Agathosma ovata, False Buchu
To Move Between Worlds
Trance Dance for Rain
The word, buchu, really encompasses a large range of aromatic plants from the Rutaceae family, this particular species being called Agathosma ovata or False buchu. I found it to be one of the more colourful of the main buchu plants growing in South Africa. The leaves of various buchu plants were chewed to ease digestive disturbances and they were also dried, powdered and mixed with sheep fat to anoint the body. Tortoiseshell boxes that contained ground-up buchu would be carried by some shaman and/or woman at a trance dance that would be used as a sedative effect. The buchu could be sprinkled on the dancing shamans to calm them, sometimes in a rain dance buchu could be used to pacify the captured bull or enticed rain animal to go quietly without struggle or be scattered on the surface of pools of water representing the softer rain that absorbs instead of the hard pounding rain the washes everything away.
The traced Sehonghong rain-animal scene that Patricia Vinnicombe drew in the 1960’s shows a woman holding a rope attached to the rain animal’s nose and a “charm” or burning buchu inside the tortoiseshell as she attempts to calm the animal during a painted version of the trance dance. Buchu was also used to help a shaman return from an out-of-body journey were they (as the Bushmen would explain) “wanted his veins to lie down”. It is the calming effects of the buchu, aromatic herbs, which has been noted in both the physical trance dance of the Bushman and portrayed on the rock faces.
There are often red lines with or without the tiny white dots that are painted on the rock surfaces with eland blood and white clay that come and go throughout over 3,000 sites of art painted by the bushman. It is thought that it represents a connection from the spirit world to the physical world as the lines appear and disappear through the cracks of the rock face, as do the dancing shaman as they move between worlds.
Margaret Johnston is a Naturopthic Doctor/Educator and Botanical Illustrator/Artist that has been spending time living and learning in Cape Town, South Africa, since 2011. While studying the various buchu plants in the Western Cape, she discovered some interesting ways how the Bushman (various groups) use some plants in ceremonies, how they view their world and live their lives. Margaret feels that using some of her academic and artistic skills to help portray this cultures “magical qualities” is a way to educate others that might be drawn towards this kind of art, tribal cultures and/or herbal knowledge.
www.mejcreations.com
