African Beliefs about the Rhino

The rhinoceros, symbol of the Great Earth Mother, is held by the African people to be a personification of all that was noble and self-sacrificing. And throughout Southern Africa, the rhinoceros is called by a name that means the struggler, the endurer, the determined one. In the language of the Zulu people, the white rhino is called Ubejana. This word comes from the verb Beja, which means to be determined, to arouse yourself for combat, and (to use an English phrase) to nail your colours to the mast.  If a Zulu is arming himself with all his weapons and goes forth to battle, he will sometimes wear a red headband around his head. This is called Ukubeja, and the colour of Ukubeja is red. In olden days the warrior would paint his forehead with red ochre to show that he is determined not to return alive, defeated, from battle. (There is another kind of rhinoceros, the black rhinoceros, which is called Umkombe. This we shall deal with at another time.)

African Beliefs About The Rhino

The rhinoceros is viewed by African people as a creature that is blessed by God, and that sometimes sheds blessings upon humankind in the name of God. Our people believe that if you are walking through the bush and are struck by a jet of urine fired by a rhinoceros, then you will become a famous person. 

One day we were walking on a very hot day in Kenya, in the bush. The sun blazed from the angry heavens, the bush all around us was dry and brittle. The grass was dry with not a green leaf to give hope to the passing eye. We were carrying boxes of supplies, moving from one campsite to another, when all of a sudden a shower of liquid bathed several of us. It was a smelly liquid, this. It was the strongest kind of urine that you can imagine. It caused our skins to itch. It caused our hair to stink. But when we reached the new campsite, the men who were already there, on hearing our story, rushed forward to touch us – we had been drenched by the urine of the beast we had not even seen, so blinded by weariness and by the heat were we!  “You are going to be great men in the near future,” said one of the Askaris. “You must not bath for several days. Let the spirit of the urine, the soul of the rhino, become one with you.” But anyone who does not immediately wash off rhino urine is asking for trouble. And when we arrived about a day later, on the bank of a muddy river, the first thing we did after fulfilling our camping duties was to get into the water and have a good bath. And even then it took a lot of soap and much rubbing and cursing to rid us of the stench of the urine and the itchy sensation on our skins!

Africans believe that if you dream of a rhinoceros when you are in trouble, this means that you will be helped by God through a very powerful person. One day I was having a legal argument with a man who had tricked me into signing a document that allowed him to take away a large percentage of my books’ royalties. Then one day I dreamed of a rhinoceros. I dreamed that I was sitting on a rock and that a rhinoceros, (a vague and ungainly shape in my dream) was coming towards me, but that it was friendly. Two days later I found a government official who helped me to obtain some of my money, where several lawyers that I had engaged before had failed. I had given no thought to my dream of the rhinoceros, but my wife reminded me of my dream afterwards, saying: “Well, we have gained some of your book’s money, however small. Mutwa, remember the dream you had about two weeks ago, of a rhinoceros walking towards you ? Well, it has been fulfilled.” 

Africa is a very strange country, a country of animals. A country of dreams.

A story by Credo Mutwa