Don’t undermine women’s role in rituals — activist

Cultural activist and academic Prof Nokuzola Mndende says the reduction of the role of women in the male initiation ritual process helps create a “death trap” for boys.

She said this had come about as a result of men deliberately distorting the custom.

Mndende was speaking at the Steve Biko Centre in Ginsberg, Qonce, on Friday at an event celebrating Eastern Cape literary icons hosted by the provincial sports, recreation, arts & culture department.

The event also served as the occasiion for Mndende to launch her new book, Alele Na? Gender Specialisation and Synergy in Amaxhosa Male Initiation Ritual.

She said her intention in writing the book was not to campaign for women to be iingcibi (traditional surgeons) and amakhankatha (traditional nurses).

The roles for women to play were in categories such as mother, aunt and grandmother. “’Women’ has come to be misinterpreted too narrowly to mean ‘married women’.

“This was not always the case,” she explained.

“Over time, there was a shift away from the traditional communal way of carrying out this rite of passage, which included shared delineated responsibilities from within family structures and from within communities, focusing on respect for the sacredness of the process and its connectedness to the divine.

“Like all rites of passage, the Xhosa male initiation rite has three main stages, namely ukungena (getting in), isuthu (seclusion) and umphumo (the passing out parade).

“The first and third stages include both men and women working together.

“In the seclusion phase, men who have passed the stage in the past oversee the process.

“However, it is important to note that the other gender is not ruled out, although its participation is limited.

“It is misinformation to say women have no role to play. This is distortion of the highest order.

“This claim that is exclusively for men is incorrect.

“Circumcision is not an event but a ritual process.

“Women are more deeply involved,” Mndende said.

She said women spend more time on the young initiates than men. “It is the women who on a daily basis cook for the initiates.

“The boy also reports first to his mother when he wants to undergo the ritual process,” Mndende said.

She said if families were united and did the ritual according to its proper form, there would be no initiate deaths.

“It is the carelessness and failure of men that often lead to the death of initiates.”

Mndende also lamented the use of huts made of plastic, which she said were constructed by men.

“How can the initiated be warm while sleeping in a hut made of plastic? If you want an initiate to stay warm, make that hut out of grass and wood; that is the responsibility of women.”

Replying to Mndende, Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders’ deputy chair Chief Gwazinamba Matanzima agreed that both men and women had roles to play in the initiation process, and said it was important for each gender to fully understand their role to avoid disagreements.

“Without a doubt, women have their role to play. It is the mothers who tend them to good behaviour. That is why it is easier for boys to first report to their mothers if they want to undergo the rite.

“But most initiates die as a result of dehydration caused by the state of the places they stay in. Indeed, it is their mothers who are supposed to check the state of the food they eat.”

Circumcision is not an event but a process. Women are more deeply involved