Het Heru (also known as Oshun and Nana Afua in Yoruba and Akan) is the deity or concept in our Afrikan culture who represents birth, death and re-birth. As we exit from one realm, we enter into another. Transition therefore, is ontologically paramount to our culture and must be swift as the ways of Ma'at to maintain divine order. The Ndebele of Zimbabwe are part of the Nguni people of Southern Afrika who migrated in the early 1800s when their King Mzilikazi ka Khumalo fled Tshaka Zulu in what is known as KwaZulu in today's South Afrika. They have settled in the Matebeleland Province of Zimbabwe. They speak a language called isiNdebele which is an older version of Zulu. Het Heru has varied conceptualizations throughout Afrikan cultures. This article will discuss how she is conceptualized by the Ndebele.
Design
Conception takes place when an ancestor in the spiritual realm is pulled into the womb of an Afrikan woman through the unification of two Afrikan bloodlines. Het Heru is the deity whose crown bears by the two of them is not coincidental that the female ovaries are shaped in the same way. When a woman was married in Ndebele culture, traditionally the man's family presented her family cows. We call this cow token lobola and its significance pays tribute to Het Heru in respect of the transition of the ancestor into the world may the journey be swift.