SWAZILAND: Umhlanga Reed Dance 2016

This year’s Umhlanga Reed Dance took place in Swaziland at the end of August. This culturally rich and unique annual event pulls thousands of Swazis and tourists to witness and take part in the festivities. The ceremony is a centuries-old tradition where the Kingdom’s unmarried and childless females gather in groups and head out along riverbanks to cut and collect tall reeds, bind them and return to Ludzidzini, the Royal Homestead in Lobamba. It is here they present their newly cut reeds to the Queen Mother to protect her residence. Celebrations of song and dance then take place with a massive spectacle of colour.

This year’s event saw close to a staggering 98 000 young maidens from all over the country take part, as well as a number from neighbouring countries who came to celebrate and partake in this great show of Africanism. The 2016 Reed Dance coincided with the SATOA Heads of State conference being hosted by Swaziland and so was attended by numerous regional dignitaries, all of whom were suitably impressed by Swaziland’s famed pageantry. This year’s event also educated the girls on culture and life-skills.

Year on year the Reed Dance festival allows many tourists from around the world to discover the strong culture of the Swazi people, and this year was no different. With the assistance of SNTC (Swaziland National Trust Commission) The Swaziland Tourism Authority created a ‘mini Swazi Village’ at Ludzidzini Royal Residence. Tourists swamped the place to take pictures and learn about the country’s cultural history and events.

The Reed Dance saw the ever-popular food court return this year serving a variety of food including indigenous food and game meat provided by SNTC, and an assortment of fresh seafoods from Ocean Basket. A western menu was also served to cater for the many tourists that the Reed Dance attracts.

Swazis welcome tourists with a smile and love to teach others of their way of life. In a modern world and under western influence, it’s easy for cultural traditions to fade – but not in Swaziland. Many are still yet to discover Swaziland’s culture, and events like the Umhlanga Reed Dance offer a perfect insight into what makes Swaziland such a remarkable country.

This is Swaziland’s best known cultural event, and has a more open feel than the Incwala. In this eight-day ceremony, young girls cut reeds, present them to the Queen Mother (Indlovukazi) – ostensibly to repair the windbreak around her royal residence – and then dance in celebration. Up to 40,000 girls take part, dressed up in brightly coloured attired - making it one of the biggest and most spectacular cultural events in Africa.

The proper festivities kick off on day six, when dancing gets under way in the afternoon. Each group drops their reeds outside the Queen Mother’s quarters then moves to the main arena, where they dance and sing their songs. The dancing continues on day seven, when the king is present. Each regiment dances before him in turn.

Little can prepare you for the sheer scale of the pageantry, with column upon column of girls advancing like vast ululating centipedes across the parade grounds of Ludzidzini, each dissolving in turn into the pulsating mass of bodies around the royal kraal. Up close, it’s an almost overwhelming immersion in noise and colour, as the girls stamp, sing and sway in step, anklets rattling, naked flesh and dazzling costume blurring into a living, chanting kaleidoscope. The warrior escorts, adorned with cow tails and clutching knob-stick and shield, are sternly intent on their duties and seem contemptuous of tourists, but the girls are all smiles. It’s Swaziland’s biggest holiday and, after days of tramping the hillsides, cutting reeds and camping out, they’re determined to party.

Today the Umhlanga is as well attended as ever. Indeed cultural historians marvel at how its ever-increasing popularity in Swaziland defies the apparent decline of traditional culture elsewhere. It offers the visitor a unique experience. There are no special visitor arrangements – except for a special grandstand to accommodate visiting dignitaries – but simply turn up at Ludzidizini and follow the crowds. Police will direct you where to go, and where to park. Officially, permits are required for photography.

The event takes place around the last week of August / first week of September. The dates for the event are released relatively close to the time as they derive from ancestral astrology.

Day One

The girls gather at the Queen Mother’s royal village. Today this is at Ludzidzini, in Sobhuza’s time it was at Lobamba. They come in groups from the 200 or so chiefdoms and are registered for security. Men, usually four, supervise them, appointed chiefs. They sleep in the huts of relatives in the village or in classrooms of nearby schools. This is a very exciting time for the maidens.
Day Two

The girls are separated into two groups, the older (about 14 to 22 years) and the younger (about 8 to 13 years). In the afternoon, they march to the reed-beds with their supervisors. The older girls often march about 30 kilometers, while the younger girls march about ten kilometers. If the older girls are sent further, government will provide trucks for their transport.
Day Three

The girls cut their reeds, usually about ten to twenty, using long knives. Each girl ties her reeds into a bundle. Nowadays they use strips of plastic for the tying, but those mindful of tradition will still cut grass and plaint it into rope.
Day Four

In the afternoon, the girls set off to return to the Queen Mother’s village, carrying their bundles of reeds. Again they return at night. This is done “to show they traveled a long way.”
Day Five

A day of rest where the girls make final preparations to their hair and dancing costumes. After all that walking, who doesn’t deserve a little pampering?
Daym Six

First day of dancing, from about three to five in the afternoon. The girls drop their reeds outside the Queen Mother’s quarters. They move to the arena and dance, keeping their groups and each group singing different songs at the same time.
Day Seven

Second and last day of dancing. His Majesty the King will be present.
Day Eight

King commands that a number of cattle (perhaps 20 -25) be slaughtered for the girls. They receive pieces of meat and go home.