Starting Point:
The thinking skill for Project 1 was contextualization.
I was interested in the witch hysteria in different cultures. Witches are seen as evil entities in other countries. My thoughts were, "How could someone accuse a person of practicing the supernatural?" New Salem was the most known for dealing with witches, so I looked into lesser known places that executed witches. South Africa also had a name for their ways of executing their witches.
I was interested in the witch hysteria in different cultures. Witches are seen as evil entities in other countries. My thoughts were, "How could someone accuse a person of practicing the supernatural?" New Salem was the most known for dealing with witches, so I looked into lesser known places that executed witches. South Africa also had a name for their ways of executing their witches.
English
I decided to bring light to the good witches of the Zulu tribe. For my english portion, I decided to focus on the Sangomas. The Sangomas are healers of the Zulu tribe. They are the messenger of the spirits and God, Nkunlunkulu.
I wanted to write a narrative about a Sangoma ritual. I decided writing spells would be much more interesting. Mr. Wimmer gave me a book, "Pow-Wow's or Long Lost Friend" by John George Hohman. The book was a collection of spells from Pennsylvania Dutch. I used these spells as reference for my own.
I wanted to write a narrative about a Sangoma ritual. I decided writing spells would be much more interesting. Mr. Wimmer gave me a book, "Pow-Wow's or Long Lost Friend" by John George Hohman. The book was a collection of spells from Pennsylvania Dutch. I used these spells as reference for my own.
To make the spells fit into the Zulu Tribe, I studied a little bit of the language. Isizulu is the language, and in my process I found it hard to pronounce words. Most of the words involve a click, an example, "Kunye" pronounced as "Coon-yea"
I found common foods that were grown in the Zulu region and incorporated the foods as ingredients to the spells.
Created Spells:
How to gain good ubisi from the izinkomo.
If your client’s inkomo isn’t producing good tasting ubisi, take a pinch of salt and place it in their feed. Speak to the spirits and pray: “Nkulunkulu, I wish of you to pet the inkomo tenderly and aid it into producing the best milk.” The izinkomo will make good ubisi the next day.
Preface:
Translate:
Inkomo - Cow
Ubisi - Milk
Izinkomo - Cattle
The spell is a guide for a Sangoma who wants to help a client who is struggling with their cow’s milk. Sangomas are the messengers of the spirit world. They can ask for guidance for knowledge, wealth, etc.
Nkulunkulu is the one and only god the people of Zululand look up to. Dances, prayers and education are dedicated to him.
Victim of Slander Remedy
When you find yourself blamed for the actions that were not yours, take the smallest gourd in your garden and smash it against the tallest isihlahla on your land. Skip around the bark and start the Imvunulo dance. Soon, your enemies will change their ways.
Preface:
Translate:
Isihlahla - Tree
Isitha - Enemies
The audience for the spell is towards a person who has given up on standing up for themselves verbally and has resorted to using a spell.
Zulu men and women show off their traditional wears by participating in the Imvunulo dance. This dance is used during parades and women are usually the ones to dance.
Spell to Protect from Drought.
Gather kune pieces of maize, kuthathu fresh oranges, and kunye inhlanzi eye. Place into a bowl and mash the ingredients together until the mixture turns phuzi. Leave the bowl out overnight. The bowl will be empty, and your water source will dampen each day.
Preface:
Translation:
Kune - Four
Maize - Corn
Kuthathu - Three
Kunye - One
Inhlanzi - Fish
Phuzi - Yellow
This spell is about a person worried about their water source drying up. The ingredients in this spell are grown in the Zulu region. In the spell, the mixture is left out overnight. The mixture represents the sacrifice to the spirits to protect the water source.
How to gain good ubisi from the izinkomo.
If your client’s inkomo isn’t producing good tasting ubisi, take a pinch of salt and place it in their feed. Speak to the spirits and pray: “Nkulunkulu, I wish of you to pet the inkomo tenderly and aid it into producing the best milk.” The izinkomo will make good ubisi the next day.
Preface:
Translate:
Inkomo - Cow
Ubisi - Milk
Izinkomo - Cattle
The spell is a guide for a Sangoma who wants to help a client who is struggling with their cow’s milk. Sangomas are the messengers of the spirit world. They can ask for guidance for knowledge, wealth, etc.
