Reed Dance new opportunity for activism

The presence of 30,000 Swazi "maidens" demonstrating their allegiance to the queen mother this year at the annual Reed Dance, was an opportunity not to be missed for NGOs trying to promote messages of safe sex, HIV/AIDS and gender rights. "These are girls who assemble once a year to pay homage to the queen mother, and they are also celebrating Swazi girlhood. They are a perfect audience because most of their time is unoccupied, and they are receptive to our message," said Faith Dube, a counsellor with the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse. In the SiSwati language, the Reed Dance is known as Umhlanga, named after the reed used to construct a windscreen in front of a traditional Swazi hut. To show their devotion to Swazi customs and the queen, maidens go on a two-day trek to the Great Usuthu River to collect the three metre-tall reeds. Escorted by warriors from the men's regiments, the girls then carry these trophies back to the queen mother's village, and present them as gifts. In Swazi society, both women and men are members of regiments comprised of their age-mates. Girls pass into adulthood in the company of their regimental peers. They learn customary skills, while being indoctrinated into their roles as Swazi wives in polygamous homesteads where women are legally minors. This year, NGOs have tried to pass on more modern messages concerning sexual abuse, AIDS prevention, and empowerment. Despite the strength of tradition, which frowns on pre-marital sex and adultery, 33 percent of adult Swazis are HIV-positive. According to UNAIDS, 81 percent of young women aged between 15 and 24 do not know that a healthy looking person can be infected with HIV/AIDS. "Cases of incest and in-family sexual abuse are up by 50 percent over last year, although this could be because of better reporting," said Dube. "Some men are telling their nieces, cousins or even little sisters and daughters that it is Swazi custom to go to bed with a relative. We are here to tell the maidens there is no such custom." The need to recognise a situation that could lead to sexual abuse was the theme of three illustrated allegorical books where animals act out the stories in the African folklore tradition, which were distributed by the UN Children's Fund. Some 15,000 sacks of books were given to the girls. "These are the first books I have ever owned in my life that weren't school texts," said Nomsa Mdluli, 16, from the rural Mliba district. Like the thousands of other young women aged between seven and 21, Mdluli came to Ludzidzini royal village, 15-km east of the capital Mbabane, to see Queen Mother Ntombi, who by tradition co-rules the kingdom with her son, King Mswati III. The notion that the Reed Dance exists as a venue for the polygamous 34-year-old king to choose from among the nation's maidens for his next wife is an invention of the foreign media. In fact, all Swazi kings wed through arranged marriages, and are obliged to marry in a predetermined order into certain clans that the royal family has historical ties with. A Swazi king's first wife is always a member of the Matsebula clan. But the maidens remained a captive audience for NGOs until the climax of the ceremony, to which the Swazi king is invited as an honoured guest, when the young women parade through the arena at Ludzidzini. "This year, some organisations came and asked if they could talk to the girls. They are really interested in our welfare," Thuli Mahlalela, 21, the induna (head person) of one of the female regiments told IRIN. Among the social campaigning groups active at the ceremony was the People's Education Theatre. They put on well-attended performances of a drama dealing with sexual abuse. Counsellors from the Swaziland AIDS Support Organisation, and the Swaziland HIV and AIDS Support Centre, circulated with information about HIV testing for a generation of girls who are increasingly at risk from the virus.