Preserving Umhlanga is of utmost importance

Princess Sikhanyiso leading Imbali during the annual reed dance ceremony.

Phew! That was some weekend in the Kingdom of Swaziland, a real feast for tourists. I mean, with Umhlanga and the Trade Fair ball taking place at the same time, this country was bound to be a hive of activity.

There is no gainsaying that the major attraction to visiting the Kingdom is Umhlanga, and the reason is none other than the fact that people want to come and witness one of the age-old traditions, that have been made popular by the fact that it has remained unchanged over the years.
At the core of this legacy is the preservation of culture and custom, a virtue that does not necessarily exist in many nations of the world today; the reason I today make a plea for its preservation, as a truly Swazi custom.

Preservation

Talking of preservation, one would ask; preservation from what? And my simple answer would be from other influences and the cultures of other nations.
The reason why tourists are falling over themselves coming here to witness this festival is because they want to see this novelty in its original form, in its purest form and unadulterated by influences of other cultures but plain Swazi dance.

Princess Sikhanyiso’s call for maidens to ditch weaves and other hairdos for the natural look was most likely intended to realise this virtue; that natural is ‘lekker’.
The nations of the world, because of global-isation and television, have suffered from the ‘imitation syndrome’; imitating one another to the point where originality is fast disappearing, which makes life boring.

That should not be allowed to affect our sacred Umhlanga ceremony. It’s a great tradition that requires preservation and no spicing up and, on this basis, I - like a few other conservatives of my age - am opposed to the view that it ought to evolve with time and be modernised because doing so would make it less attractive.

Traditionalists

That, I believe, would not interest too many people and certainly not the traditionalists and the Christian folk.
There is also a certain degree of indecent exposure going on in society in general nowadays that makes some of us men cringe and feel embarrassed, depending on one’s convictions about decency.

Encouraging this, I believe, would be counter-productive to the use of our culture in the fight against HIV/AIDS and promiscuity in general.
I mean, we do not want to inflame lust in our men just because our girls have exposed more than they needed to in their dances.
Our girls, culturally, have a way of sitting that our elders have taught them, in order to avoid provoking lustful desire from menfolk.

And besides, going against these norms can be offensive and I don’t believe decent tourists would find this particularly impressive as well.
The numbers recorded for attending Umhlanga are increasing by the year, if the numbers we are being told are valid. Come to think of it, 200 000 being transported by tipper-trucks and drop-sides to gather in one place and leave at the same time, is practically inconceivable.
That in itself would be verging on magic and one would be forgiven for thinking that whoever is supplying these numbers may just be spreading propaganda to unnecessarily hype an already popular ceremony.

Far-fetched

That the turnout is huge is undoubted - but 200 000 seems far-fetched. I think someone may be stretching the numbers just little here. How many trucks does it take to ferry 200 000?
Assuming each carries 50 maidens, you are already talking about 4 000 truckloads of girls! That is such a huge number, which would only make my concerns about the mode of transporting the maidens more valid.

I followed some of them in a tipper-truck yesterday and was scared for their sakes; I mean, some contractors carrying a few labourers on the back of a truck are fined heavily, so is government implying that our girls are less precious?
By no means! I think government is making a bad precedent here and this ought to change before it is too late.

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