The motherland

Interesting post, written by a member of Facebook Nasal Snuff Takers group:

"NTSU is well known for its strength, purity and banyard type aroma, however few people outside South Africa know how it is used traditionally…

To understand how spiritually important snuff (like NTSU & TAXI) is to the South African bantu culture, one must first understand the central spiritual practice of their traditional culture is reverence of their ancestors. They believe that their ancestors play a central role in their health & well being, and neglect of their ancestors is to bring misfortune and illness into the household.

In order to talk and pray to their ancestors, they must sprinkle snuff on the ground or altar in a sacred practice the zulu call phahla. They believe snuff acts as a direct connection to the other worlds where their ancestors reside and watch over them. In fact, most of a box of snuff is never inhaled, but offered to their ancestors.

If snuff is sniffed, the first pinch is always sprinkled on the ground first to remind them that their ancestors always come first.

Traditional healers called sangomas/inyangas always carry snuff and prize it above anything else. The concept being that wealth and possessions come and go, however if they have snuff they will always be close to their ancestors.

For further details of the practice of phahla, watch this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b_luvfjllw"

As reported by the same guy, “about 70% (of snuff takers) (are) women, but there’s a lot of men, too. Of all ages[…].”

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Fascinating

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