Zulu Mass & Virginity Testing
JULY 3rd
I will try to get more pictures up on the web soon because I wanted to tell everybody about the virginity testing ceremony that I went to last week (the day after my birthday) but I don't have the pictures for it available yet. (Just so that nobody gets nervous, yes, there is some nudity involving breasts but there are no pictures of the actual testing. Besides, I wasn't there for the testing anyway.)
VIRGINITY-TESTING CEREMONY
Just so it's clear to everybody who reads this post--I do not have an opinion on these ceremonies. I am neither horrified nor am I jubilant. I don't know what I think and even if I did know what I think I would refrain from expressing it.
A brief infobite about the mass virginity testing that occurs annually in KwaZulu-Natal: The virginity testing ceremonies began in 1996 as a way to prevent the spread of HIV by encouraging young women to remain virgins until they marry. The 3-day ceremony involves dancing, singing, feasting, and the testing of the virgins, who are then awarded certificates of virginity. The families of the young women who are not found to be virgins are often fined, and other repercussions may occur but I don't know what they are so I can't tell you. Testing starts at puberty. Certainly, I can attest that many of the young women looked like little boys to me--i.e., they had no breasts to speak of. The feasting and singing is a testimony/prayer/promise to the Zulu god of fertility, and it is widely believed that the Zulu are resurrecting an ancient rite. From what I understand, documents from about 300 years ago do not record such a rite--so the tradition appears to be manufactured rather than resurrected.
This testing is voluntary, not mandatory. But it is controversial, partly because of the fine, partly because of the concept, partly because the girls are so young. It is now illegal to test girls who are younger than sixteen--but they certainly did it last weekend from what I observed. I might add that the girls who participate are frequently from Christian families so the controversy doesn't appear to be religious. I saw crosses on several of the girls as well as rosary beads and my professor told me that most Christians who send their girls to be tested do not see a contradiction between their Christian faith and this rite that is dedicated to the Zulu goddess of fertility.
We arrived on Saturday morning--the other Zulu students and my professors here at the university. In addition to the future Zulu king and his brother, we were the only observers there. My professors have been coming to this for years because it is their former student who created/resurrected the tradition. We sat at a long table in a tent in front of the young women and ate fruit and some root vegetables that I can't identify but were potato-like. Evidently in past years, there were several thousand young women there but this year, because of recent controversies over the testing, there were only about 300. But I can say that the 300 who were there--some from as far as Swaziland and Cape Town--were overwhelming enough. I asked the guys who were with us later how they felt about it and they said that within ten minutes, they were saturated with breasts and they didn't even notice them anymore and it become simply normal. Most of the young women wore only a very short white beaded skirt that came to about the middle of their buttocks. Some wore underwear and some wore thongs (I'm guessing they weren't completely naked). Many also wore a necklace of some sort. They looked beautiful. And they didn't appear ashamed even though there were the four men of our group with us. I wonder if it's partly safety in numbers? It was funny to see cell phones tucked in the waists of some girls' skirts.
For several hours, the girls danced and sang in front of us. They gave speeches about how great it was to be a virgin (all in isiZulu or amaXhosa.) They sang about the women who would have sex for twenty cents or less. One group did a competition where they lifted their right leg above their head while standing on their left leg and then stomped their right leg on the ground in rhythm. I can't describe it but I could never in a million years do it. It was beautiful.
At some point, we were introduced one by one. By the way, there are thirteen of us. Those girls went wild over the four men in our midst, especially Jarell, a young African-American man who is admittedly very tall and handsome. They stomped and screamed for him until the young woman who was m.c.-ing the dance/singing competition cut them short. But then she said she wanted to marry him and she ran over to if he would say yes. Jarell was saved by another young women shouting that she wanted to marry him, too, and the second young woman ran up and put a bead necklace around his neck. So he didn't have to answer. It was kind of crazy. Jarell says it was the highlight of his life, when he had three hundred naked women stomping and going crazy over him. Ironic that this would happen at a ceremony celebrating virginity. :-)
CATHOLIC MASS
I went to mass yesterday with my Zulu family. I don't have a lot to say except it was 3 hours long, the singing was incredible!, and everybody noticed I was there because I was the only white face in the crowd. The priest welcomed me specifically in Zulu but my Zulu ain't that great yet because I wondered why three hundred people were staring out the window just behind my head and turned to look myself until my sister Khosi whispered, "He's saying to you, 'Thank you for coming.'"
My Zulu is getting better but the only reason I recognized what was going on was because it followed the same basic order of mass everywhere else, only we sang a lot more. I told my family they would be disappointed if they came to a U.S. mass. They would miss the five-part-harmony.
I'll try to post pictures tomorrow.
