....sackcloth and ashes anyone?
Please crosscheck verses in: Genesis 37,24; Job 16,14; Lamentations 2,10; Joel 1,8; 1. Kings 21,27; 1. Chronicles 21,16; Nehemiah 9,1; Jonah 3,5-9; Isaiah 15,3; Jeremiah 49,3; Ezekiel 27,31; Matthew 11,21; Luke 10,13; 1. Kings 19,1-2; Daniel 9,3; 1. Kings 20,31; 2. Kings 6,30; Isaiah 3,34; Joel 1,13; Isaiah 58, 5 and 50, 3.
To find but a few places in Scripture where this Xhosa ritual and custom is preformed...
Using and learning some of these words will help you get a better grasp of Xhosa (and the Bible), focusing here on the different names of relatives, family and close relations. Lets go :)
Nkwenkwe - Boy
Mfana - young man (In Daniel 3,25, the king sees someone - `Like The Son of Man`... another interesting point, that is one of the many traces of the Hebrew scrolls actually being written of older and `fresher` Xhosa scrolls. Who has these scrolls or where are they held? Dont know, and we dont really need them, the message of the Bible is very much preserved and there is enough gospel even in the New International Version to turn the most ardent sinner around)
Ndoda - man
Mdala - elder (dala - means to create. This word ins sentral to descriptions of the Most High in the Bible, and the title Ancient of Days, mentioned in Daniel 7,9)
Mkhwekazi - daughter in law
Mkhwenyana - son in law (remember the first part, Nkhwe, which can be used to recognise the sex)
Mtshakazi - bride
Mtsha - a new person
Makoti - wife material (daughter in law)
Hota - carry out the duties of the daughter in law
Xhego - is an old man (remember the horse-click)
Ngwev`entsha - middle-aged man (greying in his hair)
Ntombi - is a young woman
Ntombazana - a young girl
Ntonjane - teenager (more than just a word - this is the whole cultural process (ceremony - intonjane) itself of how one becomes a teenager)
Fikisa - adolescence
Mfazi - wife
Myeni - husband
Mamazala - mother in law (mama)
Tatazala - father in law (tata)
Mzala - relative
Zala - means to give birth (here the depth of Xhosa becomes apparent and gives a peak through the window into its richness. Consider the previous word, Mzala and put it next to Zala, see they are closely related both by blood and the process of bringing forth blood, amazing)
Zalana - related
Mama - mother
Gogo - advanced, when considering age and size (its fairly easy to remember Revelations mentionings of God and Magog also Ezekiel 38,2-3))
Magogo - old lady (huge thing)
Malume - mothers brother (regardless of age)
Tat`omncinci - fathers brother (younger)
Tat`ophakathi - fathers brother (middle)
Tat`omdala - fathers brother (elder)
The Ngena Tradition (Purely from the Books of Moses)
Bear in mind the example in John, where the John the Baptist called Luchanyah in Xhosa the `little Light`, who called King Herod out on his marriage with his brothers wife, only the thing was that Herod killed his brother, then took his wife...
We all know the rest of the story and the fury this brought upon `the greatest one born of women...` Luchanyah (John)
This out of wedlock concept runs deep in Scripture, with the right of the first born (Mgqakhwe), and his benefits, against the Lao (Lawu), which will not enter the assembly of the Most High (LAO-dikan church)
Hlola - to explore (also disgrace)
Umhlola - disgrace
Khonga - a general explorations (think of where DNA traces has been located in Bantu-expantion, deep in the Kongo)
Abakhongi was the name given to the people who explored the promised land, the land of Canaan, quite possibly most of South-Africa. And all life as we know it probably started in the lush and evergreen steps in the deep and mysterious Kongo.
Uxolo lube nani