. They are said in a special way to pacify angry spirits. This action is called “ukupaala amate,” (which involves the process of blessing described above). It is simply asking the dead relative to stop causing further pain in the aggressor's family.

Word of caution to non-Ungas: You may be quick to think that these beliefs are primitive. Not at all!

Fear of causing unnecessary deaths in families from wanton killing of other people upholds the sanctity of life. Unga people respect lives of spouses, children, strangers, neighbours, etc.

Secondly, there is respect for family hierarchy because we believe our elders carry the mantle of our forefathers and whatever they say will either be for our blessing or curse. That in itself encourages discipline in families and the community at large.

It’s because of Ungas belief in life after death that they even have a special burial place which I discussed earlier and you can read it here, NJELELE.

So, whenever you are in Ungaland, you must remember that Ungas' spirits remain forever alive and watchful, like their God-given fish whose bones never die but remain alive and dangerous.

To understand how  Ungas and other people around the Bangweulu swamps react to sickness and mourn their loved ones, read HERE