Abstract
“The Venda Tribal and Regional Councils Act regulated the institution of traditional leadership. However,
the traditional leaders were manipulated by Chief Patrick Mphephu to lubricate the political wheel of the
Bantustan administration of Venda” (Khunou, 2009). This came about by Chief Mphephu’s greed. Because of
that, The Traditional leadership of Venda under the leadership of Chief Patrick Mphephu is critically criticised
and observed as a dispersing mechanism of the Vhavenda people for power.
The successive colonial governments of South Africa enacted a considerable number of legislative measures
to change the pre-colonial structures, roles, and powers of the traditional leaders. For example, the Black
Administration Act was enacted to give limited powers and roles to traditional leaders (Khunou, 2009).
Hence the conditions of Venda Bantustan today.
However, The Black Land Act (1913: section 27) and subsequent acts like the Native Trust Land Act
significantly dispossessed Native Black South Africans, culminating in forced relocations to Bantunstans.
These Land Acts implications are therefore the reason I write this document sharing the narrative of my
upbringing in the Township of Musina which marks the inception of a tearful tale of a puzzled individual
lacking a definitive sense of belonging. This condition stemmed from my family’s dispossession by the
colonial administration in South Africa and the governance of Chief Patrick Mphephu’s traditional authority,
causing a widespread scattering of families in Venda.
Inevitably, these occurrences compelled my family’s relocation to Musina, a township 45-50 kilometers from
Venda Bantustan borderline, approximately 83-90 kilometers from Dzanani, our ancestral homeland filled
with significant spiritual connections. The dispossession served as the primary catalyst in amputating the
family’s tie to ancestral heritage and interfering with the observance of customary spiritual practices of U
phasa, a ritual where one speaks communicate with their ancestors.
These are the spiritual practices of Vhavenda people which are powerfully linked to zwifho, a Venda term
that refers to sacred sites or which are respected natural sacred fixed within the indigenous forests of
Venda, specifically the Mountains and bodies of water. My family of Munyembane with a totem name
Mudau, a group within Vhangona, a group of Vhavenda who are refered to as Vho-Nganiwapo (one that
was found in the land) own these sacred sites, with which for my family it is found within Soutpansberg
Mountains where Dzanani sits. Various Vhavenda clans maintains spiritual connection to these sites,yet
the origins of their classification as zwifho, and the criteria for selecting specific clans as their custodians,
remain undocumented yet shared in Oral History, shared through oral history. Zwifho serves as sacred sites
where communication with Vhadzimu/vhafasi (ancestors) is performed through ‘U phasa’ performed by the
custodian clan chosen by Nwali (The Creator/God).
Although the use of these sites is a challenge for Vhangona people, the ones who were found in Venda and
were excluded from Venda or lost their rule to the Vhalemba group of Vhavenda, the people who came to
Venda from Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, Ethiopia and Tanzania.
The research project undertakes an exploration into the historical events that have contributed to cultural
distortion within the historical customs of the Vhanyembani family whose identity is defined by an Immaterial
table (Geri Augusto, 2022), a table with elements that defines traits of Vhanyembani family, this Immaterials
table details the spiritual elements that are floating for this family due to lack of availability access to practice
spiritual ritual. I am on a pursuit of authority that is aimed at bringing about my family’s agency which was
lost during Venda’s diaspora.
My project intends to introduce an alternative observance of lost rituals that are tied to a site(s) by reimaging
the ‘U phasa’ rituals being practiced in a more accessible site for those families that were dispossessed and
excluded from Venda because of Bantustan’s demarcation.
The intention of the project is supported by studying ‘U Phasa’ as a way to access Authority in order to gain
agency for my family who do not have cultural connection to Dzanani an ancestral land of my family located
within Venda. In order to achieve this my research, observing ‘U Phasa’ as lost memorial heritage for my
family and seeks to remove Agency by introducing new agencyi that gives authorityii to my family and other
families that have difficulties in practicing U phasa rituals because of this exclusion.