Traditional healer produces second magazine

While the majority of Africans are looking to the future and the fourth Industrial Revolution, questions about ancestry and their inherent past continue to plague the same forward-thinking minds.

Fortunately for them, Port Elizabeth-based ISPILI Network is exploring and sharing creative solutions to the questions young black people are asking in line with existential, spiritual questions that tap into the neglected ancestral consciousness, according to founder and director of the network Sisonke Papu.

ISPILI, which broadly means mirror, is using a development grant it received from the Nedbank-funded Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) to produce ISPILI Volume II — the second issue of its magazine — which will be published on Sunday at the Heritage Café in Central.

Papu, a former Nelson Mandela University literature lecturer who responded to his ancestral calling to become igqirha (traditional healer) and was initiated in July 2018, said the magazine is a platform for all to engage their thoughts on ancestry.

“The magazine is an important part of ISPILI’s broader work because it is through the stories we publish that young black people can voice our thoughts and expressions on culture, creative and critical thinking, knowing and sensing, and reflect on the future we seek,” Papu said.

In ISPILI Magazine Volume I contributors explored the idea, feeling and concept of space; what memory is; what dreams are, and the messages they bring from the astral and ancestral plane; what it means to ukuthwasa (initiation), and its relationship and history with music and healing.

Volume II is dedicated to Xhosa musician and national treasure Madosini Latozi Mpahleni, or simply Madosini, who plays ancient, traditional Xhosa instruments such as the isitolotolo, and the uhadi and umrhubhe musical bows.

In Volume II, contributors explore the concept of isingqi, which is important in Xhosa as it refers to dimensions of consciousness, knowing, and sound.

“We look at the different ways in which people respond to sound, rhythms and frequencies, which have a strong influence on healing. We also explore the use of sound as communication,” Papu said.

“One of our contributors is exploring the African drum that could transmit messages over hundreds of kilometres. Another contributor is looking at how vibrations can activate certain genes in our DNA, which enable us to get closer to our true being.”

He said it is important that the ISPILI Network is situated in Port Elizabeth and the Eastern Cape, as the province has historically contributed a great deal to SA, politically and culturally.

“But in more recent times it (Eastern Cape) hasn’t given people the platform to produce here, it perpetuates the tradition of migrant labour where, in this instance, creative people have to go to Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban to seek opportunities.

“We are working to redirect the energy back here, to create opportunities here and to shine a light on what is currently being created in the Eastern Cape.”