Who created Mvelinchanti?

(By Pius Vilakati, writing as Mr Pius Rinto)

PART A – When Mvelinchanti features nowhere in the people’s lives

Some Swazis present the Swazi “religion” as belief in, and worship of, Mvelinchanti who is the Almighty God, the same Christian God who “created the heavens, the earth and everything else.” The same seems to obtain in some other African countries, especially in Southern Africa. They claim that Africans strictly worship Mvelinchanti, but only that labaphansi (ancestors) intercede for them. That is, they send their prayers to God (Mvelinchanti) through the ancestors (labaphansi), just like Christians have Jesus Christ and the Saints.

When we trace what actually takes place in the people’s regular activities, however, we find no mention of Mvelinchanti in any part of the Swazi people’s way of life. By “way of life” we presuppose a group of people who have not yet received or accepted Christianity; traditionalists. Even king Mswati in his speeches sometimes says he thanks “God and the ancestors” for whatever event he is grateful for.

Ancestors protect us

Using our own experiences, and through the vast SiSwati literature that we have had the liberty of reading, we trace how Swazis have been living. Every time we always find that when a family member is undertaking a long journey, the family elders request that labaphansi go with her or him and protect that individual member from dangers along the way. They never say, “May Mvelinchanti protect you.” No! They specifically mention labaphansi. Neither do they request that labaphansi should request Mvelinchanti to protect you.

Ancestors welcome us when we die

When a family member dies, the ancestors are alerted of the death. Throughout the funeral and mourning process, they are updated about what is happening and what step will take place next. Mvelinchanti is never mentioned. When the body leaves the home, the elders speak to labaphansi, alert them that one of their own is leaving the home for good and then ask them to welcome her or him with warm arms. Where, when, how, and by whom, was this Mvelinchanti created then? Surely she or he should be mentioned somewhere if she or he is known by Swazis. Not so?

All events are reported to the ancestors

When Swazis have events coming up, such as a wedding ceremony, they never forget to alert the ancestors and request that the event be a success. Sometimes they simply slaughter a beast for the ancestors to remember and celebrate them. But somehow, Mvelinchanti never gets any mention. Neither does she or he even get a small party. Not even a small goat is slaughtered for Mvelinchanti.

When ancestors are angry

Sometimes it happens that natural disasters happen and people’s houses get blown off, amongst other things. Sometimes a whole family or community gets attacked by a killer disease. We see again here that the people interpret this as a sign of anger from the ancestors for some wrong that has been committed by them, or by some amongst them which has been allowed to continue. When these things happen, Swazis again slaughter a beast in order to appease and calm down the anger of the ancestors (labaphansi). Yet they never appease the “real creator” of everything, Mvelinchanti! Does it not make you ask why?

PART B: Investigating the real creator of Mvelinchanti

In Part A we found that Mvelinchanti is not known to the people of Swaziland. We must now investigate the roots of Mvelinchanti.

Emergence of the word

The first point is to investigate when the word “Mvelinchanti” actually started appearing. Was it there, for instance, before colonialism? Was it there before the arrival of Christian missionaries? If our investigation finds that the word “Mvelinchanti” was non-existent before these events, it will add to evidence that the “Mvelinchanti” title was either coined by the Christian missionaries in trying to convince Swazis to accept Christianity as an equal to the Swazi “religion” or was designed by Swazis to “upgrade” their “religion” to that of the Christians so that it can be acceptable to the new powerful white masters (colonisers). This “upgrading” may show that when the colonialists overpowered the Swazis and thereafter imposed their “superior” religion, Swazis had no choice but to either unreservedly accept the colonialists’ religion or upgrade their own by polluting it with the new more powerful religion or both.

This is only a beginning of our investigation. We will continue, as the days go, to search for Mvelinchanti’s roots. If we cannot find her or him, then we must find the one who created her or him.

NB: In this article, we use “Swazis” because that is the society in which the primary author of the article has lived most of his life in Swaziland and thus has actual knowledge of the place. It may as well refer to other societies where “Mvelinchanti” or a similar being “exists.”