Hi and welcome to the African Tarot. This project was undertaken as a means of providing Southern Africans with the archetypes from their legends and history, in order to utilise for meditation and self-examination.
0 The Fool: Nongquwuse
Archetype and divinatory meaning: The fool is the first card of the major arcana, and is about blind faith, belief, taking chances, setting out for impossible shores and dreaming great dreams. It is the beginning of a spiritual journey, and it highlights the uncertainties of life and its contradictions. If used in divination the card of the fool is a warning, but also encouragement for those setting out on a spiritual journey. The path of spirit is often the path of the fool, and indeed this will always be the case, as rational thought will always war with spiritual insight and thought.
Image: The spirit of Nongquwuse floats over a land where cattle lie in a heap after their slaughter, her eyes fixed on the future where they will rise and fill the green hills and valleys below her. She is serene and calm, sure that what is coming is good and that the path will lead to a better place.
Origin: The history of the Xhosa people in the mid 1800’s provides this starting card for the African Tarot. The Xhosa were farmers, with cattle and corn their main staples. As the white settlers moved from the tip of Africa (Cape Town) into the hinterland, clashes between the already settled black farmers and the land-seeking white farmers became a problem. The British, whose colony the Cape was at that time, were required to provide protection for the settlers. (If the story sounds familiar, think of America and its skirmishes between Native American and settler.)
Nonquwuse, a young girl, had a vision of two ancestors telling her that the Xhosa were filled with corruption and that they had to slaughter all their cattle, burn all their corn and once this purification had taken place, the white settlers would be put to flight, the cattle and corn would be restored intact and the Xhosa would rise to great prosperity.
Over the next two years she gained a following to such an extent that the Xhosa began to starve, and thus started losing the skirmishes and wars, finally being overrun and conquered. Of course no cattle rose from the dead, the Xhosa nation became subject to the British crown and she was reviled as fool or traitor.
As a footnote: If we look at the present situation in South Africa, we find that the ruling party, the ANC, counts among its leaders many Xhosa, most notable of which is Nelson Rohilahla Mandela. It can indeed be said that the Xhosa have indeed risen to great heights!
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