Transformations of a Manfisch : changing Allegories for the Njuzu in Shona Literature - article ; n°1 ; vol.69, pg 199-219

Grant Lilford

Description

Journal des africanistes - Année 1999 - Volume 69 - Numéro 1 - Pages 199-219
The njuzu is a traditional personage of Shona oral literature. Half-man and half-fish, he is highly ambiguous. The author looks at how two contemporary fictional works make use of this figure, adapting it to their own ends. In one, whose action is set in an idealized pre-colonial period, the njuzu is characterized in a positive fashion. In the other, which takes place during and following the war of liberation, the njuzu becomes an allegorical representation of the White man. This article thus explores how traditional mythical motifs can be used to evoke new and changing situations.
Le njuzu est une figure traditionnelle de la littérature orale shona. Mi-homme, mi-poisson, il a des traits ambigus. L'auteur examine comment deux œuvres contemporaines l'utilisent et comment elles l'adaptent à leurs propres visées. L'une d'elles situe son action dans une période précoloniale idéalisée et donne au njuzu des caractéristiques positives. L'autre situe son action pendant et après la guerre de libération et le njuzu y devient une représentation allégorique du Blanc. L'article explore donc l'usage des mythes traditionnels pour évoquer des conditions nouvelles et changeantes.
21 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique

