Emancipate your minds . . . time we start keeping abreast with Africa?

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So what about this recent shot depicting the annual Reed Dance ceremony, and annual Swazi and Zulu tradition held in August and September? In Swaziland, it turns out, tens and thousands of unmarried and childless girls and women travel from the chiefdoms of Ludizidzini to participate in the eight-day event.

The Reed Dance ceremony: You’d be surprised what are the criteria for membership with this select group!
The Reed Dance ceremony: You’d be surprised what are the criteria for membership with this select group!

In South Africa, the ceremony Umkhosi woMhlanga takes place every year in September at the Enyokeni Royal Palace in Nongom, KwaZulu-Natal. The girls come from all parts of Zululand, and in recent years there are also smaller groups from Swaziland, as well as more distant places such as Botswana and  Pondoland.

All girls are required to undergo a virginity test before they are allowed to participate in a royal dance, though in recent years the testing practice has been met with some opposition. [Trust those guys to demands we could never meet locally!]

The girls wear traditional attire, including beadwork, and “izigege” bracelets, necklaces, and colorful sashes. Each sash has appendages of a different color, which denote whether or not the girl is betrothed. As part of the ceremony the young women dance bare-breasted for their king, and each carries a long reed, which is then deposited as they approach the king. The girls take care to choose only the longest and strongest reeds, and then carry them towering above their heads in a slow procession, up the hill to the palace.

The procession is led by the chief Zulu princess, who takes a prominent role throughout the festival.

If the reed should break before the girl reaches that point, it is considered a signal that the girl has already been sexually active.

How long before our own elected kings, imagined as well as other Kings, not to mention kings of carnival and La Woz, demand equal rights?

 

The preceding information is from a Youtube video of the Reed Dance by user ‘My Africa.’

Look out for Rick Wayne Rants click here

 

8 COMMENTS

  1. “… the young women dance bare-breasted….”
    —————————————————-
    Without a doubt, Rick will be there next year.

  2. Sell newspapers? So people here buy newspapers based on personal perversions? The article referred to here was written by someone other than Rick Wayne. I simply presented it on Emancipation weekend to show how we had moved from what we once saw as natural, just like Africans, and now consider perverted. The writer of the original article is mentioned at the bottom of the piece. I’ll tell you what I consider perverted. As does the good book. Misjudging others!

    • Many of the responses highlight the extent to which we reject what is more ours – as descendants of Africans. The trouble with these people is how much cling unto things not of them not by them and then embrace them as divinely given. This is precisely what the slave masters, colonialists, neo-colonialists and now neo-cons want it to be. When Europe went into Africa one of the first thing they do was to rubbish its culture. I dear say what it did not succeed in doing away then it is trying do so now because they know a people without a cultural identity to call their own is one without a history and is therefore without a future. That people is not seen it is not heard. It angers me immensely when those with a European social background judge African cultural practices negatively. Instead let the African see the reason for change or move on from some antiquated cultural practices themselves.

  3. Sell newspapers? So people buy newspapers here based on personal perversions? The k article was written by someone reporting on aspects of African culture that used to seen as natural here until we gobbled up too much of the forbidden fruit. Like that Garden of Eden couple. Breasts exposed have nothing to do with perversion. Judging others wrongly certainly is sicko.

  4. So you write all this for what ??? For a person who does not go South of Jeramie Street or any seighting of you during carnival is as rare as a Bald Eagle in New York City you sure have a lot to say. Oh yeah I forget about the recent ruling freedom of your dysfunctional media house oh well.

  5. “Virginity test” what a stupid slavery expectation. The king is just a pimp looking to use women, in fact women have been reduced to being property in every country. Every person who is married is involved in a contract of misery, the king wants many distractions of that misery. Carnival is a reflection of sexual repression and exploitation, it shows how an unevolved society really is.

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