More photos from various trips

Here's Michael (U. of Illionois) trying valiantly to stick-fight with a Zulu man. He was definitely out-matched. This picture is from Eczabini Homestead, which you can read about in an earlier posting.












Another Shembe baptism picture. This guy is about to go down--that is, under the water.













I accidentally deleted this picture just before posting. It belongs in the virginity testing block of pictures. These were 3 young women walking through the grass just before the virginity testing ceremony.

Shembe baptism photos

A second one is coming. I mentioned that we probably saw a hundred people get baptized in the 20 minutes we were inside the Shembe baptismal. It was an incredible sight. As mentioned previously, many of the people baptized seemed afraid of the water, of being dunked under, and one of them tried to strangle the deacon who baptized her. I have no idea why they were fearful of the water, though I know that swimming is not a large part of African culture in South Africa.

Virginity testing photos

Singing and dancing pre-ceremony. I unfortunately do not have any pictures of the ceremony, which included different groups of young women competing using traditional Zulu dancing. I am not flexible enough to do traditional Zulu dancing, which involves lifting your leg straight up in front of you until it's level with the ear and then bringing it down to a sudden stomp on the ground, in rhythm or in unison with clapping that's going on. I can demonstrate a very poor version of it, if anybody asks.



Prior to giving performances as a testimony to their decision to abstain until marriage, the young women marched around singing. The two men in the middle are the upcoming Zulu king (son of Goodwill Zwelethini)--he's to the right--and one of his councillors (to the left). You can see that some of these girls are definitely not 16 or older--currently, it is illegal for girls to be tested if they are under 16.