Photos from Our World

The iNtfwasa initiation Ceremony in Swaziland (part 4)

The candidate tangoma, led by the seniors, young girls carrying chickens and accompanied by drums beating out the "emaNdzawe" rhythm arrive at the river. One by one the candidates have to sit down on a mat. LaMabuza, their teacher, first scrapes their tongue with a large knife; she then makes a small incision in their tongue with a razor blade and rubs powdered "umuti", traditional medicine in the cut. "This is to make sure they will always tell the truth when they deal with their patients". The head of a chicken is cut off with the knife and its blood is allowed to flow in a small bowl. The chicken is flung into the river, where it is quickly gathered: it will be cooked that evening. The candidate has to drink a little of the blood and the bowl is then given to the young girl who had been carrying the chicken: she has to take a little bit of the blood also.

The candidate is then led into the water, where two or three men push her under three times. She then "dies" and is carried out of the water, laid on a mat and covered with a white sheet. It is really believed the sangoma dies; she dies as an ordinary human being. When all candidates have undergone this ritual, they are transported back to the village (in this case on the back of a truck) where they will be "revived" again.

Back in the village, to the unceasing pounding of the drums beating out the "emaNdzawe" rhythm, one of the "bogobela" or senior tangoma lifts the sheet and lightly brushes the "dead" sangoma under the nose with a "sizinga", a special brush, that brings them back to life again. One by one they shoot upright after they have been brushed, swing around on their knees and, hands clasped together, shake up and down to the rhythm of the drums: they have been reborn as fully qualified "tangoma" or diviners.

Continuing....

	Going to the river	Cutting the tongue	Beheading chicken	Drinking blood
	"Baptism" sangoma	Carrying sangoma	Chicken blood	Carried ashore
	Covering the "dead"	"Resurrection"	"Reborn" sangoma	Sangoma in trance

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