The Breath of the Earth in Flesh by Gankhanani

 

Book Reviewed: Sayings Of My Mother

Author: Mwizenge S. Tembo

Publisher: Pensulo Publishers

Publisher contact: +260979443150

Year: 2023

Place of Publication: Lusaka

Price: ZMW250

Sales points: Amazon, Pensulo Publishers, Kalulu Kreativez Centre for the Arts and Culture

 

I am not the best person to review this book because I find it to be a book about me. Being a Tumbuka who grew up in Lundazi on the other side of the Lundazi River, I read Sayings of My Mother with strong nostalgic feelings. Most importantly, Nkhanga held a very important health post in our area and was a centre pivot for wellness in the surrounding areas. The prologue almost brings me to tears when I see myself in the young Mwizenge. Professor Tembo has been an inspiration to me both culturally and academically and I am unable to see him as a young boy. In his place I see myself, Gankhanani then called Moffat. Sayings of my mother reminds me of the relationship I had with my mother when I was a little boy and, to me, the book feels like it would be appropriately sub-titled Memories of My Mother.

 

In this collection of sayings, I am further reminded of the power of sayings in Tumbuka culture. It is rare to share a lengthy speech without making use of special sayings or proverbs. As young people, we were always taught table manners. While many people may not appreciate the importance of table manners in traditional societies, in Tumbuka societies, this is given special reference because meal times are special. It is during meal times that all members of the village commune. While women are on their own and men are kumphala on their own, mealtimes are a time of communality. All meals are meant for all members of the village and, therefore, to be shared in an equitable manner. It is for this reason that no one is expected to eat more than others. The saying, kurya nge unamino pasingo shows some level of lack of consideration of others. This is a case where one eats so fast that it can be taken that they are chewing their food only when it goes past the mouth. It can easily be argued that the saying is more than encouraging one to eat for enjoyment, to savour the food before swallowing. It is intended to encourage people to eat normally and not with greed. The saying goes beyond mere eating in that it discourages greed, selfishness, self-centredness and lack of both sympathy and empathy.

 

Professor Mwizenge’s collection is a gift but not just to his siblings as a coping mechanism after the loss of their mother or a book in honour of his mother, I find it to be a memory for Africa, for humanity. The book reconnects humanity to its long lost treasure, its heritage. The mother is a symbol of continuity through continuously giving birth and the umbilical cord which connects the mother to the child. The mother connects the child to the earth too as the umbilical cord is buried in the earth long before the rest of the body is interred in communion with earth where man is generally believed to have come from in Tumbuka belief systems.

 

Sayings of my mother further shows the power of the mother’s word. When mother speaks, we are bound to remember more than when father speaks. When mother stresses, it becomes a strong part of our whole reality and therefore shapes the world of not only us the direct recipients of the world, but many others too who may never have had the opportunity to directly interact with mother. Mother is a figure that transcends space and time. Mother represents the earth and the universe and her word the breath that we all live on. Sayings of My Mother is therefore the lifeblood of both our culture and our truth. We cannot depart from the work as it becomes a book in the bible of the Tumbuka worldview.

 

While recommending this book to everyone may be seen as a way of promoting Tumbuka culture by those who have not yet read it, I would argue that the book goes beyond Tumbuka culture and becomes a network of realities experienced and expressed differently by different people across the globe, especially those who have had the privilege of traversing indigenous spaces. This book is a communally relevant experience that rekindles in all who have the opportunity of reading it. Professor Tembo’s ability to relate age old wisdom to the current world pierces right through the modern day to create a whole new cultural expression from almost completely lost material.

 

I would describe this book as a modern classic and an irresistible read.

 

Gankhanani Moffat Moyo

Cultural and Literary Expert

University of Zambia.