Nkulunkulu is the one and only god the people of Zululand look up to. Dances, prayers and education are dedicated to him.
Victim of Slander Remedy
When you find yourself blamed for the actions that were not yours, take the smallest gourd in your garden and smash it against the tallest isihlahla on your land. Skip around the bark and start the Imvunulo dance. Soon, your enemies will change their ways.
Preface:
Translate:
Isihlahla - Tree
Isitha - Enemies
The audience for the spell is towards a person who has given up on standing up for themselves verbally and has resorted to using a spell.
Zulu men and women show off their traditional wears by participating in the Imvunulo dance. This dance is used during parades and women are usually the ones to dance.
Spell to Protect from Drought.
Gather kune pieces of maize, kuthathu fresh oranges, and kunye inhlanzi eye. Place into a bowl and mash the ingredients together until the mixture turns phuzi. Leave the bowl out overnight. The bowl will be empty, and your water source will dampen each day.
Preface:
Translation:
Kune - Four
Maize - Corn
Kuthathu - Three
Kunye - One
Inhlanzi - Fish
Phuzi - Yellow
This spell is about a person worried about their water source drying up. The ingredients in this spell are grown in the Zulu region. In the spell, the mixture is left out overnight. The mixture represents the sacrifice to the spirits to protect the water source.
The way contextualization fits into my english piece is the multiple problems in South Africa. The ingredients of the spells are found in the Zulu region.
History
For my history portion, I included my research into I felt that the spells provided an insight into the life and South African culture. So I decided to annotate each spell and focus on the problems in Africa, and how they reflected into the spells.
For the annotations, I wanted to focus on the problems in Africa, and how they reflected onto the spells. The first spell addressed the lack of cattle in the Zulu region. The people had to establish a system, and depending on the environment, the cow would produce quality milk. For the people who didn't have a good backyard for the borrowed cow, they could rely on the spell to make good milk.
"Victim of Slander Remedy," was the title of the second spell. For selfish reasons, people blame their neighbors for their crops dying. In the end, the person who blamed another, can gain the land of the accused. This spell was directed for the accused to use. The ingredients in the spell have hidden meanings of domestic violence, which is a huge problem in South Africa. Which the title ha two meanings, the victim of slander and the victim of domestic abuse.
The last spell is "Spell to Protect from Drought." Another large issue in South Africa is the lack of water. The person casting this spell is worried about the future of their crops and has to preform this spell. One of the ingredients is corn. Corn is the easiest crop to harvest because it doesn't need as much water as other crops. I thought the use of the corn was appropriate to the spell of protecting from drought.
Contextualization fits into my history piece because its important to consider current issues in Africa when writing spells for the people of zulu. In order to make sure they would actually be something they would use.
For the annotations, I wanted to focus on the problems in Africa, and how they reflected onto the spells. The first spell addressed the lack of cattle in the Zulu region. The people had to establish a system, and depending on the environment, the cow would produce quality milk. For the people who didn't have a good backyard for the borrowed cow, they could rely on the spell to make good milk.
"Victim of Slander Remedy," was the title of the second spell. For selfish reasons, people blame their neighbors for their crops dying. In the end, the person who blamed another, can gain the land of the accused. This spell was directed for the accused to use. The ingredients in the spell have hidden meanings of domestic violence, which is a huge problem in South Africa. Which the title ha two meanings, the victim of slander and the victim of domestic abuse.
The last spell is "Spell to Protect from Drought." Another large issue in South Africa is the lack of water. The person casting this spell is worried about the future of their crops and has to preform this spell. One of the ingredients is corn. Corn is the easiest crop to harvest because it doesn't need as much water as other crops. I thought the use of the corn was appropriate to the spell of protecting from drought.
Contextualization fits into my history piece because its important to consider current issues in Africa when writing spells for the people of zulu. In order to make sure they would actually be something they would use.
