What matters

Dr. C. Branker.

I read an article recently about an African tribe that show great love to its people. The Himba tribe believes that:---Dwelling on the negative only tends to contribute to its power, true salvation is freedom from negativity. They express this in singing to every member of the tribe throughout their lives.

A semi nomadic tribe live in the northern parts of Namibia and on the banks of the Kunene River. Of all the African tribes of Africa still alive today, the Himba are one of the few that counts the birth date of the child not from when the day they were born, nor conceived but the day the mother decided to have the child.

And when a woman decides that she will have a child, she goes off and sits under a tree, by herself, and she listens until she can hear the song of the child that wants to come. And after she’s heard the song of this child, she comes back to the man who will be the child’s father, and teaches it to him. And then, when they make love to physically conceive the child, some of that time they sing the song of the child, as a way to invite it.And then, when the mother is pregnant, the mother teaches that child’s song to the midwives and the old women of the village, so that when the child is born, the old women and the people around her sing the child’s song to welcome it. And then, as the child grows up, the other villagers are taught the child’s song. If the child falls, or hurts its knee, someone picks it up and sings its song to it. Or perhaps the child does something wonderful, or goes through the rites of puberty, then as a way of honouring this person, the people of the village sing his or her song.

In the African tribe there is one other occasion upon which the villagers sing to the child. If at any time during his or her life, the person commits a crime or aberrant social act, the individual is called to the centre of the village and the people in the community form a circle around them. Then they sing their song to them.

The tribe recognizes that the correction for antisocial behaviour is not punishment; it is love and the remembrance of identity. When you recognize your own song, you have no desire or need to do anything that would hurt another.

And it goes this way through their life. In marriage, the songs are sung, together. And finally, when this child is lying in bed, ready to die, all the villagers know his or her song, and they sing—for the last time—the song to that person.

You may not have grown up in an African tribe that sings your song to you at crucial life transitions, but life is always reminding you when you are in tune with yourself and when you are not.

When you feel good, what you are doing matches your song, and when you feel awful, it doesn’t.

In the end, we shall all recognize our song and sing it well.

You may feel a little warbly at the moment, but so have all the great singers.

Just keep singing and you’ll find your way home.

Christians are encourage to sing constantly in the scriptures in order to remain positive and spiritual avoiding the distractions of worldliness and all its sounds.