Zamheiia (1989). XVI (ii).RESEARCH REPORTTOWARDS A ZIMBABWEAN AENEID:A PEDAGOGICAL EXERCISEJESSIE MARITZDepartment of Religious Studies, Classics and Philosophy,University of ZimbabweIF THE CONCEPT of a Zimbabwean Aeneid sounds forced, consider for a momentthe historical setting: a country that has recently been involved in a bitter civilwar with the accompanying horrors of bloodshed, violence, divided families,destroyed lands, a disrupted society, a ruined economy, massive unemploymentof war veterans, and a re-distribution of land. Think of the impact, in suchcircumstances, of a leader whose official policies are reconciliation, a return tothe land, the development of transport, and an emphasis on morality and familylife, on extended civil rights and on forging a unity from conflicting andminority groups. Think of the effect of a growing patriotism on the nationallanguage and its literature, which had previously been subordinate to a far older,far more sophisticated literature in a foreign tongue.This description applies both to Zimbabwe and to post-Actium Rome, theperiod that saw the creation of the Aeneid. With this in mind, students doing acourse on Virgil in Classical Studies I at the University of Zimbabwe wereasked to 'Explore the possibilities of a Zimbabwean Aeneid', or, to phrase itdifferently, 'If Virgil were to write his national epic in Zimbabwe today, whatwould he write?' The resulting essays fell into two broad categories: those thatfeatured a legendary hero and those that were concerned with recent history.'One legendary hero is Tongarara. The story begins further back, however,in the time of his grandfather, Maponderaki, when a great spirit medium,Mapira, prophesied the birth of a son (Mapondera), a great war and a flight tothe South where a man of Maponderaki's lineage would found a great newnation. In Tongarara's twelfth year the invasion comes, and he and his father,Mapondera, flee with their fetishes and ritual garb and a large following. By thetime he is eighteen Tongarara is their undisputed leader. When Mapondera dies,his body is mummified and carried along with his people. After many longjourneys, many battles, desertions by his followers and attempts on his life,Tongarara arrives at Makungurubwe, 'the place of many stones', where hebuilds an altar, consecrates the place and builds Great Zimbabwe. His decisionto found the city is confirmed by his svikiro, or oracle. The surrounding tribesare vanquished and Tongarara becomes the founder of a great city and a greatpeople.Another legend tells of people travelling from the north and of a prophecyby Ambuya Nehanda2 that the place of settlement destined by the gods for their1 The stories are summarized here as told by the students.: Ambuya Nehanda was a spirit medium and prophetess who lived in the Mazowe area of151152 TOWARDS A ZIMBABWEAN AENEIDhome was between two rivers, the Zambezi and the Limpopo. Some of themigrants travelled east and too far south, but were eventually reunited (infulfilment of another prophecy by Chaminuka') in the face of a common enemy,the 'kneeless men' (i.e. men who wore trousers). This struggle continued forseveral generations but eventually led to the founding of a united nationcomprising, as Ambuya Nehanda had prophesied, remnants of all these groupsand the 'kneeless' newcomers. Incidentally, the prophet Chaminuka was killedby the Ndebele king, Lobengula, for allegedly prophesying lies, but before hedied he predicted, correctly, continuous drought. This drought took place in theearly 1880s and was seen as the fulfilment of his prophecy.Most students, however, concentrated on the struggle for politicalindependence as being suitable material for a Zimbabwean epic. As one studentput it, because there is no sea in Zimbabwe and consequently no epic voyageslike that undertaken by Aeneas, a Zimbabwean epic has to substitute time fordistance and depict the problems and hindrances encountered between 1896 and1980 on the journey to Independence. There were some surprising analogies.What follows is an amalgam of ten essays.4Zimbabwe before 1896 and Troy before the Trojan war were both enjoyingrelative economic, social and cultural prosperity. Both countries were invadedby foreigners and, despite some initial successes, were defeated by them. Bothpeoples lost heroes in the struggle Š Hector in Troy, Ambuya Nehanda andKugubi (Sekuru Kaguvi) in Zimbabwe Š but in both cases these heroes gavetheir people a promise of future greatness. When Aeneas wished to continuefighting, Hector's ghost ordered him to stop his resistance, take his householdgods and leave Troy so that he could found