Facts About the Swaziland Umhlanga/Reed Dance
In an eight day ceremony, girls cut reeds and present them to the Queen Mother (Indlovukazi) and then dance. The Dance normally takes place in late August or early September. Only childless, unmarried girls can take part. The main day of the event is a national holiday in the Kingdom of Swaziland
The aims of the ceremony are to preserve girls’ chastity, provide tribute labour for the Queen Mother and encourage solidarity through working together.
Day 1: The girls gather at the Queen Mothers royal village. They come in groups from the 200 or so chiefdoms and are registered for security. They are supervised by men, usually four, appointed by each chief. They sleep in the huts of relatives in the royal villages or in the classrooms of the four nearby schools.
Day 2: The girls are separated into two groups, the older (about 14 to 22 years) and the younger (about 8 to 13). In the afternoon, they march, in their local groups, to the reed-beds, with their supervisors. The older girls often go to Ntondozi (about 30 kilometres) while the younger girls usually go to Bhamsakhe near Malkerns (about 10 kilometres).
If the older girls are sent to Mphisi Farm, the government will provide transport. The girls reach the vicinity of the reeds in darkness, and sleep in government-provided tents. Formerly, the local people would have accommodated them in their homesteads.
Day 3: The girls cut their reeds, usually about ten to twenty, using long knives. Each girl ties her reeds into one bundle. Nowadays, they use strips of plastic bags for the tying, but those mindful of tradition will still cut grass and plait it into rope.
Day 4: In the afternoon, the girls set off to return to the Queen Mother?s village, carrying their bundles of reeds. Again they return at night. This is done “to show they travelled a long way”.
Day 6: First day of dancing, from about 3PM to 5PM. The girls drop their reeds outside the Queen Mothers quarters. They move to the arena and dance, keeping in their groups and each group singing different songs at the same time.
Day 8: King commands that a number of cattle (perhaps 20-25) be slaughtered for girls. They collect their pieces of meat and can go home.
See Also :
The Swaziland Reed Dance 2010 in Pictures
The Zulu Reed Dance 2010 in Pictures
Related Posts:
Comments
9 Responses to “Facts About the Swaziland Umhlanga/Reed Dance”
Leave a Reply
i call it sex tourism becouse 4 what purpose do u parade cute naked girls in front of raving eyes of lusty men. stop it now.
Excellent read! I have got 1 advice for your weblog. It looks like there are a few css issues when launching several webpages in google chrome and safari. It is working fine in internet explorer. Perhaps you could double check that. I’ve just bookmarked this article on stumbleupon.com to get a few more readers to your web page.
Fantastic read, I just passed this onto a friend who was doing a little investigation on that. And he really bought me lunch because I discovered it for him smile So let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch!
It does seem that everybody is into this kind of stuff lately. Don’t really understand it though, but thanks for trying to explain it. Appreciate you shedding light into this matter. Keep it up
Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.
Howdy, taking a look at this website makes me think that You are an interesting blogger.
It is always pleasure to read your posts, will back here soon
Searching for good online earning method ? I want to share with you my making money method, just
type in google: Damn good earning method
Wishing you Happy New Year 2011! A splendid blogpost, I just given this onto a university student who was doing a little analysis on that. And he in fact bought me breakfast because I discovered it for him… smile. So let me rephrase that: Thankx for the treat! But yeah Thnx for spending the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and enjoy learning more on this topic. If possible, as you become expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more details? It is very helpful for me. Two thumb up for this blogpost!