Informations

• Publié par: JOURNAL_DES_AFRICANISTES
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1999
• Nombre de lectures: 66
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Grant Lilford
Transformations of a Manfisch : changing Allegories for the
Njuzu in Shona Literature
In: Journal des africanistes. 1999, tome 69 fascicule 1. pp. 199-219.
Abstract
The njuzu is a traditional personage of Shona oral literature. Half-man and half-fish, he is highly ambiguous. The author looks at
how two contemporary fictional works make use of this figure, adapting it to their own ends. In one, whose action is set in an
idealized pre-colonial period, the njuzu is characterized in a positive fashion. In the other, which takes place during and following
the war of liberation, the njuzu becomes an allegorical representation of the White man. This article thus explores how traditional
mythical motifs can be used to evoke new and changing situations.
Résumé
Le njuzu est une figure traditionnelle de la littérature orale shona. Mi-homme, mi-poisson, il a des traits ambigus. L'auteur
examine comment deux œuvres contemporaines l'utilisent et comment elles l'adaptent à leurs propres visées. L'une d'elles situe
son action dans une période précoloniale idéalisée et donne au njuzu des caractéristiques positives. L'autre situe son action
pendant et après la guerre de libération et le njuzu y devient une représentation allégorique du Blanc. L'article explore donc
l'usage des mythes traditionnels pour évoquer des conditions nouvelles et changeantes.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Lilford Grant. Transformations of a Manfisch : changing Allegories for the Njuzu in Shona Literature. In: Journal des africanistes.
1999, tome 69 fascicule 1. pp. 199-219.
doi : 10.3406/jafr.1999.1193
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/jafr_0399-0346_1999_num_69_1_1193LILFORD11
Grant
Transformations of a Manfish :
Changing Allegories for the Njuzu in Shona
Literature
Résumé
Le njuzu est une figure traditionnelle de la littérature orale shona. Mi-homme,
mi-poisson, il a des traits ambigus. L'auteur examine comment deux œuvres contemporaines
l'utilisent et comment elles l'adaptent à leurs propres visées. L'une d'elles situe son action
dans une période précoloniale idéalisée et donne au njuzu des caractéristiques positives.
L'autre situe son action pendant et après la guerre de libération et le njuzu y devient une
représentation allégorique du Blanc. L'article explore donc l'usage des mythes traditionnels
pour évoquer des conditions nouvelles et changeantes.
Mots-clefs
Littérature shona, esprits aquatiques, mythologie, Zimbabwe, guerre
Abstract
The njuzu is a traditional personage of Shona oral literature. Half-man and half-fish,
he is highly ambiguous. The author looks at how two contemporary fictional works make
use of this figure, adapting it to their own ends. In one, whose action is set in an idealized
pre-colonial period, the njuzu is characterized in a positive fashion. In the other, which takes
place during and following the war of liberation, the njuzu becomes an allegorical
representation of the White man. This article thus explores how traditional mythical motifs
can be used to evoke new and changing situations.
Keywords
Shona literature, water spirits, mythology, Zimbabwe, war
Docteur de l'Université de Cape Town, adjunct faculty member at North Carolina
Wesleyan College.
Journal des Africanistes 69 (1) 1999 : 199-219 200 Grant Ldlford
Christopher Tagwireyi's Dziva reNjuzu and Wiseman Magwa's Njuzu
represent changing uses of the figure of the Njuzu, or water person, in
contemporary Shona literature. The njuzu is perhaps better known as the
« manfish » in Dambudzo Marechera's House of Hunger, in which it is an
evil, disruptive creature (Marechera 1978 : 130). The Shona texts discuss
social disorder and conflict in which the figure of njuzu serves as a catalyst,
underscoring and exacerbating existing conflicts. The njuzu is usually an
ambivalent figure, with a capacity for extremes of good and evil. It does good
deeds by training people to be n 'anga, or traditional doctors. It also, however,
can steal people from their families and in some cases, destroy them. It will
destroy any anyone who uses n/wzw-derived healing power for selfish reasons
(Reynolds 1990: 319-320, 333 п.). Tagwireyi's narrative focuses on the
positive aspects of njuzu, treating them as a catalyst for social change.
Magwa's play presents the njuzu as a negative figure which conspires with
a hostile world against the hero. The redefinition of the njuzu myth serves
to gauge changes in Zimbabwean society and culture1.
THE TEXTS
Each text seems to fit neatly into each of Kahari's categories of « Old
World » and « New World » narratives (Kahari 1986 : 133-134). Tagwireyi's
Dziva reNjuzu is an « Old World » narrative, set in a rural area somewhere
in Zimbabwe in the distant past prior to the arrival of the whites. It tells of
family conflict and the resolution of the conflict through divination and the
authority of the chiefs court. The njuzu abducts Fungai (« Think ! »), the
daughter of Mudyandigere (« His eating is guaranteed »), and ignites the
already smouldering clash between his family and that of Nhamoinenharo
(« Troubles are obstinate »), whose daughter, Marwei (« The foolish girl »),
was with Fungai when she was taken. Magwa's Njuzu is a play set during
and after the second Chimurenga, or struggle for liberation in the 1970s and
1980s. It is explicitly allegorical. The njuzu in the play is Matope («Thin
watery mud »), who is a brutal soldier in the army of the Njuzu during the
« hondo yenjuzu nevanhu vanyika » (« war between the njuzu and the people
of the land ») (Magwa 1991 : 10). The war ends and Nyika, the hero of the
play, leaves the army after fighting with Matope. He is unable to survive in
1 This paper was first presented at the 1996 conference of the Canadian Association of
African Studies in Montréal. I would like to thank the University of Venda for providing
a travel and subsistence grant so that I could attend the conference. I would also like to
express heartfelt thanks to my colleague, Anna Poshai, for assisting me with the translation.
Journal des Africanistes 69 (1) 1999 : 199-219 Transformations of a Manfish 20 1
the reserve or in town and so finally he takes a job as a domestic servant on
a farm, where he accepts the authority of the farmer's wife and reminisces
about the war.
The two texts use the figure of njuzu in very different ways. The njuzu
in Dziva reNjuzu is a more traditional one, acting as a deus ex machina which
both sparks and settles the dispute between Nhamoinenharo and Mudyan-
digere. In addition, it trains Fungai in the skills of healing, which is the
traditional function of njuzu. The njuzu in Magwa's play borders on racial
stereotype. Njuzus are like whites because they have pale skin and straight
hair. They possess unusual abilities and they come from the water just as the
whites come from over the seas. Under certain circumstances, people taken
by njuzu never return home, and people who adopt the culture of the white
cities are permanently alienated while those who are abducted by the
army or police simply vanish. Aschwanden cites one myth which suggests
that the njuzu came into being in order to kidnap people for ransom :
One day God said to two of his children : « You have no wealth (fuma)
to enable you to give something to people you ask for help. How can you
obtain fuma for yourselves ? » The two did not know, and God continued :
« I will send you to a big pool. When somebody comes to fetch water, catch
him and keep him. His relatives will then come to pay ransom. You will
demand from them cattle and glass beads. Only then need you return the
prisoner ; but do not let him go empty-handed : give him a healing spirit
(shave) and medicines, so that he will be a great help to the people as a doctor
(n'anga) ». This is how the water spirits came into existence (Aschwanden
1989 : 136).
However, Magwa's njuzu has nothing positive to offer in exchange for
the ransom. Nyasha (« Mercy »), an eight year old boy, expresses the uncanny
nature of njuzus and whites when he tells Matope, who wants to take him
away and teach him about the war :
Kwete ! Isu takaudzwa kuti anongotorwa nenjuzu haazodzokazve.
Anondopondwa kana kushandurwa kuitwa njuzu. Zvaka... (anopiwa chibha-
kera chepamuromo chaipo owira pasi). (Magwa 1991 : 11)
No ! We have been told that he who is taken by njuzu does not return.
He is murdered or changed into a njuzu. When... (he receives a fist in his
mouth and falls down), (my translation)
The alien culture of the whites is as terrifying to him as the uncanny,
supernatural njuzu. Elsewhere in Shona literature the urban white culture has
an uncanny, terrifying quality. In Marangwanda's Kumazivandadzoka (« If
you arrive in a dangerous place go home »), Harare shares a nickname with
Journal des Africanistes 69 (1) 1999 : 199-219 202 Gr