a great city in the future. The dyingAmbuya Nehanda prophesied that her bones would rise to avenge her death andthat glorious days would follow; resistance was to cease until this happened. Inboth Troy and Zimbabwe homes were destroyed and relatives lost, typified inthe Aeneid by Aeneas losing his home and by Creusa's death.In these essays Robert Mugabe is seen as the Zimbabwean Aeneas. Bothmen are exiles at some stage; both are true leaders, encouraging and inspiringtheir men; both are combatants but prefer peace to war; and both provide foodfor their people (Aeneas shoots a stag for his shipwrecked men and Mugabesupplies food-relief in times of drought). Both are orators and spokesmen fortheir people; both are loyal, dutiful and committed to a mission and cannot stophalf way (Aeneas has to leave his attempted settlement in Crete, and Mugabe isnot satisfied with the creation of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia). Both earn honorifictitles Š 'Pius Aeneas', 'Baba Mugabe'. Both heroes lose companions on theway. Anchises, Palinurus and Misenus are compared to Tongogara, Chitepo andothers, and the funeral games held on Sicily have their equivalent in the soccermatches and celebrations on Heroes' Days. Both leaders receive spiritual aidZimbabwe in the late nineteenth century and was instrumental in encouraging the Shona uprisingagainst the White settlers, now known as the First Chimurcnga (1846-7). She was executed on 27April 1898, but her memory became a source of inspiration in the liberation struggle.1 Chaminuka was one of the leading spirit mediums in central Mashonaland in the nineteenthcentury.4 By E. Chihwehwete, S. Chikwiro. C. Chiyangwa. M. Mad/ad/.avana. E. Mangoya. J. MaparaR. Masaraure. D. Mutembwa. M. Musundire. E. Sakala. 'JESSIE MARITZ 153and encouragement before the final stage of the struggle, Aeneas from the Sibyland in the Underworld, and Mugabe from Chief Tangwena.The supernatural element is stressed in the essays. A belief in the Underworldis common to both ancient Roman and traditional Zimbabwean cultures, and inboth societies the living can communicate with the dead. In Zimbabweantraditional religion, spirits can be invoked by dropping snuff. The spirits form ahierarchy similar to that of the classical gods and, like them, can influence lifeon earth. Dreams, omens and wonders sent by the ancestral spirits encourage theheroes, just as the classical gods influence Aeneas' movements. In Zimbabwetraditional rites to the spirits take place in caves or under trees, and this customis compared to Aeneas' sacrifice to Hercules made outside Evander's city on thesite of the future Rome. One difference noted is that the ancestral spirits did notform opposing parties in the struggle for Independence in Zimbabwe, as Venusand Juno did in the Aeneid. Zimbabwean fighters were supported by the ancestralspirits and Mwari priests, who helped them all.Various analogies are found for the obstacles faced by Aeneas. Ian Smith iscompared to Juno, doing everything in his power to prevent the hero fromreaching his destination. In this interpretation, as Dido, manipulated by Juno,causes Aeneas to deviate from his task and so causes a delay in the founding ofthe new city, so Sithole, manipulated by Smith, defects from the Patriotic Front,so delaying the coming of Independence. In a different interpretation, Didorepresents materialism and a love of luxury, a temptation to turn from theliberation struggle for the sake of financial benefits offered by the Rhodesianregime. Aeneas' grief when he has to leave Dido to found his new city is alsocompared to Mugabe's sorrow at his prolonged absences from his wife duringthe struggle for Independence.Enemies and allies in the Aeneid also have their parallels in Zimbabweanhistory. The burning of the ships in Sicily by the Trojan women is compared tothe action of traitors within the ranks of the freedom fighters and to incidentssuch as the Chimoio massacre. Aeneas rebuilds his fleet at Carthage; Mugabebuilds up forces in Mozambique and Zambia. In both cases neighbours becomeallies, and some are killed. Turnus, led on by false promises, goes to war;Muzorewa, banking on Smith's promises, recruits auxiliary forces. Rutulianattacks on the Trojan camp are compared to attacks on camps in Mozambique.Turnus is compared to the colonists who refuse to accept change or defeat,whereas Drances is compared to the 'enlightened' ones who do so. Amata'srefusal to let Lavinia marry Aeneas is compared to the split between ZAPU andZANU, which delays destiny but cannot prevent it. After the war in Italy and thedefeat of Turnus, the Latins