Photos from Our World

The iNtfwasa initiation Ceremony in Swaziland (part 3)

Early the following morning the new tangoma walked to the river with, on large dishes, the remains of the goats that had been killed for them the previous day. They had to go alone, nobody could follow them there. When they came back, a man appeared with a stick and chased them around the compound. "This is the last time someone pushes them around, from now on they will have authority as qualified diviners", LaMabuza explained.

The people had assembled at one side of the plaza and the drums were pounding out again the rhythm of the "emadloti" or ancestral spirits. The candidates, led by one of the senior tangoma, marched onto the ground, to a different marching rhythm; then the "emadloti" rhythm took over again and a whole group of small girls (and one boy) danced the dances they had seen so many time before, just for fun.

The new tangoma were practicing their skills in "kuphengula" or divination; people might have hidden something, like a small coin and the sangoma would have to try to find it by divination, from the tone of the one reply ("Siyavuma", we agree) that would be given to her suggestions. It might be hidden in a clay pot that was placed in the middle of the dancing ground.

The candidates were then draped in red cloth and the rhythm of the drums changed: this was the rhythm of the emaNdzawe (or Ndau, a people living in Mozambique and Zimbabwe): long ago, a group of Swazis, marauding in the area had come across some cattle belonging to those emaNdzawe; they had been told not to kill those as these cows were reserved to be offered to the ancestral spirits. The Swazi ignored this, killed the cattle and also killed those people daring to oppose them. Since that time the emaNdzawe spirits have haunted them and they need to be placated in these ceremonies. Preceded by men, carrying bowls and girls carrying live chickens, they were led out of the village towards the river. Drums pounding, they stopped from time to time, the candidates shivering with folded hands and moving to the rhythm of the drums.

Continuing....

	Returning from river	Morning assembly	Marching tangoma	Children dancing
	Girl dancing	Looking for coin	Divination	Leading sangoma
	March from village	Walking to the river	Pausing on the way	"Emandzawe" ritual

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