On my initiation day, my gobela’s gobela said to me “ I wish you to have many students ( ama thwasana) to a point that you’ll need a loud a speaker to communicate to them”. She said it because she felt that experience will keep me on my toes. I didn’t understand the load she was putting on me fully, on the basis that my mathwasana will be like me………boy oh boy was I far from the truth.
Uku thwasisa will humble you, definitely an exercise that requires patience, understanding, a balance of humility and discipline don’t forget the occasional 1 or two bottles of adult grape juice, whose counting. In my journey as a gobela, the challenge I have had is to balance making the initiates feel at home and being strict to keeping the initiation laws ( imithetho yase dlozini). I took it that initiates will be matured enough to not push the boundaries, hayi ke ndaze nda zenza !
Uku thwasisa will make you fight with your gobela over your thwasanas, it attracts enemies you never knew you had, it gives you multiple personalities that you need to dig up and develop to deal with new challenges and, it takes away your peace, having people’s lives in your hands is not an easy task let alone that these very people sometimes work against you…heeeeee ama thwasana will try you yhooo!
Managing expectations said and unsaid from initiates can be daunting to a point where you feel robbed of your life, especially with all this information available on social media platforms. Initiates follow izangoma on different platforms and start questioning your authority and practice. Forgetting that awubabizanga, they were sent to you lidlozi. Over and above that, being a healer demands a lot, being a gobela demands even more of yourself, add to that being a mother, an employee, a girlfriend/boyfriend and just all of life’s stresses ku ninzi. Everyday though you are expected to show up and woman-up for all these areas.
The way I see it, ka hle hle healers should go for counselling every two weeks, just for control. To talk to someone who will not judge or impose an opinion. I would say these counsellors ideally should be our partners, kodwa hayi with all the publicity of how difficult it is to date i sangoma the partners…dololo!
How do we then keep sane ? I am all for the idea of shedding light where african spirituality is concerned, but can we as healers check ourselves. We put so much information out there little is left for educating e phehlweni, abanye ba thwasisa remotely. Intwaso is supposed to be sacred an individualistic journey, but we’ve made it a one size fits all. Opening ourselves up to criticism from each other, amathwasana and the general public.
Initiates stop it ! Stop it ! Stop going around transgressing imithetho ya se dlozini disrespecting your gobelas by having social media as your second opinions. Not only are you doing yourself a dishonour, but also your ancestors. Maybe we should say xa siphahla aba se Yotube, kwa Twitter na ba se facebook instead of saying aba se manzini, emahlathini, na se zintabeni ?
We all need to remember we’ve been called to serve, not our selfish needs and misguided educated opinions but to heal. We heal by providing a platform in a safe and secured environment for one to align with their ancestors and move from an informed position of strength, so to build a firm foundation for those who come after us and heal also those who came before us .
Let’s be mindful how we treat each other gobela and thwasa we are all going through a lot, everyone is fighting some sort of war womanhood, manhood, childhood, gobelahood, thwasanahood, lifehood…everything hood it’s a jungle out there so practice caution.
- Thwasana, understand that Gobela is not a superhero they are human with human stresses over and above ancestral obligations, si ya go_wisha every day.
- Gobela, let’s take it back to the way of old, secrecy and individuality .
Thina si biziwe, kwaze kwa bonakala…..fe de welcome to the hood!