The original file of the annotations and sources.
project_1_history_annotations.pdf | |
File Size: | 44 kb |
File Type: |
Art
I struggled quite a bit for my art portion. At times I actually avoided trying to work on it due to not knowing what to do. I originally wanted to create an interview of a person who was accused of being a witch and the punishments she went through. With the little time I had, this idea was difficult to execute. If I were to change
Instead, I collected videos of the struggles of accused witches in Africa. It was very hard to find what I wanted on the Youtube platform. Later, I realized I could have found more videos on the internet, but Youtube was the easiest to access. Then, I annotated the videos. I summarized the videos and explained why the videos matched my project in each paragraph. This is the way I showed contextualization in my project.
The links to the videos I gathered:
"Why People Are Addicted To Poverty:" www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEDtlW-y7qk
In the video, "Why Poor People Are Addicted To Poverty”, the main point is about how people don’t better themselves financially. To understand the system, you have to educate yourself, but most people hire other’s to do their credit. In the end, you won’t understand how to handle your credit.
Africans have become fearful of becoming rich. A sudden gain in money, livestock, or food will have people be suspicious of your work. African evil witches use their magic for selfish reasons and personal gain is one of them. The people are afraid of being accused of witches. It usually results in the execution of the accused witch, and someone else gains his/her land.
"Witches Of Ghana:" www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtK0gxdiX5w&t=1s
The purpose of this video is to show how witches are exiled in the country of Ghana, West Africa. Instead of being killed for their wicked crimes, these people are sent to a village, up North, to purify themselves. The people go through multiple rituals to ask the spirits to forgive them. If the spirits forgive these people, they are free from being called a witch, but they have to stay in the village.
The viewer is supposed to learn about the Ghana culture, and how the villagers deal with the witches. The creator wanted the watchers to feel sympathy for the sad fate of the accused.
"Sangoma Healing Ritual:" www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn-EkHAWp_c
“Sangoma Healing in South Africa” is a video that explains the misconceptions of Sangoma healing rituals. The informative video is guided by a person who has never needed a Sangoma and a man who is part of the South African culture. The man of the culture, is a translator and carefully goes into detail the healing process.
This video is supposed to educate the watchers about the good witches of South Africa. Outsiders often mistake sangomas to be evil, but this video shines a light on the traditional healers.
"Why People Are Addicted To Poverty:" www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEDtlW-y7qk
In the video, "Why Poor People Are Addicted To Poverty”, the main point is about how people don’t better themselves financially. To understand the system, you have to educate yourself, but most people hire other’s to do their credit. In the end, you won’t understand how to handle your credit.
Africans have become fearful of becoming rich. A sudden gain in money, livestock, or food will have people be suspicious of your work. African evil witches use their magic for selfish reasons and personal gain is one of them. The people are afraid of being accused of witches. It usually results in the execution of the accused witch, and someone else gains his/her land.
"Witches Of Ghana:" www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtK0gxdiX5w&t=1s
The purpose of this video is to show how witches are exiled in the country of Ghana, West Africa. Instead of being killed for their wicked crimes, these people are sent to a village, up North, to purify themselves. The people go through multiple rituals to ask the spirits to forgive them. If the spirits forgive these people, they are free from being called a witch, but they have to stay in the village.
The viewer is supposed to learn about the Ghana culture, and how the villagers deal with the witches. The creator wanted the watchers to feel sympathy for the sad fate of the accused.
"Sangoma Healing Ritual:" www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn-EkHAWp_c
“Sangoma Healing in South Africa” is a video that explains the misconceptions of Sangoma healing rituals. The informative video is guided by a person who has never needed a Sangoma and a man who is part of the South African culture. The man of the culture, is a translator and carefully goes into detail the healing process.
This video is supposed to educate the watchers about the good witches of South Africa. Outsiders often mistake sangomas to be evil, but this video shines a light on the traditional healers.
Conclusion:
My finals thoughts. I thought that my project idea was interesting. I wish I could have focused more on the punishments for being a witch. More time would have benefited my original ideas. The part I liked about my project was the information I found. I love annotating, and to me, annotation is they way I understand new information. I'm glad I could show the way I learn to others in my project.
Annotated Bibliography:
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Picture Credit: Quipidity.com, www.quipidity.com/tag/african-sunset/.
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