Celebrating Incwala has nothing to do with disowning God

While watching television I heard a pastor rebuking his congregation for being superb at carrying their Bibles to and from church but never reading them.  

I also heard someone saying if you wanted to hide classified information from a Swazi simply print it in a book or a newspaper and the Swazi will miss it because he does not read. I say NO, Swazis do read and react—remember that can of worms I opened when I wrote about the Incwala; responses were flying like misguided missiles, some completely missing the point either through misinterpretation or just sheer ignorance which makes me stupid because it has taken me so long to discover that some of our countrymen have a tremendous affinity for untruths and at the same time converting themselves into self proclaimed experts on things they misread or eavesdropped from others who are equally pathetic.  

They are the type Isaiah describes in chapter 56 verse 11 where he says “They are dogs with mighty appetites; they never have enough. They are shepherds who lack understanding; they all turn to their own way, each seeks his own gain”.  
His Majesty the King having commissioned the water party (Bemanti) the Incwala season has commenced.  As I sit silently brooding over the Incwala season memories of yesteryears come crisscrossing down memory lane.

When we were growing up we used to hear stories that the tsotsis or the dice gamblers used concocted dice ‘Imbombayi, Sigidzi’ around Christmas and were looking forward to using knives to stab others.  
They were doing so because it was fashionable and an honour as means of gaining respect and recognition.  
This was happening around the black townships as eStandini in Manzini.  

I know this because I grew up in Manzini residing with our father Walter Mafinifini WaraWara Dlamini, and our mother ‘make’ LaZwane who brought us up together with my sister Joyce who is now languishing somewhere together with some equally misfortuned Swazis in xenophobic South Africa and the gifted lawyer Fikile who is also making means somewhere in the islands because she can only come to Swaziland to assist the understaffed and overworked Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs only on secondment by the United Nations agencies while her own people and her own government cannot find space for her.  

Mafinifini, a great friend of Prince Masitsela, and a brother to the late Dr Pym Dlamini who King Sobhuza II named ‘Godolwezimamba’ and Dr Selby Dlamini passed on a few years back and was survived by our mother LaZwane who lives at eMbekelweni while Phindile, Thula and my other younger brothers and sisters are making means each in his or her own way because of the scourge that is not known only to an imbecile and those who were born with a silver spoon.  
If you have managed to read this much far you might ask and rightly so as to what do we have to do with Sobandla’s boring and uneventful past?  

The resulting nostalgia is not so much as to talk about me when I grew up at eNkambeni in a very different environment as when I was in Manzini – the real reason is about the season we are now approaching.  
To a Christian it is looked at with great anticipation because it is the commemoration of the birth of the Son of Man who was sacrificed and had his innocent blood shed so that you and I and all those who call on His name might be saved (Romans 10:13).

 
But for us together with my brothers and sisters I just mentioned, apart from Zweli who tragically lost his life at an early age, we were forever looking forward to Christmas under the care of Make Zwane because to us it was a rare season of gifts and sweets from our parents and from the Raleigh Fitkin Nazarene Church and hospital commonly known as ka-Hynd.

Like I said the environment and expectations at the Nazarene Mission were different from that of eNkambeni which is almost similar to that of Lozitha where together with Prince Phinda we saw the king and our biological mothers for the first time and could not remember them because we left them when we were still very young and then joined (kubutseka) the regimental forces of Lindimpi which has since become Inyatsi yaMswati.  

Just like each and everyone everywhere and according to their culture looks forward and makes new year resolutions for themselves, for us members of Umbutfo depending on the position of the sun and the phases of the moon beginning from around November and December we were and are still unshakeable with excitement looking forward to His Majesty commissioning the ‘Water party’ – Libutfo lebemanti – leading to the beginning of the little Incwala which we dance everyday up until the final main Incwala day.  

