South Africa’s new Zulu king on Saturday celebrated hundreds of younger ladies at a vibrant traditional ceremony of womanhood, defying a row over the legitimacy of the royal succession.
At a stadium nestled between mountains in Nongoma city, the birthplace of South Africa’s ethnic Zulu group, bare-breasted younger ladies ululated and cheered as their new king addressed them.
The younger ladies sporting conventional beads on the neck, waist and the pinnacle, kicked off a day of festivities, presenting reeds and submitting previous the newly-crowned Zulu king MisuZulu Zulu.
The King emerged from a decent circle of Zulu warriors to simply accept his first ever reed as the brand new monarch, smiling as the group chanted in reward.
Every September — the beginning of southern hemisphere spring — hundreds of girls, identified regionally as maidens, take part within the “reed dance” in KwaZulu-Natal province.
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Reed Dance: The age outdated ceremony
It is an age-old annual ceremony in celebration of sexual purity and promotion of sexual abstinence amongst younger women.
The ceremony is a conventional ceremony of womanhood, rooted traditionally in an event when the king would choose new wives from amongst his topics.
The 47-year-old new head of South Africa’s largest ethnic group was recognised as monarch at a conventional ceremony final month following the dying final yr of his father King Goodwill Zwelithini, who had reigned for 50 years.
It is the first time the dance is going down because the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, and MisuZulu’s first time presiding over the reed dance.
Dressed in a leopard pores and skin scarf, the king smiled confidently all through the ceremony and his speech which was punctuated with bursts of laughter.
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“This is the first time I have seen such a large number of young girls and Zulu warriors attend a reed dance since I was born,”
the king stated, thanking the estimated 10 000 ladies.
“We are proud of you and we love you,” he stated to loud cheers, chants, ululations and spontaneous dances.
He spoke about rape and femicide which plague South Africa.
“Violence against women and children is an embarrassment to our nation,” he stated. “A woman is to be respected and protected. We must do better as men”.
‘Excited’
Sixteen-year-old Amahle Shange was making her debut on the competition.
“I am excited to be here for the first time, I can’t believe it’s finally happening and I’m seeing things I’ve never seen before,”
she instructed AFP.
The “reed dance” was abolished for a number of years however revived in 1984 by MisuZulu’s father.
This yr’s occasion is nevertheless clouded by an ongoing succession battle.
One faction of the royal household believes MisuZulu is the rightful inheritor as his late mom, Queen Mantfombi Dlamini Zulu the third queen consort and sister to Eswatini King Mswati III, was a royal princess.
But Prince Simakade, the late king’s first-born son who was born out of wedlock, has been championed by dissenting kinfolk by advantage of being the late king’s eldest son.
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The king referred to as for “peace and unity (to) prevail in the royal house.”
He additionally prolonged condolences to King Charles III on the dying of Queen Elizabeth II.
“Our history with the British isn’t covered in glory,” he stated. It was his defiant ancestors who inflicted one of many British Empire’s worst defeats in 1879 after they fought bloody battles towards the British colonisers.
Prior to the reed dance, the members had their genitalia inspected, a apply condemned by rights advocates who say it’s demeaning and an invasion of privateness.
Traditional physician and virgin inspector Nomagugu Ngobese defended the apply, saying it was accepted throughout totally different social lessons.
“I’ve got teachers here, engineers, they have cars; there are attorneys, which goes to prove wrong those who say our culture is outdated,”
she instructed AFP.
© Agence France-Presse
