Cellphone snapper arrested at reed dance ceremony
A CELLPHONE paparazzo and a strong wind disrupted the annual reed dance ceremony in Zululand.
Two Zulu maidens were hurt when a huge marquee collapsed on top of them after it was knocked over by strong wind. The unidentified pair, believed to be from Durban, were taken to the St Benedictine Hospital in Nongoma.
One of them, who had fainted during the incident, was treated for shock and discharged. The other woman was treated for minor injures. At least 90 cases of exhaustion and dehydration were reported yesterday.
Elsewhere at the ceremony, a man was arrested for snapping pictures of nude women while they bathed in a local river. He sneaked up on the women and photographed them with his cellphone. It was confiscated.
The man spent the night in custody at the Nongoma police station and is expected to appear in court soon. He has been charged with producing child pornography.
A large police contingent was deployed at the ceremony amid fears that it could be disrupted by an ongoing faction feud in the area.
More than 30 000 maidens turned up for this year’s reed dance ceremony held at eNyokeni Palace yesterday. The ancient Zulu practice, which was largely ignored by previous Zulu kings, was revived by King Zwelithini in 1984.
Among the bare-breasted maidens, resplendent in colourful loincloths, who descended on the palace to declare their virginity before the Zulu monarch was British woman Ella Pill, 20, from London, who also presented a reed to the king as confirmation of her virginity.
Pill is doing a documentary on Zulu culture for the Met Film School in London, which is in the heart of the world-renowned Ealing film studio. She has been in the country for two and a half weeks and said she had heard about the reed dance through her South African friends, and decided to take part.
She described her experience of the reed dance as “fulfilling and exciting” and said she also hoped to take part in the ceremony next year.
“It was an amazing and wonderful experience,” she said.
Despite becoming a point of controversy and heated debate between cultural groups and traditionalists on the one hand, and human-rights groups and feminists on the other , the centuries-old ceremony continues to grow in popularity every year.
It is a custom that Zulus have in common with Swazis, whose reed dance is taking place at King Mswati’s Ludzidzini Palace tomorrow, where 50 000 maidens will present reeds to Africa’s last absolute monarch.
Whereas King Zwelithini has banned the wearing of pants by women at the ceremony and decreed that maidens cover their rears, the Swazi maidens are not allowed to wear braids, makeup or shiny kangas.