Becoming The Muse

Coffee with Mbudzi

If you were having coffee with me, I would welcome you to my tangle of words and invite you to feel at home. With the sweltering heat we are experiencing its hard to imagine it was raining a week ago… now we back to hot and dry… I would offer you an ice-cold beverage, but there’s no electricity so room temperature beverage or a steaming hot cuppa…

Its November besides being the onset of the rainy season, culturally the ancestors will be taking a sabbatical from the hard work of watching over us, to do spirit stuff in the spiritual realm. While they are away, there will be no protection from the less benevolent beings which is why November is sometimes considered a cursed month, with so many horrific deaths happening around that period. Also, because the ancestors are resting they wont entertain any pleas and intercessions which is one of the reasons why traditional wedding ceremonies are not conducted in November nor any cultural gatherings and ceremonies.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that part of that tradition stems from our agrarian based customs. November with its rains would be peak farming season and families would be busy preparing the fields, cultivating, weeding and all that. Taking time out to gather family for weddings and ceremonies would inconveniently impact on the field work which could mean starving for the rest of the year. The elders in their wisdom then made it taboo to not have said gatherings in November and save people from having to make hard choices and excuses.

Another interesting thing about November is that’s when goats tend to breed with most female goats coming into heat. Goats are called mbudzi in Shona and November is also known as Mbudzi whose roots might be in having a lot of goats giving birth in November.

Goats play an important role in cultural ceremonies from providing meat for food at gatherings to being used in a traditional rituals, cleansing and appeasement ceremonies. These ceremonies would likely involve the slaughter of said goats. Now imagine the imbalance that would result from the slaughtering of livestock in their breeding season, and the ingenuity behind making it taboo for activities that would require goats….  

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that most people tend to refrain from having weddings and cultural gatherings as a cautionary practice irrespective of one’s beliefs in tradition. Its said that November weddings are likely to end in a divorce, but the are couples still enjoying their marital bliss, so maybe it could only be a superstition… Its also said you are not supposed to install a new chief in November as the ancestors will not recognise the chieftainship or worse it may stir their ire.

Colloquially November is now known as Dzungu Month which means confused and dizzy decision month, a retrospective look the events and the march to the State House which culminated in the resignation of the late former president Robert Mugabe in the coup that was not a coup. Some say this should have never been done in November which is why everything about the country has been in downward spiral from there… Even the rains havent been raining as they normally do, plagued with drought, El ninos, heatwaves… were I a superstitious man, I’d find the coincidences suspicious.

There’s something about the month of November, maybe we shouldnt carry out any major events and generally should be more vigilant. *Eyes countries with elections in November and the messy runner up to them….*

Botswana recently had its elections where the ruling party that had enjoyed a 58 year run at the helm had poll results that indicated people had gotten tired of it. Some people draw parallels to how countries still governed by revolutionary parties have been holding democracy at ransom and change is inevitable, it can be peaceful by the ballot or chaotic and messy by the bullet…

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that Zimbabwe launched its second satellite today in November. The ZimSat-2 was launched as as part of a commercial rideshare mission, lifting off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Amur Oblast. ZIMSAT-2 is equipped with a multispectral camera with an 8-metre spatial resolution designed to support Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector. Through capture of high-resolution imagery, the satellite will monitor crop health, forecast yields, and identify areas of plant nutrient deficiency. Beyond agriculture, ZIMSAT-2’s imaging capacity allows for identifying mineral resources.

ZIMSAT-2 brings Africa’s total satellite launches to 61. Our ZimSat-1 was launched on 21 November 2022 and by May 2023 it had quietly de-orbited.

And on that satellite technology Elon Musk acknowledged the Starlink capacity issue in Africa and has offered reassurances that Starlink is actively working to expand its network capacity.

Whats been happening in your neck of the woods, what are your thoughts on Goats, November and stuff.

~B