Prior to colonization, African traditions were primarily oral and community based. It was based on traditions, legend tales and knowledge affiliated with rituals. They were used for educate, situate and enable individuals to play useful roles in society. The African societies saw change at the encounter with colonialism, filtering and influencing African traditions and practices an beliefs. This piece tells the tale of two traditions and beliefs in the Mpenyane clan.

The concept of binality of power was firstly coined by Hannah but it was further extended by Mbembe in the context of colonial Africa. He argues that power not only manifests in grand spectacular gestures but also through subtle and ordinary everyday practices, such as refusing to let them participate and perform cultural/traditional rituals and further supress their beliefs by imposing new beliefs (such as Christianity).

For Tumahole, the colonial era filtered the authenticity and limited the ways in which he connected to his gods. As a messenger and a seer for the King Moshoeshoe II, he had a lot of knowledge about trees and plants and he was specifically connected and interested in the wild olive branches. He would get a fresh branch daily at midnight and place it under his grass mat. He believed that it was a way to connect to the ancestors and claim good fortune and strength for the next day. The arrival of colonialism barricaded the wild olive branches and limited access into the grounds, and as a result he could only perform this once a year, at the beginning of the year.

From childhood, this has been a tradition done in my family at the beginning of each year to ask and claim good luck from God and the ancestors, due to the influence of Christianity in my families beliefs, instead of putting the wild olive branch under the grass mat, we put it in our individual bibles. This tradition has ensured my protection and good fortune for the year and has serve as a reminder to my family that we begin the year as a unit connected by an olive branch and we end the year as a unit defined the olive itself (fruitfulness).

As an addition to this tradition, my grandmother has taught her grandchildren to always spill a little water on the ground at the beginning of a new phase, journey or stage in order to purify the process and progress of the journey. This belief was passed down to her by her mother, on her death bed, she assured her that for as long as her, her children, and grandchildren continue to remember this practice, she will be there to purify the road for them.