The Uhmlanga Festival, Ludzidzini, SWAZILAND
Umhlanga was created in the 1940s in Swaziland under the rule of King Sobhuza II as an adaptation of the umcwasho ceremony which was an older cultural practice in the Swazi Kingdom.
Umhlanga, or the Reed Dance ceremony, is an eight-day ceremony held annually in Swaziland and by the Zulu in South Africa. The cultural event sees young girls cut reeds and present them to the Queen Mother (Indlovukazi) to repair the windbreak around her royal residence; and then dance in celebration. Up to 60,000 unmarried Swazi girls and women travel from the various chiefdoms to Ludzidzini to take part in the eight-day event making it one of the biggest and most spectacular cultural events in Africa. Taking place over a week, it is largely private, however its final two days are open to the public.
The eight-day event kicks off with a gathering of the girls at the Queen Mother's royal village at Ludzidzini (it used to be Lobamba during Sobhuza's reign). They come in groups from about 200 chiefdoms. The girls are supervised by about four men who appoint chiefs or group leaders for them. This is a very exciting time for the maidens as they pass the night in the huts of relatives in the village or in classrooms of nearby schools.
On the second day, the girls are grouped into two using their age brackets: the older group consists of girls between age 14 to 22 years and the younger group is made of girls of age 8 to 13 years. This is done to determine how far each girl will trek. In the afternoon, they march to the reed-beds with their supervisors. The older girls often march about 30 km, while the younger girls march about 10 km.
The girls cut their reeds, usually about ten to twenty, using long knives. This happens on the third day. Each girl ties her reeds into a bundle. Nowadays they use strips of plastic for the tying, but those mindful of tradition will still cut grass and plaint it into rope. However, in the afternoon of the fourth day, the girls set off to return to the Queen Mother's village, carrying their bundles of reeds. Again they return at night to show they traveled a long way.
Before the proper festivities kick off on day six when dancing gets under way in the afternoon, the girls observe the fifth day as a day of rest where they make final preparations to their hair and dancing costumes. Day 6 is the first day of dancing. After dropping their reeds outside the Queen Mother's quarters the girls move to the arena and dance, keeping their groups and each group singing different songs at the same time.
The second and last day of dancing is the seventh day when His Majesty the King honors the girls with his presence. The event comes to a close on the eighth day after the girls have received pieces of meat.
Little can prepare you for the sheer scale of the pageantry, with column upon column of girls advancing like vast ululating centipedes across the parade grounds of Ludzidzini, each dissolving in turn into the pulsating mass of bodies around the royal kraal.
Today the Umhlanga is as well attended as ever. Indeed cultural historians marvel at how its ever-increasing popularity in Swaziland defies the apparent decline of traditional culture elsewhere. It offers visitors a unique experience.
The event takes place around the last week of August or first week of September. The dates for the event are released relatively close to the time as they derive from ancestral astrology.
Tourists visiting the annual Reed Dance are not permitted to take photographs. Officially, permits are required for photography. If you are taking photographs for media organisation then please follow the rules.
Photo Credits: The Sydney Morning Herald, Google, Swaziland Tourism
Sources: The Kingdom of Swaziland, Wikipedia, The Sydney Morning Herald
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