story collected by Frobenius. A snake spirit used to dwell in
a lake on the Zimbabwe plain. The king’s daughters are
thought to copulate with this spirit to keep the sacred pool
and rain from disappearing. The vaginas of these princesses,
who enjoyed total sexual freedom, had to be continuously
moist. Victims to be sacrificed for rainfall were chosen from
among them. A second group of princesses had to stay
chaste. They were associated with a ritual fire kept by the
king’s incestuous wife, Mwiza, who represents the morning
star.
The Venda myth transposes these elements. Python
lived with two wives. Only the first one knew his real nature
and could visit him freely during daytime. The second could
draw near him only at night when she was soaked. Driven
by curiosity, she broke this rule and caught her husband
smoking a pipe. Angrily, Python went down into a lake. To
end the subsequent drought, the guilty wife had to sacrifice
herself and join her husband in the water. The Venda pri-
mordial Python clearly brings to mind Zimbabwe’s aquatic
serpent, of whom Dzivaguru and Madzivoa are avatars.
These variant myths relate both the incompatibility of
water and fire and their complementarity. The duality of the
Karanga princesses with dry and moist vaginas expresses the
southeastern Bantu dialectic of coolness and heat. The
Venda myth about the python who secretly smoked a pipe
recounts the same theme as the Hungwe one about a myste-
rious foreigner who drew force out of smoking and prevailed
over Madzivoa, an aquatic spirit who used to keep fire in a
horn. The sacrifice of the Venda Python’s second wife obvi-
ously corresponds to the sacrifices demanded of the Karanga
princesses. Karanga symbolism vividly distinguishes a pri-
mordial spirit associated with both terrestrial and rain waters
from a ruler of fire who was his opponent or else became his
ally through marriage. The Korekore see these two spirits as
rivals but ultimately invoke Dzivaguru whenever there is no
rain. However, this cosmogony has been obscured by the
cults of possession dedicated to regional or particularistic
gods. The ubiquity of these cults, borrowed from the Shona,
has distracted researchers from the still-present ancient gods.
In fact, Dzivaguru is the only local spirit with no medium.
The Venda, however, have made an original transposi-
tion of the ancient dualism. Python, ruler of waters, and
Raluvhumba, ruler of celestial fire, are ritually complementa-
ry. In Zimbabwe, neighboring Karanga worship Mwari, a su-
preme being who combines the attributes of both. This “pos-
sessor of heaven” is also called Dzivaguru. Mwari’s
representative, the python, is venerated as a spirit of the
mountains, whereas a water snake keeps rivers and springs
from going dry.
COSMOLOGY AND SACRED KINGSHIP. James G. Frazer was
the first to describe as “divine kingship” a political institution
whose primary function is control over fertility and natural
forces. I prefer to use the term “sacred kingship” because the
particular chiefs who are essential to this institution are not
actual gods. The Venda and Lovedu inherited the institution
of sacred kingship from the Karanga while the Sotho and
Tswana did not (sacred kingship is not apparently a feature
of Sotho or Tswana culture despite the existence among
them of some powerful military chieftaincies). The Swazi es-
tablished a political and symbolic system remarkably similar
to that of the Venda. Sacred kingship is widespread through-
out Africa. Surprisingly constant characteristics are thus at-
tributed to African, particularly Bantu-speaking, kings: they
are uncommon beings; they take paramountcy through
transgression (often incest); they are surrounded by prohibi-
tions; and they are condemned to die early unless other vic-
tims make it possible for them to continue reigning.The Swazi king, master of thunderbolts and of the sun,
rules along with a queen mother associated with the moon
and with lush vegetation. Together they control the rains.
The king has the privilege of marrying his real or classificato-
ry sisters. While young, he succeeds his father with the title
“child,” and when adult he takes full power by marrying the
“queen of the right hand,” with whom he commingles blood
to become twins. But his real so-called twin is his mother.
During the summer solstice, his force weakens, and the
whole nation goes through a crisis. He then performs the
Ncwala ceremony, which opens with the previously de-
scribed quest for water. He is proclaimed “bull of the nation”
after the sacrifice of an ill-treated black ox, which represents
him. Following several events that alternately show his weak-
ness and his force, he consumes the first fruits and is then
disguised as the spirit of vegetation.According to the Venda founding myth, the first two
sovereigns were Sun and Moon, his twin sister as well as in-
cestuous wife. Paradoxically, the Venda king rules with a pa-
ternal aunt (Makhadzi, a title also used to refer to the moon);
an agnatic half sister takes the aunt’s place during the next
reign. His principal wife, often a real or classificatory sister,
belongs to the royal family. The king, “light of the world,”
controls rain through both Python and Raluvhumba. Al-
though no ritual marks the summer solstice, Makhadzi pre-
sides over the first-fruit ceremony.Venda and Swazi symbolic configurations are related
through transformations. In practice, the Venda put agnatic
ties in place of the incestuous uterine (or twin) ties of their
myth. The Swazi, on the contrary, maintain these mythical
ties through a fiction. Mirrored by a queen who is the king’s
agnatic half sister, the Venda queen aunt obviously fills the
same ritual position as the Swazi queen mother, who is a
“twin” to her son. The queen of the right hand, who is both
the king’s wife and fictive twin, is a substitute for the queen
mother. More meaningful parallels exist. The “twin body”
of the Swazi kingdom expresses a great power of life; it is
completed by the male tinsila, the sovereign’s symbolic twins
associated with his right and left hands. A similar pair in the
Venda kingdom corresponds to the paternal uncle and ag-
natic half brother, respectively Makhadzi’s and the queen sis-
ter’s masculine doubles.8664 SOUTHERN AFRICAN RELIGIONS: SOUTHERN BANTU RELIGIONS