The half-naked dancers, some as young as 11, are also
said to be attracting ‘sex tourists’ to the kingdom. Also, some of King
Mswati’s American backers told him the sight of a middle-age man watching tens
of thousands of semi-clothed women dance for him gave Swaziland a bad image as
there was an obvious ‘sexual undertone’ to it.
The next annual Reed Dance (also known as Umhlanga)
takes place in Swaziland (renamed
Eswatini by King Mswati on his fiftieth birthday earlier this year)
on Monday (3 September 2018). If past years are a guide possibly
as many as 100,000 women, often described as ‘maidens’ or ‘virgins’ by
media in Swaziland, will dance. The Reed Dance is considered a major traditional
cultural event and takes place each year.
Ahead of this year’s event Nonduduzo
‘Zuzu’ Zubuko, the leader of the women who dance and who are called the Imbali
Regiment, told participants, ‘Part of the things that our culture teaches us is
to dress appropriately for the ceremony you are attending.’
The Swazi Observer (16 August
2018), a newspaper in effect owned by the King, reported her saying, ‘You are
also expected to attend in your numbers as our culture teaches us to always
respect and attend to royal commands. This must start at chiefdom level. You
are also expected to always attend community meetings called by your leaders
and this spreads to the whole country where you should show respect to the
highest authority of the kingdom.’
The newspaper added, ‘She implored Imbali to be proud of who they are
and their culture. “You must wear that outfit with pride because you are indeed
the pride of the nation.
‘“How would you claim to be Liswati [Swazi people] if you are even
afraid to dress up in traditional regalia? How do you claim to be Liswati if
you don’t even know which regiment you belong to as an individual?” she
wondered.’
The traditional dress means going topless and wearing very short skirts.
The women are encouraged by traditionalists not
to wear underwear.
The dancers make easy pickings for people wanting to
take photographs and use them for pornographic purpose. A simple search on
Google highlights how many sites, some of them demanding payment to view,
exist.
There are also concerns that people who come into
Swaziland to attend the event are ‘sex tourists’. As long ago as 2006 Independent-on-Line
(IOL) newspapers in South Africa reported they came from all over
the world.
IOL reported, ‘Some of them, mainly male European
tourist armed with video cameras and modern digital cameras, are not afraid to
admit that “it is the only place in the world where we can see bare-breasted
women and buttocks”.’
It also interviewed tourists from South Africa, Chile
and China.
It added, ‘Even though the tourists were told not to
take photographs of the girls below the waist, it was evident that most of them
- mainly men - were taking photographs as they wished.
‘It was also striking that when the very young maidens
passed before the King and the photographers, no one showed much interest. But
when the teenagers and the young women danced, photographers flocked towards
the girls.’
IOL reported, ‘On the second day of the Reed Dance, in
the morning, some tourists watched the girls and took photographs of them while
they were bathing in the nearby river. Motorists, too, were spotted luring the
girls by promising them food and money.’
It added, ‘A man from Chile who claimed to be a
“freelancer”’, stood among the girls in the Lusushwana River, taking
photographs.’
King Mswati himself has been criticised for continuing
with the tradition of the half-naked dancing. The New Republic, an American news magazine,
reported that conservative backers of the King in the United States
disapproved of the Reed Dance.
In 2008 it told the story of the King’s visit to the
US. Joe
Szlavik,
who was a public relations operative working on behalf of the King, took him to
meet with
Chris Smith, a socially conservative Republican representative from New Jersey
and then chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa.
The New Republic
reported, ‘Szlavik, whose firm was pulling in $20,000 per month from its
Swaziland account, had some difficult news to deliver about a certain Swazi
custom. “You have this Reed Dance, with these virgins,” he explained to me [the
author of the article] recently. Szlavik's message to his client was simple.
“Listen to me,” he implored the King. “You got to stop this.”
The New Republic
reported, ‘Smith “understood there was a traditional part to the dance but in light
of the gravity of the HIV situation [thought] maybe they could put tradition
aside,” Szlavik recalls.
‘Such arguments were lost on King Mswati. “Look Joe, I understand the
whole thing with the West, but we look at breasts like you look at feet,” the
monarch told him. It wasn’t an unreasonable point. In some rural African
cultures, women refraining from wearing tops is about as common as US postal
workers wearing shorts in the summer. But try explaining that to a conservative
Republican congressman.
‘“I like breasts personally,” Szlavik, a fast-talking cheerful man of
about 40, told the King. “But, you know, there's a sexual undertone to it
clearly.”’
Not all the women and girls who dance half-naked for
the King do so willingly. In 2016, the Guardian newspaper, a respected
international publication based in the United Kingdom, reported that many
participants were forced to attend the Umhlanga.
It quoted a 29-year-old teacher saying, ‘They say we are not forced, but
we are. Families who don’t send their daughters to the Umhlanga have to pay a fine, usually a goat or a cow.’
In 2014, it
was reported by media within
Swaziland that girls were told if they did not attend that year’s Reed Dance
they would be publicly whipped. Girls in the Mbilaneni chiefdom were told that
if they travelled to the event but do
not attended the ceremony, they would be beaten on the buttocks when they
returned to their homesteads.
Thami Thikazi, the headman of the Mbilaneni chiefdom,
said if parents disagreed with the punishment they would be forced to wield the
lash themselves.
The Swazi
Observer reported
at the time Thikazi said, ‘In case parents distance themselves from such, we
are going to order them to be the ones administering the punishment in the form
of strokes on the buttocks should it be found that they (girls) did something
intolerable. The punishment will take place in full view of everyone.’
See also
Swaziland’s
Sinister Reed Dance
Swazi Reed Dance is Royal Sex Show
Naked
Hypocrisy at the ‘Times’
No comments:
Post a Comment