Reed dance is a cultural practice is Swaziland that has taken place for many years, where reeds are used to mark the occasion. The people of Swaziland call the dance, Umhalanga, a native word from the Umchwasho community and the chosen village for   the celebrations. In the month of September, queen mothers land - a royal village is always at its height witnessing something that for generation has been observed as of right. Believably, uncountable, but ladies  both  in youthful smiles and  those that are yet to get  married  conjure for an all  eight- day running event

On arrival at  the royal residence  in  Zululand,  the women  on  trail embarks on  their   first  role of  sourcing for  reeds from the neighborhood, and  this is usually  accomplished  during  wee hours of the  day. The official inception of the celebration  follows   thereafter by  bundling of reeds together aimed  for  mending the windscreen  guarding the royal  village-this is  usually done at  night by the  queens  mother.  After all this    preparations  and a day of resting, women then  engages  in adornment  regalia, whereby  the perfumed washing  and  the costume prevalence  takes  place. This can not    be accomplished without   the   carrying of   bush knives which   signifies virginity (Patrick, 2004).

Notably, the   real meaning of this celebration is to help guard and   maintain women’s chastity, produce solidarity among women by working together, and provide some labor for the aging queen mother. This was not a mean  task  to incept  but encompassed many approaches  to succeed  like   arranging   young  girls in  age   regiments;  this   ensured  virginity  for  the  girls  and in addition, be closely monitored  in    readiness to get  married. those in  aged   regiments  were also  preferred to offer  free labor  to the queen mother ;this would  give her some good  time  to  examine the  girls readiness to  serve as the  wife to the king.

On the big day, ladies supposedly parade fronting the king’s podium   marred with jubilant spectators. After this, follows regrouping of ladies from different villages in order to mount some great performance for the spectators and the king’s dignitaries. This  occasion however is not just about  hand  picking  exercise  of the  king  but  stands  as of right  for  all unmarried women and  young  girls including  the  kings  daughters  yet to get  married  to show case the  countries rich  traditional  believes(Arnold, 2007).

As much  stands for the  past, the present realities  of the  reed  dance though  has  been under criticism  from left winged Swazi elites and   international community the majority  of Swazi  people  seems to  encode it, and  hence  the  future generation  might easily  have a taste of it. This is so because in the past, the reed dance solely began as a one community pass time but  today the  whole nation  marks it, not because of  bureaucracy  but  because it has something  tied to and  future  already  flourishing  in anticipation  as the  nations  rich tourist attraction. In addition, with  the  countries   majority  population  rooted in voodoo and  alchemy and their  open  air  inheritance it is  easy to  foretell the  future of traditional  Swazi.

Swaziland being a country dominated by strict conservatives of traditions, it is easy to the future political system on this. Notably, those who serve in the kings hierarchy are the ardent supporters of the system. According to  Patrick,  the untouchable, traditional healers who are  mostly  women, are the mostly  consulted  over mental  and  physical  problems, and also  have the  pride  of attending  the  kings  ceremonies and  also the  role of  counselors-political slots.

In conclusion, the reed dance is a remarkable   happening, not about the king choosing the wife and topless virgins, is all  but   availing  the  reeds  for  reparation of the royals  residence and  observation of the  nation  own tradition with a view of passing them on from generation to generation.

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