The Book Of THoTH

It is the healing dance that is the main subject of this piece. The dance can at times be performed several times in a month but the Kung may also go several weeks without performing the dance. Although healing is the main reason the Kung perform the dance this is sometimes not the only reason the dance takes place. Those who take part in the dance consist of the women (both young and old), adolescent males, young men and the more mature males.

A typical dance lasts from dusk till dawn and it is the women folk who begin the process. When a dance has been arranged it is the women who gather the wood for a central fire around which the dance takes place. The Kung women build the fire and sit around it shoulder to shoulder with their legs interlocked. The women then begin singing the num songs and clapping. It is the song and clapping that stimulate the dancers to dance.

The dancers for the most part are male but this is not a rule women too can dance if they choose. In the early stages of the dance the singing and clapping are light compared to the more intense singing when the dance is at its peek. This gives the adolescent males a chance to practice their dance moves. As the night draws on the singing and clapping intensify allowing the young men and mature males to dance and to receive and activate their num.

Num
Num as it is called by the Kung has been translated as medicine. This translation does not do justice to what the Kung call num. Num is a powerful energy to the Kung. It is given by god and the ancestors and is received by the healers and is at its most potent during the healing dance. Num can be received by anyone but not everyone receives it. Even during the dance a strong healer who has received num many time before may at times be refused it.

During the dance the rhythmic singing and clapping of the singers along with the rhythmic dance, the small steps and more energetic stomps of the dancers brings on the onset of num. It begins in the pit of the stomach gebesi and as the singing, clapping and dancing intensifies the num begins to heat up. Eventually the num begins to boil and evaporate rising up the spine and allowing the healer to reach a state of kia.

This process is not an easy one. The boiling of the num that is required to reach kia is described by the healers as a painful process. So painful and intense is this feeling that the healer on receiving num will collapse onto the ground where he must quickly take control of the num. There is also a fear of death on receiving num. Many healing students have such a fear of this pain and death that when they feel their own num heating up they will sit down and briefly leave the dance to allow the num to cool down. These students are said to have not yet received num.

KIA
Kia is, for want of a better description, an altered state. There are two stages of kia. Beginning of kia and full kia. Although there may be several experienced healers at a dance willing to and ready to receive num and enter into kia it may be the case that not all will reach this altered state. Those healers who enter into kia see things as they really are. Healers who experiencing kia can see and converse with the spirits of dead relatives and ancestors. More importantly they can see sickness and illness in those who attend the dance. To reach kia a dancer must die and be reborn a healer. During this process the dancers soul leaves the body and must be guided back usually with the help of the singers and or other dancers who have not yet received num.

Sickness and illness
To the Kung sickness and illness are connected but two separate things. The kung believe sickness is in everyone all of the time and illness is the manifestation of the symptoms of sickness. Sickness is put in everyone by the great god Gao Na and it is also this god who gave num to the Kung people. It is however to the lesser god Kauha and the spirits of the dead gauwasi that the distribution of sickness and illness is attributed.

The Kung gods
Most Kung believe there are only two gods Gao Na the greater god and Kauha the lesser god. Gao Na lives in a mansion in the heavens in one description he has human form with supernatural powers. Kauha is named after the greater god this forms a unique bond between the two similar to bonds within the Kung themselves. Unlike our perception of the gods we know, Gao Na is subject to passion, stupidity and frustration he can be tricked and humiliated and like the Kung his main interests are eating and sex. Gao Na is also a powerful god when the Kung speak his name it is in whispers out of fear and respect for the deity.

The singers at the dance also take on another role as protector. When an inexperienced healer receives num he may feel the urge to rush towards the fire, bow his head over the flames or walk onto the fire. It is worth noting that the central fire is not a blazing inferno the fire is kept low as one of the purposes of the fire is to keep the singers warm during the cold nights in the Kalahari desert and a blazing fire would prevent the singers from seating themselves around it. The activation of num heats up the body and can be painful and the inexperienced healer feeling his num begin to boil rushes towards the fire (which also contains num) in a bid to help his num boil.

Seeing this the singers around the fire would physically restrain him and pin him down. It is important at this stage that the healer cools his num and takes control of it. The women and possibly other dancers would rub the healers body applying their own sweat (which also contains num) allowing the healer to cool his num, take control and enter into kia. It is also worth noting that experienced healers often approach the fire and hold there heads over the flames or walk into the fire. This process does not harm the experienced healer. His num is as hot as the fire and so the fire does not harm him.

Once a healer has entered into full kia he can then be led, by another dancer or by one of the singers, or sometimes he goes unaided to those attending the dance the singers, the dancers, those there just to enjoy the communal ties and atmosphere and those who have attended to have an illness cured. In those suffering from an illness the healer attempts to draw out the illness and expel it back to the spirits or god who had placed it there. He does this by placing his hands, usually over the affected area, drawing out the illness into his own body then expelling it into the darkness just beyond where the light of the fire reaches which is where the spirits dwell attracted by the light of the fire and the sound of the singing and clapping. Those who have no illness the healer also attends to as a preventative measure.

While in the stages of full kia a healer talks incoherently and may hold conversations with what seems to be thin air, waving his hands and nodding his head. He is talking with the spirits of the dead ancestors. It is these spirits who have come to take a living loved one away. The healer may plead with them, bargain with them, insult them and eventually threaten them to leave the living be they are not yet ready to join the spirits. In extreme circumstances the healers soul may leave his body and undergo a journey to heaven and to the mansion of Gao Na the greater god. This journey is said to be a very dangerous one. Should the soul of the healer loose its way home then the healer would himself die.

Information taken from Boiling Energy Community Healing Among the Kalahari Kung
By Richard Katz.

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