Rhodes student to represent Xhosa people in national cultural competition
Indoni has been a platform that has given me a chance to showcase the love I have for the Xhosa nation and Africa as a whole
Rhodes University master’s student Yenzokuhle Busakwe will represent the Xhosa people in the Indoni Miss Cultural SA competition this year.
This annual competition includes tribes across the country and is aired on SABC1.
The winner takes home a scholarship worth R100,000 and other prizes.
In this competition, the Eastern Cape is split into three kingdoms — Amampondo, Amaxhosa and Abathembu. Each tribe has its own representative. The winner will be announced in Durban on December 16.
Busakwe, 23, was selected at the Amaxhosa camp held in Coffee Bay in July.
She has always been fascinated by Xhosa culture and proud of her identity, and the competition resonates with what she believes in.
“As a curious person who loves arts and culture, I surfed the internet in search of the competition. I found it, filled in the form and submitted my application — and I was selected.”
To Busakwe the competition is more than potentially taking the crown — it gives her the chance to display what an African woman is.
“Indoni has been a platform that has given me a chance to showcase the love I have for the Xhosa nation and Africa as a whole.
“I am not only Xhosa and a black woman; I am an African.
“Besides culture, the competition drew me because it is another way of persuading young girls to abstain from early sex.”
She said she hoped she would set an example to young women.
This was the second time Busakwe entered the competition, and she hopes to be crowned queen this time.
“I entered when I was 19 years old but I came second to Siphokazi Ngwenya, who was crowned.”
Should she win this time, she will have various duties to fulfil.
“As the newly crowned queen I would be expected to perform community projects of my choice.
“In my case I would try to develop my community.
“I would continue with my community-based project of reaching out to schools and to my circles, preaching to young girls about the benefit of abstinence.”
“Young people need to know abstaining from sex is not a crime,” she said.
“Instead of being embraced and having peers clapping hands for young virgins, they tend to be looked at in a funny way. Communities need to know abstaining from sex is normal.”