This is a process which is punctuated by other equally important, gruesome and eventful events such as the day of Lusekwane where the king himself joins the warriors in the long march starting from around midday at eNgabezweni Royal Residence until around 10am the following day when the eMajaha eLusekwane (Tingatsha) deliver the sacred shrub (Lusekwane) which is followed by the killing of the bull bare handed by the same Tingatsha at eLudzidzini Royal Residence.  
To us it is a ceremony where the nation, their king, the Indlovukazi and even a stranger is free and allowed if not expected to partake at will which reminds me of King Solomon when he prayed to God that even foreigners could worship with them 1 Kings 8: 41-43.
To a traitor, nationhood, his people and his country are only to him a means of gaining money and nothing more.  
To an atheist God means nothing and you cannot without feeling sorry blame them because they are truly not themselves but are under the spell as the Bible puts it clearly in 2 Corinthians 4:4 (“The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God”).  

To a biased, neocolonised, adulterated, brainwashed and indoctrinated demagogue can it be let known that celebrating our own nationhood and in our own given culture as we do in Swaziland during Incwala, eMhlangeni, eLutsangweni has nothing to do  with disowning God Almighty who we call Mvelencanti (which means the One who was there before everything) as the Bible says.

 With the advent of the Holy Scripture which starts from Genesis to Revelations as was revealed to King Sobhuza I (Somhlolo) and Mswati II his son commissioning an envoy of well chosen men fetched the Bible from Thaba Nchu and since then the king, Indlovukazi, pastors and evangelists read this book and as far as humanly possible read it as is written in Joshua 1:8.

That is why King Mswati III marks the end and beginning of every year by a dedication prayer with all churches whether local or from outside Swaziland.  
To appreciate as Swazis what God did for us we without apartheid of any kind accommodate everyone at Somhlolo National Stadium where we celebrate the resurrection of Christ and crown it by another equally massive attendance in prayer on Ascension Day at the Royal Residence of Embangweni at Shiselweni.  

When we participate in all these enumerated cultural and Christian ceremonies we do not do so because we have nothing else important to do nor do we do so to make ourselves the laughing stock of the world nor to hurt anyone.
How thankful I am for the Americans who till today still remember the ‘Mayflower’ and their safe landing at Plymouth.  Ask the student of history he will tell you more.  
Today thousands of turkeys are still slaughtered and pies baked in anticipation for the celebration of the founding of the land of the free and the brave.  

The same goes for the Muslims.  Islam is their religion by choice and those who have the means try their best to make it to Mecca despite the dangers sometimes.
Is it not why I congratulate and am thankful for the Americans as a nation and Islam as a religion that I have yet to learn or hear anybody ridiculing or demonizing the Americans for their Incwala which they call ‘Thanksgiving’ and the nation of Islam for their Incwala which they hold without fail in Mecca, Saudi Arabia? 

These nations are mindful and thankful to God for what he did not for other nations, but for themselves.
That is why they have these celebrations at the appointed time and doing so in the manner it should be done and not otherwise – just like the children of Israel when honouring the Purim, their own Incwala as is written in the Book of Esther Chapter 9.

I do not know why but some of our people have even gone to an extent of employing very sad and insultive statements that the authorities of this land are politicising culture and Christianity by providing transport and food during these ceremonies to the Swazi people.  To them it is a bad idea.            

I may not be the one to judge but God being a true, fair and faithful God he endowed you and me with a conscience to make a difference between right and wrong, between good and bad and between fair constructive criticism and plain howling like rabid dogs.  

To remind others look at the phase of the moon between December 15 and 17 for it will be between those days where Swazis and friends join the king, Indlovukazi and the warriors on the opening of Incwala.  
Just like Joshua said in Chapter 24:15 I am copying from him that as long as there is a king to commission Incwala “As for me and my household we will forever celebrate the Incwala”.

I normally end my articles by saying till next week but this time I am sorry that on a personal note I will say till we meet at eNcwaleni and until after the tete-a-tete I have to share with some of the peoples I have so much admiration and respect for in the persons of Princes Tsekedi our High Commissioner based in Mozambique and Senzangakhona (Phesheya) our representative in the Far East.  GOD BLESS AND PEACE!!