Kutanda botso [self-shaming]: A suffering-related therapeutic ritual in Shona society

Abstract

The concept of human suffering forms an integral part of almost all world religions. In the African Indigenous Religion, the focus of this article, suffering is considered an unordinary mundane experience. As such, the sufferer and his or her significant others often ask: Why this suffering? Why is it happening to me? What or who caused it? What should I do to alleviate it? These questions point to the idea that in the African Indigenous Religion, suffering has a cause and an antidote. This article, therefore, seeks to add voice to discourses on religio-cultural approaches to suffering, a subject matter that has so far been scantly addressed in African Indigenous Religion related literature. We explore one of the most dreaded forms of spiritualised suffering, kutanda botso [self-shaming], its perceived causes, manifestations and remedies. The argument advanced in this article is that when suffering is moralised and spiritualised, it tends to be perceived as unusual; hence, actions that require appeasement and/or redressive therapeutic rituals are brought to the fore.

Contribution: This study adds voice to the existing body of literature on the nexus between African Indigenous Religion and suffering. In particular, it explores kutanda botso-related suffering as one of the most feared extreme forms of suffering among the Shona followers of the indigenous religion in Zimbabwe. The ritualisation of suffering and the grounding of kutanda botso as a therapeutic ritual are knowledge insights that the article seeks to add to the extant literature.