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Ncwala and Umhlanga
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The most sacred of Swaziland's ceremonies,
Ncwala
celebrates kingship, national unity and the first fruits of the new year. Its timing is determined by royal astrologers; coinciding with the new moon in November, a group of selected men journey east to the ancestral home of the Ngwane on the shores of the Indian Ocean to collect foam from the waves. While they are there, the
Ncwala
ceremony begins, with songs and rituals performed until the afternoon of the full moon in December/early January, when the six days of the full
Ncwala
begin. Young Swazi men meet at
Lobamba
and are then sent away to gather branches of the
lusekwane
tree, from which they build a bower for the king. Warriors gather and sing songs that can only be sung at this time, while the king dances with them and eats the first fruits of the harvest. On the sixth day, objects representing the previous year are burnt on a massive bonfire, and prayers are offered to Swazi ancestors, asking them to put out the fire with rain. The ceremony ends amidst raucous singing, dancing and feasting. Visitors are allowed to attend most of
Ncwala
, but photography is prohibited during certain times (a free permit is also required; contact the Government Information Service, PO Box 338, Mbabane), so be sure to ask first to avoid having your camera smashed.
The
Umhlanga
is a
fertility dance
which gets its name from the large reeds gathered by young women and brought to the residence of the Queen Mother to repair her
kraal
, usually in late August or early September. The sixth and seventh days are the most spectacular, when you can watch the young women, dressed in elaborate and carefully coded costumes, sing and dance before the king and Queen Mother at Lobamba, giving the king an opportunity to pick a
new wife
. The former king, Sobhuza II, invariably plucked a new mate from the bevy of young beauties and racked up a total of seventy wives during his lifetime. His successor, Mswati III, now in his mid-thirties, has proved a little more restrained with only eight wives so far. In 2001 he caused some controversy by insisting that the young maidens parading in front of him at Umhlanga should continue to wear the
umcwasho
, a traditional regalia indicating that they were still virgins, for five years after the ceremony marking their passage from childhood to maidenhood. With HIV/AIDS spreading alarmingly in Swaziland, the king's pronouncement was seen as a fairly futile attempt to check the disease. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Swaziland |