UKWESHWAMA
First Fruits Festival

In a desperate attempt to halt the tide of poverty, starvation and joblessness, King Zwelithini has repeatedly exhorted his subjects to develop new skills for tilling their lands and producing food.  The king says that over he past thirs=ty years he has been “deeply pained” to see vast numbers of his subjects languishing in a cesspool of indigence and squalor.

His Majesty sees the lands that his rural subjects inhabit as being their chief meal-ticket.  Determined to jumpstart an agrarian revolution, the king has, over the last decade, revived the “Ukweshwama” or “First Fruits Festival” pioneered by his ancestors.

According to tradition, in a by-gone era, subjects were not permitted to partake of their first fruit yields without first offering them to their king.  The festival also served as a thanksgiving to God for providing food for the nation.  As the leader of his nation, the king had to firstly accept the early harvest from God on behalf of his kingdom.

There was also a heavy emphasis on the need for Zulu men to grow up to be big and strong so that they could help defend the might and power of the Zulu kingdom. 

It was believed that if they helped themselves to the “first fruits” before the king could eat them, then those men would be weak – that they would not grow up to be real men.

Ina nutshell, the festival ordained that when the new harvest season arrived, the king had to eat first before the nation could eat.  At a microscopic level, the same principle traditionally applies to individual households where the elders eat first.

The unbridled merriment and cultural song and dance routines that characterise the Ukweshwama festival are symptomatic of the Zulu nation celebrating the fact that they could look forward to bountiful supplies of food in the kingdom.

A major highlight of the festival is the ritual killing of a bull by members of the amabutho with their bare hands.  This was a test of their courage and bravery and represented an opportunity for the warriors to prove themselves to be worthy of being in the regiment.

Legend has it that the warriors inherited the power of the bull when the animal was killed.  Through their salutations to the king, this power is transferred to their leader who then uses it to protect and defend the kingdom.

The Dance of the Maidens
A weapon in the war against HIV/AIDS

The scourge of HIV/Aids as the pandemic cuts a devastating swathe ghrough KZN and the country at large is one of the greatest challenges that has confronted His Majesty during his 30-year tenure.  “Scores of my people are dying.  That is something that is extremely painful t me.  I often wonder why God has unleashed such a deadly disease upon my people,” laments a deeply concerned monarch.

His Majesty’s determination to counteract the ravaging effects of HIV?Aids sees him use every platform afforded to him to preach an anti-Aids message.  “My people have to learn to behave more responsibly, take the necessary precautions and protect themselves,” the king advises.

The monarch also provides yeoman service to organisations such as “Love Life” in a sustained effort to break the stranglehold of HIV/Aids on the South African population.

Revived since 1984, the annual Reed Dance ceremony, which is held in the second week of September each year, has become one of the major traditional bulwarks against the spiralling infection rate.

Maidens from all parts of the kingdom are subjected to rigorous virginity testing by female community elders as a precursor to participation in the Reed Dance.  Only those who are certified as virgins are allowed to participate.

On the morning of the event, a pre-dawn riverside bath near the Enyokeni Royal Residence in KwaNongoma allows elders a final opportunity to ascertain the virginal credentials of the “flowers of the nation”.

Pulsating song and dance sequences and pounding African drumbeats enhance the festive atmosphere as the nation’s daughters are honoured for preserving their virtue.  The ceremony climaxes in a colourful procession of the reed-bearing maidens who, led by the king’s daughters, present their long stalks to their ruler.

Customary folklore has it that those maidens who are not virgins but have somehow escaped the attentions of their elders, will find their reeds bending or breaking as they carry them to the king.

In promoting and encouraging chastity and sexual abstinence until marriage, the king pontificates that a major blow would be struck against the rampant HIV/Aids crisis.

“We have won the struggle for liberation in the country.  There’s no reason why we cannot win the struggle against HIV/Aids,” says King Zwelithini.