retain their identity and the promised city, destinedfor greatness, is eventually built; in Zimbabwe there is a policy of reconciliation,a place for minority groups, and a general rebuilding programme is begun.Student essays are not epic poetry, and in a search for a ZimbabweanAeneid one must also look at what has actually been written. Zimbabweanwriters are concerned with national heroes,5 but if, however, one is thinking of' See S. Mutswairo. Mapondera: Soldier of Zimbabwe (Harare, Longman Zimbabwe, 1983). Inthe preface (p. 4) he compares the classical stories, unfavourably, with the Zimbabwean ones.Unlike the naive stories of the Greeks whose heroes and heroines lived and fought ina mythical world, the story of Mapondera and his contemporaries, Nehanda, Kugubi,154 TOWARDS A ZIMBABWEAN AENEIDepic poetry6 it is probably true that in Zimbabwe, as elsewhere, the medium oflarge-scale written7 narrative is the novel.8 A writer such as Charles Mungoshi seeshis poetry as an exercise for his prose.'' Most poems written by Zimbabweans areshort, though some of the themes Š for example, war. national consciousness,and an awareness of and an identification with the land Š also occur in epicpoetry, particularly in the Aeneid.Zimbabwean poets are influenced by their native oral traditions as wellas the literary traditions of Europe, Africa, America and Asia."1 Some learnedLatin at school," and allusions to classical mythology occur in their work.12 AtKamota and Dzivaguru, is a story of true human beings of flesh and blood whoselives ended in death at the hands of strangers who signed false treaties when theywere weak and used terrible weapons and ruthless oppression when they were able todestroy the people whose lands they had invaded." The question of whether an epic is necessarily poetry can. of course, be debated. Thenarratives of Amos Tutuola have been described as 'prose epic. i.e. a sub-genre of the novel'(Chinweizu. et al.. Towards the Decolonization of African Literature: Volume I: African Fictionand Poetry and Their Critics (Washington. Howard Univ. Press. 1983). 23) and 'a continuation inEnglish of the African genre of heroic epics' (ibid. 22). See also T. Couzens. 'Sol Plaatjie and thefirst South African epic'. English in Africa (1987). XIV. 41-65. where the influence of Virgil onPlaatjie's work Mhutli (London. Heinemann, African Writers Series 201. 19X7) is discussed.7 Oral epics in Africa present an enormous field which can supply interesting parallels andinsights into Greek epic. For a discussion of form, style and content of both heroic and historic epicin the Congo Republic, see D. Biebuyck. The epic as genre in Congo oral literature', in R. M.Dorson (ed.). Folklore: Selected Essays (Bloomington. Indiana Univ. Press. 1972) and D. Biebuyck.Hero and Chief: Epic Literature from the Banyanga (Berkeley and Los Angeles. Univ. of CaliforniaPress, 1978). quoted by Chinweizu etal.. Towards the Decolonization of African Literature, 72-3.Poems of the Swahili hero. Liyonga. 'were preserved orally until the early nineteenth century,and then were written down by Swahili scholars to become in tum the inspiration for written epics'.J. Mapanje and L. White. Oral Poetry from Africa (Harlow. Longman. 1983), 3.* For a discussion of heroic epic, romance and the novel as equivalent forms in different socialformations, see Chinweizu et al.. Towards the Decolonization of African Literature, 28-9." F. |Veit|-Wild, Patterns of Poetry in Zimbabwe (Gweru. Mambo Press. 1988).111 This is true of other African poets, such as Christopher Okigbo. who read Classics at theUniversity of Ibadan. and whose work brings together classical and African allusions to create his'fable of man's perennial quest for fulfilment' (C. Okigbo. Labyrinths (London. Heinemann: Ibadan,Mbari Publications. 1971). xiv). In "Heavensgate" the celebrant is likened to Orpheus: in 'Lament ofthe Drums', references to Palinurus. Aeneas' helmsman, are interwoven with references to elephanttusks and to the long drums which symbolize the spirits of the ancestors: the double-headed axe is asymbol of sovereignty in Crete and of traditional loo society.11 In F. [ Veil-] Wild. 'Survey of Zimbabwean Writers: Educational and Literary Careers' (Harare,the Author, 1989). 24 per cent of the Group I writers (those born between 19l7and 1939)and6percent of the Group II writers (bom between 1940 and 1959) give Latin as their favourite subject alschool. Zimunya won a prize for unseen translation in the annual competition run by the ClassicalAssociation of Central Africa (M. B. Zimunya, personal communication).12 See particularly M. B. Zimunya's poems: Humiliated' (hand of Caesar', I. 7). Monstrous'('blind as a Cyclops shot in the eye'. I. 11). 