Reed Dance

A Great Day!  September 11^th 2010

One sentence dump of the day’s events… 50,000 bare breasted virgins dancing before the Zulu king, elephant parading across the road, family style meal with all the sit students and staff, real coffee, animal impressions, plunge into a frigid pool,  5 girls in a tub, pavilion dance party, long bonding talks in to the wee hours of the morning

At 7 in the morning we all piled into van and headed to the Reed Dance, a yearly Zulu tradition where virgins from all over Zulu regions gather at the Zulu Kings Palace to dace before the King and his princes.  They dance in hopes that they will be chosen to be the next Zulu king or princess.  Going into this even I was slightly angered at the promotion of a “topless beauty contest” that objectified women’s bodies for royalties and men’s delight but my opinion has changed since experiencing the event.

For the Zulu Virgins the morning started at two as they were splashed with water to wake them up, then each girl is subjected to a virginity test performed by a female elder, or mama. The mamas are trained to open the girl and see if the hilum has been broken.  This is a very invasive practice, the mamas switch rubber gloves to prevent the spread of STI and HIV, but with so many girls I have to question the gentility of the test as well as the complete sanitation, in tents. It is true that many of the virgins were most defiantly virgins, but I had a conversation with multiple neighbors and sisters who told of the bribery that when on to receive the virgin certificate

Body image boost!  It was amazing to see how girls of all shapes and sizes were so happy and proud of their bodies.  All of them looked beautiful and it was an inspiration.  All the girls were probably on adrenalin high of their lives, they were so lively and excited with their dances and songs. This event would be the equivalent of a national Girl Scout troops gathering mixed with beauty pageants of queen Ester.

Along with the 50 thousand virgins thousands of family members were attending the event, the zulu kings land turned into a 48 hour fair ground, all paid for by the government.  We watched for a 5 hours as a constant stream of girls walked up the hill towards the Zulu king’s palace carrying their 20+foot high reeds.  They passed into the gates of the palace and dropped their reeds, and were presented before the king.  (if the tops of the reeds were to break off while walking to the king, it was a symbol the girl was not a virgin, silly notion because they had all been tested but it was bad luck)

Test of the system. HIV education and prevention was lacking at Reed dance. The department of health was at the Reed dance with the mission to promote VTC (volunteer testing and counseling) but they were not out champing in force. My friend Julia and I were talking to these health providers about VTC and she asked if we had been tested. Wow hypocrisy check… over the past month I have been encouraging others to be tested and know their HIV status, but I didn’t know what these test entailed.  Julia asked if she could be tested, and I decided I would use this opportunity to understand and test the system.  Before the test we were asked if we knew what HIV was, and how it was spread, we replied very basically, having unprotected sex.  I was expecting the councilor to elaborate but she told us to us condoms and made us sign consent that we had been counseled about HIV prevention.  Then she took out an HIV instant blood test (she actually had to go get one from another provider, the department of health didn’t have any available even tho they had clinics set up around the reed dance)  The test itself was new and we watched her take the needle and blood test out of the plastic, but she did not have gloves and if we had been infected she would have come into contact with our blood. There were no biohazard containers for the needles, used test, or cotton swabs.  Good thing I officially test negative. Ha ha, anyways it was an experience.

We drove through a game park on our way home, and our first 30 seconds in the park an elephant walked across the road.  Then we turned the corner and there were two rhinos, zebras, and buffalo.  We stayed the night at St. Lucia at a lovely backpackers. Dance party, tree climbing, family style dinner, 5 girls in a tub.  Hippos in the morning, great picknick.

The past few days we were dispersed in small around the Durban area and placed in Schools, NGO’s and Hospitals.