Respect of culture and its practise is essential for the Ngunis of this country. The Ngunis are known for their diversity, their humanity and for being outspoken.
In the eastern part of the country are amaXhosa who, especially during the June and December period, are known for practising ulwaluko (male circumcision) – a very important ritual for them.
This seeks to develop boys into men. This is a transition through which boys (amakhwenkwe) become men (amadoda).
Among the teachings they are given in this process is one about responsibility. This is something that has no limits.
Reaching this stage of life gives them access to many things and permission to do things they were not permitted to do before – but they must do these things responsibly and not in a manner that is detrimental to societal norms.
The purpose of ulwaluko is to create a better person.
When boys are ready to go for it, some will tear their clothes for a week and do childish things like beating pigs, chicken and every small animal they come across to show that they can have something to eat when they stay in the bush.
Going through this ritual is to demonstrate that they are ready to take a stand in their lives and do things on their own. They will no longer depend on their parents for everything and if they are ready, they will marry and start their own family, have their own inxuwa (land) and be the man in their own house to their own wife and a father to their own children.
Going through the ritual gives them access to ubuhlanti (the kraal) whereas boys are not allowed to sit in it.
This ritual is one in which you could say they are given a key to life.
The history of this ritual goes way back to the time of the first arrival of the Ngunis in the southern part of the continent. All boys when they reached a certain stage, were taken to a mountain to undergo this ritual.
Traditionally females knew nothing about it. They wouldn't know when their sons were going, but would only find out from their husbands when their sons were to come back.
If your father died without you having undergone the ritual, you would talk to the uncles, grandfathers and elder cousins – oobawokazi nobawomkhulu – or ask your older brothers who have gone through it, to ask permission from them so that you could go.
You did not ask your mother because it was not, and is still not, I believe, a matter for involving women.
Bear in mind that the only people who were allowed to circumcise boys were those already working or those who had finished a certain academic standard.
As we modernised and the government wanted to tell us how to conduct our ritual things started to change.
From 2005 onwards, one had to ask permission from the government, through the signing of forms, not from the family elders. You had to start at the clinic and get tested.
That is when women started getting to know our secrets and things started to change slowly but surely.
Initiates started to die because of so-called ill-treatment. Initiates started to appear on TV and be filling up hospitals.
Now everything has changed. Going to the mountain is a “swagg” . It's all about proving a point to your peers – to such an extent that some of you go there without the permission of your parents.
And some of those who went there first want to get back at the new lot of initiates, claiming to be doing what was done to them. Now the “caps” have started talking about ill-treatment.
And it would seem that boys go to the mountain to be given “permission” to abuse alcohol and smoke all types of tobacco. They go because they are given the status of singamadoda (men) and they think they can't be told what or what not to do by women, in reference to our mothers.
Has that now turned out to be the purpose of ukwaluka?
Abakhwetha were once people who were not allowed to be seen by outsiders, let alone women. They were not allowed to have cellphones anywhere near them. They were not allowed to use social networks. They were not allowed to take pictures until a certain period.
But these days we see them on Facebook posing for pictures. They are trending on TV and some are even dying.
The question is what went wrong?
Ukwaluka brought you dignity and thus respect for you are. It was also about giving back to those who gave to you. It was about teaching you to be humble, to be a new person and do new things.
Back then abakhwetha would only see the public as they were passing by. They would not be greeting them. But now we see initiates greeting people.
Even if by any chance you happened to be on TV for some reason, you would not talk about what was happening inside or share the secrets of the custom.
This is not the case now. My question is how has this happened and what has gone wrong? What has caused the fashionisation of ulwaluko?
What turned ‘ulwaluko’ into fashion statement?
In the eastern part of the country are amaXhosa who, especially during the June and December period, are known for practising ulwaluko (male circumcision) – a very important ritual for them.
This seeks to develop boys into men. This is a transition through which boys (amakhwenkwe) become men (amadoda).
Among the teachings they are given in this process is one about responsibility. This is something that has no limits.
Reaching this stage of life gives them access to many things and permission to do things they were not permitted to do before – but they must do these things responsibly and not in a manner that is detrimental to societal norms.
The purpose of ulwaluko is to create a better person.
When boys are ready to go for it, some will tear their clothes for a week and do childish things like beating pigs, chicken and every small animal they come across to show that they can have something to eat when they stay in the bush.
Going through this ritual is to demonstrate that they are ready to take a stand in their lives and do things on their own. They will no longer depend on their parents for everything and if they are ready, they will marry and start their own family, have their own inxuwa (land) and be the man in their own house to their own wife and a father to their own children.
Going through the ritual gives them access to ubuhlanti (the kraal) whereas boys are not allowed to sit in it.
This ritual is one in which you could say they are given a key to life.
The history of this ritual goes way back to the time of the first arrival of the Ngunis in the southern part of the continent. All boys when they reached a certain stage, were taken to a mountain to undergo this ritual.
Traditionally females knew nothing about it. They wouldn't know when their sons were going, but would only find out from their husbands when their sons were to come back.
If your father died without you having undergone the ritual, you would talk to the uncles, grandfathers and elder cousins – oobawokazi nobawomkhulu – or ask your older brothers who have gone through it, to ask permission from them so that you could go.
You did not ask your mother because it was not, and is still not, I believe, a matter for involving women.
Bear in mind that the only people who were allowed to circumcise boys were those already working or those who had finished a certain academic standard.
As we modernised and the government wanted to tell us how to conduct our ritual things started to change.
From 2005 onwards, one had to ask permission from the government, through the signing of forms, not from the family elders. You had to start at the clinic and get tested.
That is when women started getting to know our secrets and things started to change slowly but surely.
Initiates started to die because of so-called ill-treatment. Initiates started to appear on TV and be filling up hospitals.
Now everything has changed. Going to the mountain is a “swagg” . It's all about proving a point to your peers – to such an extent that some of you go there without the permission of your parents.
And some of those who went there first want to get back at the new lot of initiates, claiming to be doing what was done to them. Now the “caps” have started talking about ill-treatment.
And it would seem that boys go to the mountain to be given “permission” to abuse alcohol and smoke all types of tobacco. They go because they are given the status of singamadoda (men) and they think they can't be told what or what not to do by women, in reference to our mothers.
Has that now turned out to be the purpose of ukwaluka?
Abakhwetha were once people who were not allowed to be seen by outsiders, let alone women. They were not allowed to have cellphones anywhere near them. They were not allowed to use social networks. They were not allowed to take pictures until a certain period.
But these days we see them on Facebook posing for pictures. They are trending on TV and some are even dying.
The question is what went wrong?
Ukwaluka brought you dignity and thus respect for you are. It was also about giving back to those who gave to you. It was about teaching you to be humble, to be a new person and do new things.
Back then abakhwetha would only see the public as they were passing by. They would not be greeting them. But now we see initiates greeting people.
Even if by any chance you happened to be on TV for some reason, you would not talk about what was happening inside or share the secrets of the custom.
This is not the case now. My question is how has this happened and what has gone wrong? What has caused the fashionisation of ulwaluko?
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