'Roads' ('Black Icarus'. I. 18) and 'Mountain' ('compelus to roll the stone up dzimbabwe'. 1. 20. with its suggestion of Sisyphus) in his Thought Tracks(Harare. Longman, 1982). and Dambudzo Marechera's 'Primal Vision' (' And from Olympus Zeusflew to /rape Fair Leda and Helpless Io'. I. 12) in Wild. Patterns of Poetry in Zimbabwe. 141. InMarechera's The House of Hunger (London. Heinemann. African Writers Series 207. 1978) there arereferences to. inter alia. Lysistrata. The Satyricon. The Golden Ass, Demosthenes. Battus. Hippocrates,Pan. Greek vases, the Trojan Horse, and Pandora's box. Wild comments: In the debate about thedecolonization of African literature the question has been raised whether it is appropriate for Africanwriters to use alien, imported imagery (for example, from Greek mythology) and literary forms. OfJESSIE MARITZ 155present Latin is not taught in government schools and the new generation ofwriters will not have had exposure to classical writers in the original. A numberof school children and students are, however, introduced to them in translation,either at school, for example by English teachers referring to the Odyssey to ex-plain Tennyson's 'Ulysses', or at University through courses in Classical Studies.That this classical background may still be influential is evidenced by a poem inhonour of the late President Samora Machel of Mozambique that appeared in theHerald, 24 Oct. 1988, which referred to him as Aeneas the True, and also as theoracle Teiresias. The poet, Albert Nyathi, was at that time a first-year student atthe University of Zimbabwe studying Classical Studies I, which includes courseson Homer and Virgil.In the main, Flora Wild's summary is apt: 'There has not been a long andbroad tradition of literature in this country, and the individual writer has beenexposed to so many different experiences and influences that it has not beenpossible to shape a coherent body of national writing and to develop a positivenational literary identity."" If by Aeneid one, means a full-length literary nationalepic in poetry there is as yet no Zimbabwean Aeneid.Where does all this leave one? Has this exercise served any useful purpose?I suggest that its main value is pedagogical:1 In both categories of essays various themes emerge: exile, suffering, destiny,war, supernatural involvement, success through struggle, political and socialreadjustment, reconciliation Š in fact, all the themes of the Aeneid. Studentsmust have a grasp of the philosophy, as opposed to the story, of the originalbefore they can find an analogy, and even if some comparisons are far-fetched they are an indication of personal critical analysis as opposed to rotelearning of a textbook or paraphrasing from a bibliography. Too oftenstudents are guilty of plagiarism in assignments, and too often it is theteacher's fault for setting Š and rewarding Š a topic that can be copied. Ifour aim is to produce thinking and critical, as opposed to merelyknowledgeable, students, topics of comparison can prove useful Š provided,of course, one does not set the same questions year after year.2 Students proved quick to see similarities between their own cultural andreligious beliefs and those of the classical world. It is an indication thatthere are points of contact in what originally seems to be an alien world toAfrican students. It is a generally accepted educational principle that oneworks from the known to the unknown; it is far easier to motivate studentsand show the universality (and relevance?) of Virgil when one has a knownstarting point. Teachers need to find out and know these points of contactfor future use; they may, indeed, have to learn them from their students.Learning and teaching is a two-way process. To give one example: tomost twentieth-century Eurocentric classicists offerings to the spirits andall Ihe poets in this book. Dambud/o Marechera is the one who does this in the most definite, broadand erudite way and he is the mosl conscious of it' (Wild. Patterns of Poetry in Zimbabwe. 21).Marechera's experience of two opposing cultures becomes apparent in the passage in The Houseof Hunger (p. 30) where he describes his two selves arguing, one in Shona, the other in English, withFrench and Latin voices in the background." Wild, Patterns of Poetry in Zimbabwe. 