Jubilation as boys return home after month-long initiation
Some of the young men from initiation schools say they have learnt a lot including respect and that they are excited as the process promotes their culture.
LIMPOPO – Scores of jovial parents assembled to welcome their boys back after a month at initiation school at Tshimbupfe Tshilaphala on July 16.
Traditional leader Vhamusanda Vho-Takalani Mulaudzi welcomed the first initiates since 2020 and no fatalities were reported at this initiation school.
This is due to the co-operation between the surgeon and the provincial health department which made sure that all participants were in good health before they were admitted to the initiation school.
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There was jubilation as the initiates returned home safely as Moms ululated while dads whistled as they arrived. This is regarded as a transition from boyhood to manhood.
The initiates are expected to learn values, respect and to uphold their culture or traditions.
Some of the young men from initiation schools say they have learnt a lot including respect. They say they are excited as the process promotes their culture.
A traditional surgeon, Azwitamisi Munarini Nemavhulani, who took the reins from his late father, says he was happy to continue with the family’s culture of running a death-free initiation school.
He says he received support from various stakeholders to enable him to operate properly.
Nemavhualani says: “We succeeded to run the initiation schools. We didn’t have any deaths and that was because of support we received from local traditional leaders, departement and the Office of the Premier.”
The age-old tradition wasn’t practised in the past two years due to the outbreak of Covid-19.
“When initiates come to the initiation school, they are allowed to come with their medication that they take at home. We let them bring it along. We didn’t want the kids to default at the initiation school because a kid at home was still a kid at the initiation school, that’s what we want.”
The youngest initiate was 10-year-old Asiyashu Muhali, who was welcomed back by his dad, Pastor Lawrence Muhali from Tshimbupfe Mavhulani.
“I’m delighted to see my young boy back home. He spent the whole month in the mountain, but I knew he would come back because of the death-free record of the school principal,” he says.
“Today I’m so happy he is back and I hope they taught him to stop swearing at adults. I feel great because today they are coming back home. They are going to see their parents and everything is well and we are happy about it,” explains Muhali.
Mulaudzi adds that the cultural practice assists in curbing social ills by educating the young boys.
He gives credit to all those involved in this process. He says they left home as boys and returned as men.
