Modjadji V, Rain Queen, Dies in South Africa at 64
Although modern meteorology and politics have robbed the mysterious
Modjadjis of the awe that once protected their tiny tribe, the Lobedu, her
death created a succession crisis. Her 20-year-old granddaughter,
Makhaele, who was to have succeeded her as Modjadji VI, died on Monday.
Makhaele's mother died years ago. The queen died of renal and heart failure, according to the Pietersburg
Medi-Clinic. The cause of the younger woman's death has been given only as
"a short illness." A spokesman said the family was upset that the world had been notified
before succession could be discussed or funeral arrangements made.
Although Modjadji V refused to discuss ceremonial secrets, a 1937
anthropological text says the queens' decaying bodies were stored for
weeks and water poured over them to create a rain-making potion. The
earliest Modjadjis were never seen and were said to be immortal. For generations, the Lobedu were left unmolested by more powerful
neighbors, the Zulu and Swazi, for fear of their queens' power over the
rains. In times of drought, caravans of gifts were sent up to their
village, also called Modjadji, in the Drakensberg Mountains. The high
valley around the village is sort of a climatic anomaly: set on dry slopes
above a drier plain, it squeezes enough rain from the clouds blown off the
Indian Ocean to grow bananas. The nearby Modjadji Forest is full of rare
cycads, fern-like trees that date to the time of the dinosaurs. Anthropological texts say the line of Modjadjis started in 1800, when
Mugodo, a chief of the Dzugudini tribe, had a vision that he must marry
his daughter and found a female dynasty. Oral tradition is grander: it
says the Lobedu come from ancient Ethiopia and built the stone fortress of
Great Zimbabwe. Officially, no Modjadji marries a man; like African kings, they take
several spouses, but bear children by secret consorts. The queen, a spokesman said, is both a secular and religious leader,
and is "mother, father and child -- three persons in one." Although she was visited by leaders of African Christian sects,
Modjadji V was not Christian. "I am baptized by my own god," she said in
an interview. Four years ago, Modjadji said no one any longer asked her to make rain;
young people, she complained, had lost touch with religion. That created
financial problems. Her office demanded cash gifts of about $50 for
interviews, and she was not shy about counting the money herself before
saying a word. She owned a leopard-skin cloak that had been in the family
for five generations but could be found sitting barefoot on the mud stoop
of her thatched reception hut. Although she had asked the provincial government to encourage tourism
to her village, she had little patience with visitors and is still famous
for having kept President Nelson Mandela waiting. He was not the first political visitor. White presidents paid obeisance
even in the days when blacks could not vote. F. W. de Klerk visited her
when he was president, and his predecessor, P. W. Botha, visited her
mother. Zanele Mbeki, wife of President Thabo Mbeki, is expected to attend
her funeral on Sunday. Unseasonable rains hit Johannesburg on Thursday and continued this
evening.
OHANNESBURG, June 29 -- Modjadji V, the last of a line of rain
queens and the only woman who was a tribal ruler in modern-day southern
Africa, died on Thursday in a clinic in Petersburg, South Africa. She was
64.
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