In my last post, I mentioned that there are two types of snakes in traditional Tswana culture. Even though they are quite different, both types are referred to simply as "snakes." I have chosen to call the first type "evil snakes," and the second type "spirit snakes," for the sake of clarity. Evil snakes are the tools of witches, demons, and the devil. They look like normal snakes and will be familiar to anyone who knows the story of The Garden of Eden. Because the Tswana culture was exclusively oral until after the arrival of Christianity and other aspects of foreign culture, it was impossible for me to figure out if the stories and attitudes towards evil snakes predate the last quarter of the 19th century. Spirit snakes, on the other hand, are of a completely different type. If you have read about or seen the basilisk in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone" or are familiar with stories about European dragons, then you have some idea about what a spirit snake is like. Like dragons, spirit snakes live in out-of-the-way places like caves, rivers, ponds, or the ocean. Also, like dragons, spirit snakes guard something, but they don't guard virgins or gold. Spirit snakes protect information. A person may be called to a cave or body of water through a vision or a dream. These are sacred places that often serve as doorways between the everyday world and the spirit world. In traditional Tswana culture this world of the ancestors lies under the ground and not in the sky (similar to the Greek Elysian fields.) Spirit snakes are usually described as being 50-75 meters long and having about the same girth as a healthy adult cow, but have the same general anatomy of normal snakes. They are light tan in color and their eyes glow with an orange light (the picture presented with South Africa #10 shows this type of spirit snake.) Unlike the evil snake, the spirit snake is not seen as good or bad, just powerful-they represent the power of the earth and ancestor spirits. If you are called to or stumble upon a spirit snake, one of two things will happen: (1) it will kill you, or (2) it will teach you how to be a traditional healer. As with witches (see South Africa # 1,) the belief in spirit snakes is sincere and nearly universal among rural people. Even on the hottest days in the desert, nobody went swimming or even dipped a toe in the water, for fear that they would be dragged down to face judgement. The following story was told to me by my good friend Ayanda. She is a 28-year-old traditional healer currently living in the town of Vryburg in the Northwest Province of South Africa: "When I was 10 years old, I was playing with my friends in the river near my grandmothers home. I was splashing in the shallow edges of the water, because I do not know how to swim. Then, I saw a gold cup floating in the middle of the river. I decided to go after the cup and catch it. My friends called out to me, but I kept going. Suddenly, I was being pulled down-down-down into the river. I could see the bottom. There was a small house there and I was pulled inside of it. In the house was an old woman. This old woman talked to me about traditional medicine and the uses of many plants. This seemed to take only a few minutes, but when I was returned to the surface of the river, I found that several hours had passed. It was dark, and I struggled to reach my grandmother's house. When I arrived, my grandmother gave me a spanking for being late. When I told her what had happened to me in the river, she told me that it was not an old woman that I had spoken to, but a snake. This was how I was called to be a sangoma (traditional healer/shaman.)" All of the sangomas that I was able to speak to in depth told a similar type of story. Sometimes the stories take place in a cave or are said to have been visions rather than actual experiences, but the basic details are the same. Part of the job of a sangoma is to interpret the spirit world for regular people who live in the world of normal reality. A journey to the spirit world or a conversation with a spirit snake is seen as part of sangoma training and a sign of authenticity. Today's picture features a spirit snake in a river. It watches over the scenes of grief and joy in the background. The white conqueror thinks that he is on solid ground, but he will soon find himself swimming in the river. Will he be taught the lessons of the earth or will he be lunch?
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