By Zisanda Solwandle
"UMkhosi WoMhlanga is not just an organisation that teaches maidens to remain virgins, but a structure that molds a person and offers guidance as to how a girl child should carry herself around people and in her community."
Masande mthethwa
photo credit : Zisanda Solwandle
“I chose to be part of UMkhosi WoMhlanga, because my grandmother used to talk about the organisation as this lovely thing that instilled good morals and respect in young girls,” explains Masande Mthethwa proudly."
Masande is a 21-year-old Zulu woman from a KwaZulu-Natal village called KwaNongoma. Like every other teenager growing up, Masande had people that she looked up to and envied. “In my village, KwaNongoma, we used to see girls that attended UMkhosi WoMhlanga, and they were very different. They had good morals and were respectful. You envied them,"
Masande looked up to the maidens of UMkhosi WoMhlanga, also known as the Reed Dance, and decided that she wanted to live her life as a maiden because she had figured out that she also wanted to have good morals and be respectful like the maidens she envied and UMkhosi WoMhlanga offered the teaches she wanted, so she joined.
UMkhosi WoMhlanga is a Zulu ceremony where Zulu culture (particularly maidenhood) is celebrated every September. Even though it is a Zulu ceremony, over 30 000 girls from all over South Africa and Africa attend this ceremony. But before the big ceremony, young girls attend selection and training.
According to Masande, before joining UMkhosi WoMhlanga, you have to undergo virginity testing. “You get there and find older women who are sitting down with pillows in front of them; then you are told to lie down and open your legs so that they can check whatever they are checking for. After, if the woman examining you sees that you are a virgin, she ululates, and others follow suit.”
After these examinations, girls who are confirmed to be virgins are given dates for boot camps, which usually take place over weekends as the maidens have school on weekdays. On the boot camps, maidens meet other maidens from other villages and teach each other songs and dances.
According to Masande, in the boot camps, they are taught how to sing and dance and given life lessons. “There, you are not only taught to be a virgin forever but also encouraged to use protection when you start engaging in sexual activities to avoid contracting sexually transmitted diseases.”
Even though sex talks are given to the maidens, the central teaching of the UMkhosi WoMhlanga is to encourage girls to remain virgins until they marry.
After completing attending the boot camps, maidens are given lists of traditional attires that they should buy that they will wear in September, in the celebration ceremony of the Zulu culture and maidens. In Masande’s village, they wear red skirts and white beads and tops. “Well, the tops are optional as the maidens are encouraged not to wear anything on their upper bodies as they are virgins.”
UMkhosi WoMhlanga ceremony takes place in eNyokeni Royal palace in KwaNongoma and the subsequent part takes palace in eMachobeni residential palace in Ngwavuma. For this main event, maidens arrive on Thursday night and others on Friday.
“On Friday, we go and greet the King and his family. They sit on a field, so we greet them by performing everything that we were taught at the boot camps, then we head back to our tents to rest and wait for Saturday, which is the big day.”
photo credit: Zisanda Solwandle
According to Masande, on Saturday morning, the maidens bathe in the river under a bridge. People who pass by see them, and they do not mind because they are told that they are virgins; they, therefore, should be proud of their bodies.
After bathing and getting dressed in their traditional attires, the maidens then line up to get reeds, and they head to the royal palace, led by the King’s daughter. The reeds signal that the maidens have succeeded in protecting their virginity; hence it is believed that, on the day, if one carries a reed and they are not virgins, it breaks.
Maidens carrying reeds
Photo credit: Ulwazi programme
The rest of the Saturday is a joyful day for the maidens as they are celebrated by the Zulu king and everyone who attends the ceremony. After the ceremony, maidens head back home.
Masande no longer attends UMkhosi WoMhlanga because she feels that she has been given enough teachings to guide her in her womanhood but urges young virgin girls to join UMkhosi WoMhlanga to get proper teachings as to how a young girl carries herself.
She believes that the organisation is crucial for grooming and guiding young girls in their transition to womanhood.
The audio interview with Masande Mthethwa
Edited by Zisanda Solwandle
Reference list
Masande Mthethwa, 21 year old woman from KwaNongoma in KwaZulu-Natal
EastCoastRadio(2020). Interesting facts about Umkhosi WoMhlanga – the famous Zulu Reed Dance, November 2. Accessed from: https://www.ecr.co.za/kzn-travel/what-see/interesting-facts-about-umkhosi-womhlanga-famous-zulu-reed-dance/
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