HAZEL FRIEDMAN meets sangoma Credo Mutwa to talk about the future – and a new exhibition
‘I HAVE a sick, disgusting obsession to make this country great – not through guns and revolution but through love and laughter.” Credo Mutwa’s eyes practically sink behind his tree-thick lenses and disappear into bloated cheeks as he breaks into a smile as broad as the Limpopo. We’re sitting in a rented apartment, supplied courtesy of Absa Bank (who recently subsidised his journey to the British Museum of Mankind in London during December 1996).
There, he unearthed and identified various ancient South African artefacts – retrieved from over 5 000 pieces that have, until now, lain virtually entombed. He brought them home to South Africa for the Living Symbols of Africa exhibition.
They include Zulu love-letter necklaces, Ndebele beaded aprons, ceremonial Zulu spears, knobkerries and beaded cattle horns. They have, inevitably, been stripped of the traditional, historical contexts in which they functioned as integral components of daily tribal life. Yet Mutwa believes – perhaps naively – that their presence and once-dense symbolic resonances can be resurrected.
”These artefacts could set South Africa dreaming again for their stories are pointers towards greater knowledge, wisdom and pride,” says the man widely regarded as one of the few remaining cultural visionaries in South Africa capable of re- fertilising the eroded soil of South Africa’s ancient past.
Yet Mutwa is certainly not one of a kind. Men like him still live in the hills and valleys of rural South Africa, recounting ancient lore and legend and prophesying spiritual renewal. What separates Mutwa from his equally sagacious peers is the public visibility of the man. This, coupled with his extraordinary verbal prowess and a seemingly unlimited database of historical references and parables, has secured him the status of mystic healer – the last of an endangered sacred species.
But who is Credo Mutwa really? ”A foolish man who has dreams,” he says humbly. Is he a gentle, unashamedly romantic proponent of love as the cure for all ills; a visionary ahead of his time? Or is he a charlatan and opportunist who consorted with the enemy? That depends on the angle of vision.
A proud Zulu with an unashamedly unpoliticised conscience, Mutwa has travelled the flimsy line between veneration and vilification. He is a celebrated author and sculptor and has published, exhibited and travelled widely, attending conferences on shamanism, philosophy and the arts. People still come to him from afar to be healed. Yet during the 1976 Soweto riots he was labelled an apartheid collaborator.
His son was killed by comrades, his house was burnt down and he was literally chased from the township. He landed up in Mafikeng where, with the approval of his friend President Lucas Mangope, he established a traditional healing village, which developed into a popular tourist attraction.
Then, Mangope fell and Mutwa’s sun seemed about to set. Shunned by the new North West Province legislature, in 1995 he was evicted from the village because ”it stood on land belonging to the Parks Board”. Today his original cultural village is in ruins but he has built another in the Shamwari Game Reserve.
”I believe that if African culture is fully utilised in all its richness it can benefit hundreds of thousands of people, he says, unearthing self-drawn sketches of African warriors engaged in traditional wrestling matches. ”Today, we have been inspired by kick-boxing from the Far East but centuries ago this was common practice, alongside bare fist and stick fighting. It was good fun and it served as an outlet for anger and ensured peaceful inter-tribal coexistence. If these sports had to be revived today they would become a major tourist attraction and job creator.”
Mutwa makes no claims to cultural purity, nor does he advocate the return to a mythical South Africa untainted by change or outside influence. He translates life as a series of confluences of different histories – biblical and secular. And these he liquidly conflates into lessons for the present and future.
”During the iconoclastic Middle Ages the monasteries secretly preserved the ancient knowledge of Europe. Not only the Christian teachings but the ancient Greek Homeric philosophies as well. And whoever started the Renaissance built a mountain of creativity,” says Mutwa.
He adds: ”All humans want recognition, whether they are soccer players or serial killers, because the greatest expression of human freedom is being recognised for one’s value. And the greatest anchor for democracy is creativity. One cannot have democracy on the dung-heap of crime. But if you create shining winds of beauty and unleash creativity it can reform even the most hardened of criminals.”
Living Symbols of Africa is on display at the Absa Gallery in Johannesburg until April 15