Sotho Stories

[Crisoforo Schuhmacher]

Everyculture on Earth has looked up to the stars for practical information and answers to the biggest of questions. More often than not what is learned is wrapped up in stories and passed down the generations.

IsiLimela or the Pleiades were the 'digging stars', whose appearance in southern Africa warned of the coming need to begin hoeing the ground. All over Africa, these stars were used as a marker of the growing season. 'And we say isiLimela is renewed, and the year is renewed, and so we begin to dig'. (Callaway 1970). Xhosa men counted their years of manhood from the time in June when IsiLimela first became visible. According to the Namaquas, the Pleiades were the daughters of the sky god. When their husband (Aldeberan) shot his arrow (Orion's sword) at three zebras (Orion's belt), it fell short. He dared not return home because he had killed no game, and he dared not retrieve his arrow because of the fierce lion (Betelgeuse) which sat watching the zebras. There he sits still, shivering in the cold night and suffering thirst and hunger.

A strong-willed girl became so angry when her mother would not give her any of a delicious roasted root that she grabbed the roasting roots from the fire and threw the roots and ashes into the sky, where the red and white roots now glow as red and white stars, and the ashes are the Milky Way. Dornan, 1925 (The Bushmen)

And there the road is to this day. Some people call it the Milky Way; some call it the Stars' Road, but no matter what you call it, it is the path made by a young girl many, many years ago, who threw the bright sparks of her fire high up into the sky to make a road in the darkness. Leslau, Charlotte and Wolf. African Folk Tales (1963)

To Xhosas, the Milky Way seemed like the raised bristles on the back of an angry dog. Sotho and Tswana saw it as Molalatladi, the place where lightning rests. It also kept the sky from collapsing, and showed the movement of time. Some said it turned the Sun to the east.

A legend of the Karanga people held that the stars were the eyes of the dead, while many Tswana believed that they were the spirits of those unwilling to be born. Other Tswana believed that they were the souls of those so long dead that they were no longer ancestor spirits. The Venda pictured the stars as hanging from the solid dome of the sky by cords, while other groups believed the stars to be holes in the solid rock dome of the sky.

'In Malawi the morning star is Chechichani, a poor housekeeper who allows her husband the Moon to go hungry and starve; Puikani, the evening star, is a fine wife who feeds the Moon thus bringing him back to life.'

Nwedzana = waxing crescent. If the horns point up when the new crescent is sighted in the evening sky, it 'was said to be holding up all kinds of disease, and when the horns were tipped down, the Moon was a basin pouring illness over the world.' (Sotho, Tswana, Venda)

In Bushman legend, the Moon is a man who has angered the Sun. Every month the Moon reaches round prosperity, but the Sun's knife then cuts away pieces until finally only a tiny piece is left, which the Moon pleads should be left for his children. It is from this piece that the Moon gradually grows again to become full.

The Sun was once a man who made it day when he raised his arms, for a powerful light shone from his armpits. But as he grew old and slept too long, the people grew cold. Children crept up on him, and threw him into the sky, where he became round and has stayed warm and bright ever since. (Khoikhoi and San)

Some believed that after sunset the Sun traveled back to the east over the top of the sky, and that the stars are small holes to let the light through. Others said that the Sun is eaten each night by a crocodile and that it emerges from the crocodile each morning.

According to a Naron bushman, the Sun turned into a rhinoceros at sunset, which was killed and eaten by the people in the west. They then throw the shoulder blade towards the east, where it turns into an animal again and starts to rise.

Canopus was known to some tribes as the 'ants' egg star' because of its prominence during the season when the eggs were abundant. The bright stars of the pointers and the southern cross were often seen as giraffes, though different tribes had different ideas about which were male and which were female. Among the Venda the giraffes were known as Thutlwa, 'rising above the trees', and in October the giraffes would indeed skim above the trees on the evening horizon, reminding people to finish planting.

Innovative and culturally significant approaches to civic planning among Sotho-speaking peoples can be traced back to the 14th-16th centuries when the predecessors of South Sotho-speakers first arrived in the present-day Republic of South Africa and Kingdom of Lesotho. While the earliest structures themselves no longer exist, archaeologists have studied the remains of former settlements to gain an understanding of social organization and the significance of the built environment as an expression of identity. As Huffman explains, these early settlements follow the general layout of what is described as the "Central Cattle Pattern." Such settlements feature a central cattle corral (lesaka) with a surrounding residential zone.

