stereotyped techniques that are especially expressed through
the ancestral cult, the vital religion of the Swazi.
In the ancestral cult, the world of the living is projected
into the world of spirits (emadloti), who continue the pat-
terns of superiority and inferiority established by earthly ex-
periences as man or woman, old or young, aristocrat or com-
moner.
Swazi believe that the spirit, or breath, has an existence
distinct from that of the flesh. When a person dies, both flesh
and spirit must be correctly treated to safeguard the living
and show appropriate respect for the dead. Mortuary ritual
varies according to both the status of the deceased and his
or her relationship with different categories of mourners.
The flesh is buried in a cattle kraal, hut, cave, or royal grove.
The spirit, after a brief period of aimless wandering, is ritual-
ly “brought back” at a sacrificial feast to the family circle.
For conservatives, irrespective of rank or age, the ances-
tors are an integral part of the reality of routine daily life.
Their presence is all-pervasive; their relationships to each cat-
egory of members of the kinship circle—married, unmarried,
agnates, and in-laws—affect the language, movements, and
clothing of the living. This is particularly conspicuous in the
laws of “respect” governing the behavior of a married
woman, the outsider brought in to perpetuate the husband’s
lineage (e.g., she must avoid speaking any word containing
the first syllable of the names of particular senior male in-
laws; she must not walk in front of the entrance to the shrine
or through the cattle kraal). Visitors, on entering a home-
stead, on receiving food or other hospitality, praise the head-
man, not as an individual, but by reciting the names of his
clan; clan praises are ancestral commemorations.
It is through the ancestors that Swazi confront the uni-
versal issues of mortality and morality. Emadloti represent
continuity through fertility. They may appear in dreams, or
they may materialize temporarily as “snakes” (e.g., the king
as a terrifying mamba, the queen mother as a beautiful lizard,
a wife as a harmless green garden snake).
Illness and other misfortunes are frequently attributed
to the ancestors, but Swazi believe that emadloti do not inflict
sufferings through malice or wanton cruelty. The mean hus-
band, the adulterous wife, the overambitious younger broth-
er, the disobedient son may be dealt with directly or vicari-
ously by the spirits, who thus act as custodians of correct
behavior and social ethics. Ancestors punish, they do not kill;
death is brought about by evildoers (batsakatsi), who are in-
terested in destroying, not in perpetuating, the lineage or the
state. If an illness originally divined as sent by the emadloti
later becomes fatal, evildoers are assumed to have taken ad-
vantage of the patient’s weakened condition. Ancestors have
greater wisdom, foresight, and power than the rest of man-
kind, but they are not considered omnipotent.
Swazi have no class of ordained priests, and the privi-
leged duty of appealing to the emadloti rests with the head
of the family. The father acts on behalf of his sons; if he is
dead, the older brother acts on behalf of the younger. In this
patrilineal society, ancestors of a married woman remain at
her natal home, approachable only by her senior male kins-
men. Contact is usually made through the medium of “food”
(meat, beer, or tobacco snuff); the dead, who are said to be
often hungry, “lick” the essence of the offerings laid at dusk
on an altar in the shrine hut and left overnight.
Emadloti are spoken of with respect and fear, and they
are routinely addressed with the formality demanded by liv-
ing elders. But they are not adored or worshiped. They are
approached as practical beings, and appeals to them are
sometimes spontaneous and conversational, interspersed
with rebukes and generally devoid of gratitude. There is no
conflict between the ethics of the ancestral cult and the mun-
dane desires of life. Swazi desire the ends they say the emadlo-
ti desire for them.
Interpreting the messages of the ancestors is the task of
diviners (tangoma), the main specialists in deep, esoteric
knowledge. They are called upon to reveal the cause of illness
or misfortune (the particular offense or the specific ancestor
who must be “remembered” or appeased), and they indicate,
but do not carry out, the cure (ritual sacrifice, purification,
or medical treatment). Tangoma work in collaboration with
specialists in medicines (tinyanga temitsi), but whereas the
latter acquire their knowledge voluntarily and deliberately,
each diviner is “entered,” often against his or her will, by an
ancestral spirit who takes control.
The training of diviners is lengthy and arduous. They
suffer both mentally and physically, and when they finally
qualify, “reborn like the new moon,” their entire being has
changed. Dressed in the strange costume of their new calling,
they demonstrate their powers in a public séance, accompa-
nying their performances with inspired songs and dances.
Techniques of divination vary; some diviners use material
objects (bones, shells, roots), while others rely on “feel” or
verbal cues. There is no fixed hierarchy of diviners, and repu-
tations fluctuate. Though some individual diviners are recog-
nized as frauds and others are seen as fallible, perception
through possession by the ancestors is never challenged.
Diviners, who are often of exceptional intelligence, per-
form within the legal framework of religion. In this capacity
they practice against evildoers (witches and sorcerers) who
act illegally, in secret and horrible ways, some through an in-
nate propensity for evil, others through deliberate use of ma-
terial substances, including poisons and parts of the human
body. Political leaders and other aristocrats employ medicine
men and diviners to bolster their positions, but are actively
discouraged from becoming either medicine men or diviners
themselves, since this would interfere with their administra-
tive duties and does not fit into their ascribed status. The In-
gwenyama is believed to have deeper knowledge than any of
his subjects and to be able to detect and destroy evildoers by
virtue of his royal blood reinforced by unique royal potions.
The king and his mother take the lead in the cycle of
national rituals. The most dramatic and illuminating exam-8896 SWAZI RELIGION