I will try to get more pictures up on the web soon because I wanted to tell everybody about the virginity testing ceremony that I went to last week (the day after my birthday) but I don't have the pictures for it available yet. (Just so that nobody gets nervous, yes, there is some nudity involving breasts but there are no pictures of the actual testing. Besides, I wasn't there for the testing anyway.)
VIRGINITY-TESTING CEREMONY
Just so it's clear to everybody who reads this post--I do not have an opinion on these ceremonies. I am neither horrified nor am I jubilant. I don't know what I think and even if I did know what I think I would refrain from expressing it.
A brief infobite about the mass virginity testing that occurs annually in KwaZulu-Natal: The virginity testing ceremonies began in 1996 as a way to prevent the spread of HIV by encouraging young women to remain virgins until they marry. The 3-day ceremony involves dancing, singing, feasting, and the testing of the virgins, who are then awarded certificates of virginity. The families of the young women who are not found to be virgins are often fined, and other repercussions may occur but I don't know what they are so I can't tell you. Testing starts at puberty. Certainly, I can attest that many of the young women looked like little boys to me--i.e., they had no breasts to speak of. The feasting and singing is a testimony/prayer/promise to the Zulu god of fertility, and it is widely believed that the Zulu are resurrecting an ancient rite. From what I understand, documents from about 300 years ago do not record such a rite--so the tradition appears to be manufactured rather than resurrected.
This testing is voluntary, not mandatory. But it is controversial, partly because of the fine, partly because of the concept, partly because the girls are so young. It is now illegal to test girls who are younger than sixteen--but they certainly did it last weekend from what I observed. I might add that the girls who participate are frequently from Christian families so the controversy doesn't appear to be religious. I saw crosses on several of the girls as well as rosary beads and my professor told me that most Christians who send their girls to be tested do not see a contradiction between their Christian faith and this rite that is dedicated to the Zulu goddess of fertility.
We arrived on Saturday morning--the other Zulu students and my professors here at the university. In addition to the future Zulu king and his brother, we were the only observers there. My professors have been coming to this for years because it is their former student who created/resurrected the tradition. We sat at a long table in a tent in front of the young women and ate fruit and some root vegetables that I can't identify but were potato-like. Evidently in past years, there were several thousand young women there but this year, because of recent controversies over the testing, there were only about 300. But I can say that the 300 who were there--some from as far as Swaziland and Cape Town--were overwhelming enough. I asked the guys who were with us later how they felt about it and they said that within ten minutes, they were saturated with breasts and they didn't even notice them anymore and it become simply normal. Most of the young women wore only a very short white beaded skirt that came to about the middle of their buttocks. Some wore underwear and some wore thongs (I'm guessing they weren't completely naked). Many also wore a necklace of some sort. They looked beautiful. And they didn't appear ashamed even though there were the four men of our group with us. I wonder if it's partly safety in numbers? It was funny to see cell phones tucked in the waists of some girls' skirts.
For several hours, the girls danced and sang in front of us. They gave speeches about how great it was to be a virgin (all in isiZulu or amaXhosa.) They sang about the women who would have sex for twenty cents or less. One group did a competition where they lifted their right leg above their head while standing on their left leg and then stomped their right leg on the ground in rhythm. I can't describe it but I could never in a million years do it. It was beautiful.
At some point, we were introduced one by one. By the way, there are thirteen of us. Those girls went wild over the four men in our midst, especially Jarell, a young African-American man who is admittedly very tall and handsome. They stomped and screamed for him until the young woman who was m.c.-ing the dance/singing competition cut them short. But then she said she wanted to marry him and she ran over to if he would say yes. Jarell was saved by another young women shouting that she wanted to marry him, too, and the second young woman ran up and put a bead necklace around his neck. So he didn't have to answer. It was kind of crazy. Jarell says it was the highlight of his life, when he had three hundred naked women stomping and going crazy over him. Ironic that this would happen at a ceremony celebrating virginity. :-)
CATHOLIC MASS
I went to mass yesterday with my Zulu family. I don't have a lot to say except it was 3 hours long, the singing was incredible!, and everybody noticed I was there because I was the only white face in the crowd. The priest welcomed me specifically in Zulu but my Zulu ain't that great yet because I wondered why three hundred people were staring out the window just behind my head and turned to look myself until my sister Khosi whispered, "He's saying to you, 'Thank you for coming.'"
My Zulu is getting better but the only reason I recognized what was going on was because it followed the same basic order of mass everywhere else, only we sang a lot more. I told my family they would be disappointed if they came to a U.S. mass. They would miss the five-part-harmony.
I'll try to post pictures tomorrow.
posted by Jessica Somewhere in the States at 10:15 PM
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