Based on the remaining evidence, scholars have determined that domestic structures in these settlement types likely consisted of domed structures made of thatch (so-called "beehive huts") or circular pole-and-daga (a mixture of dung and mud) walls with a thatched roof. The archaeological remains of these settlements are thought to be related to cultural affiliation and are largely found in regions where Eastern Bantu-speaking peoples resided. It is significant that Sotho-speaking peoples organized their built environments with a livestock corral, or lesaka, as a central feature, not only to provide shelter and protection, but also as a spatial expression of local belief systems. This space, along with the judicial court, or khotla, was historically reserved for men, as was the livestock itself and any related materials such as skin, horn, and bone.

Cattle also played a significant role in other facets of the life cycle, further emphasizing their centrality within South Sotho society. For example, upon the death of an individual, a cow was slaughtered as part of the cleansing process, and its skin was wrapped around the body of the deceased in order to prepare it for the afterlife. Furthermore, when males undergo lebollo, or initiation into adulthood, a bull is slaughtered, and one thigh given to the initiates. The ngaka, or herbalist, who oversees many of the necessary practices and procedures during this process, is given the remaining part of the bull as payment for his services and expertise.

In addition, cattle by-products also hold special significance among South Sotho-speaking cultures. For example, oxtails were used to make strings for sewing brooms and baskets, skins produced clothing, stringing beads relied on sinew, and horns were transformed into snuff bottles. Thus, the centrality of the lesaka, both physically and conceptually, played a significant historical role in the built environments of South Sotho-speaking populations and is still a central element in many contemporary communities in spite of changes in structures, materials, and civic planning.

Bloemfontein: Nasionale Pers, 1942. First Printing. Wraps. Small 8vo, wraps, good with library labels on front covers, light ink stamping, pencil notations to title page, otherwise clean and unmarked, pages and covers somewhat tanned and brittle. 84 pp, illustrated. Introduction in stories, verse and history to the people and land of the Mphahlele region of South Africa, in Northern Sotho or Sepedi. RARE with OCLC locating 8 copies, all in South Africa. Good. Item #H31372

Pokeletso ena ya dipalekgutshwe le meqoqo e qholotsa babadi ho hlahloba melemo le boitshwaro ba bona. E akaretsa dingolwa tse amang bophelo ba sejwalejwale, tse kang boikarabelo, boitshwaro, tumelo le pholoso. Pokeletso ena e tiisa matla a puo a ho pheta pale. This finely-wrought anthology of short stories and essays focuses on the complexities of the human situation. Intriguing and provocative, the stories challenge readers to reassess their values and moral standards.

The Child with a Moon on his Chest is a South African folktale from the Sotho people. It is related to the cycle of the Calumniated Wife, and is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children".

The tale was collected by douard Jacouttet from the Basotho people, and published in 1895, with the title Khodi-Sfoubeng.[1] His book was translated into English as The treasury of Ba-suto lore (1908), and referred to the tale as Ngoana ea Khoeli-Sefubeng.[2] A later publication names it Ngwana ya Kgwedi Sefubeng, which translates to "The child with a moon on his chest".[3]

In Jacouttet's first publication, Boulan is a chief married to ten wives, his favourite one named Morongo. Boulan has the mark of a full moon on his chest, that is why he is also known as Khodi-Sfoubeng (literally, "moon on chest").

One day, he tells his nine cowives that the queen - Jacouttet explains that the queen is considered to be the first wife and the others her servants - will bear a boy just like his father, with a full moon on his breast, while the other co-wives will bear boys either with a half-moon or stars on their chests.

When Morongo, the queen, is ready to give birth to her son, the second co-wife tells the midwife to get rid of the boy and replace him for a puppy. The midwife obeys, takes the boy and throws him to the back portion of the hut, among the pots. There, he is raised and fed by a little rat. Boulane returns to ascertain the birth of their children, and is told that the queen gave birth to an animal. Morongo is demoted and the second co-wife becomes the queen.

One day, the new queen walks by Morongo's hut and sees a boy with the full moon on his chest, playing with the rats. The second queen asks Boulane to burn Morongo's hut for fear of the rats. The rats, fearing that they will perish in the fire, guide the boy to an ox named Thamaha, for the animal to rear the boy. Morongo's hut is burned and the rats with it.

3a8082e126