25.156 TOWARDS A ZIMBABWEAN AENEIDthe journey through the Underworld are part of a literary tradition, aninteresting device within the structure of the epic, an allegory possibly, withhistorical and political overtones, but scarcely something to be taken literally.It is clear that to at least some Zimbabwean students the spirit world is afactual reality, and in that respect they are probably far more in tune withVirgil and his first readers than the teacher is; they can sharpen the teacher'sappreciation of the impact that the Aeneid must have had on its firstaudience as well as deepen his understanding of Roman religion.3 It is clear that there is still a strong oral tradition in Zimbabwe concerninglegendary heroes, and that new legends and heroes are in the making.14 Oraltradition is also influencing lyric poetry. A study of this process could wellbe enlightening for the study of the origins of Greek epic15 and the changefrom oral to written forms of literature.164 Knowledge of the classics has influenced Zimbabwean writers and continuesto do so. Marechera, especially, experienced the universality of the classics.He says: 'The ghosts which hover over Great Zimbabwe are the same asthose which tormented Troy, those which overwhelmed Carthage, thosewhich watched over Aeneas.' He justifies his own work: "The poetrythough when it is good, is immortal. Hence the self-consciousness of thestructure, the form. And the selective use of myth and legend Š the refusalto be bound by any period of human history.1714 M. B. Zimunya, 'Revolution', in his Thought Tracks:My brother wrote to tell methat where once we gathered mushroom[s]things explode and legends and mythsare bom, and ideas emerge: there for the picking." Some comparative work in the field of folktales and Greek epic has already been done. See,for example. D. Page, Folktales in Homer's 'Odyssey' (Cambridge. Harvard Univ. Press, the CarlNewell Jackson Lectures, 1972). Page shows how episodes in the Odyssey (the Lotus-Eaters, theLaestrygonians, Circe, Aeolus, the cattle of the Sun, the Sirens) bear resemblances to folktales inmany other lands. He defines the folktale 'as concerned with creatures of grotesque form andsupernatural powers, living in an imaginary world' (p. 17) and is at pains to suggest that Homersuppressed or modified the magical elements to make the stories credible.R. Carpenter, in his Folk-Tale, Fiction and Saga in the Homeric Epics (Berkeley and LosAngeles, Univ. of California Press, Sather Classical Lectures 20, 1956), takes a similar position:'like the hybrid monsters of eastern imagination when they came under Greek artists' hands, thenorthern Marchen had to be re-formed and retold in more natural human terms before a Greekliterary audience would accept them' (p. 70).Further research into audience reaction to such tales in different parts of the world wheremagic is credible and where the spirit world is considered as real as the physical world might haveled to a different conclusion, namely, that the Greek audience was not as rational as twentieth-century scholars believe, and that only a brief allusion to the magic was necessary as the audiencewould have known the rest.For a discussion of Lord and Parry's work on modem oral poetry in Yugoslavia and itssignificance for the understanding of Homeric epic (A. B. Lord and M. Parry, Serbo-CroatianHeroic Songs (Cambridge, Harvard Univ. Press, 1955) and A. B. Lord. Singer of Tales (Cambridge,Harvard Univ. Press, 1960), see G. S. Kirk, Homer and the Oral Tradition (Cambridge CambridgeUniv. Press, 1976), ch. 6.16 For a discussion of oral poetry, see R. H. Finnigan, Oral Poetry: Its Nature, Significance andSocial Context (Cambridge, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1977).17 Quoted in Wild, Patterns of Poetry in Zimbabwe. 136-7.JESSIE MARITZ 157Nyathi's work presents an interesting case of the way an outsideinfluence may work on a creative mind. It is not a great epic. It is a youngman's response to the political events in his homeland, influenced by hisreading of the works of older poets in a different tradition. It is comparablein length to the First Eclogue, which was a young Latin poet's comment onthe political events of his day, written in the idiom of a Greek poet who hadlived long before him. When it appeared, few people could have foreseenthat he would write a national epic to rival Homer.There is no way of knowing whether a comparable literary epic will appearin Zimbabwe. It can only be said that at least some of the essential ingredientsare present Š a strong oral tradition featuring legendary heroes and the world ofspirits interacting with men; a poetic comment on current political events; andthe influence of a literature from a different country. Cross-cultural studies canbe a source of inspiration to the poet, and a fruitful pedagogical approach for theteacher.