Welcome to the Zulu Kingdom, KwaZulu-Natal

Royal Reed Dance 2006

A COLOURFUL festival of deep cultural significance to the Zulu people will be played out again next month, larger than ever and with an increasing significance in other areas.

The Royal Reed Dance (Umkhosi Womhlanga) traditionally celebrates, through the purity of thousands of maidens dancing for their King, the moral values of the Zulu nation and the people’s unity with their monarch.

Increasingly, its emphasis on virginity and purity is an important weapon in the campaign against HIV/Aids.

And the spectacle – attended by tens of thousands of people – promises to develop into an important part of the Cultural Tourism that is being developed in the north-east of KwaZulu-Natal; to become a lever of economic upliftment.

The Royal Reed Dance is becoming an add-on to the eMakhosini/Opathe Heritage Park, near Ulundi, which offers both cultural and eco-tourism in the ruggedly magnificent surroundings that forged the Zulu nation; as well as to Isandlwana, Rorke’s Drift and other battlefields of the Anglo/Zulu War.

Lodge and other accommodation is being developed at eMakhosini/Opathe, and Cultural Tourism is increasingly seen as an important component of KwaZulu-Natal’s overall Tourism Product.

The origins of the Royal Reed Dance are in the mists of time, the tall, thick reeds – cut from a river bed – symbolising the origins of the Zulu nation. The ceremony was suppressed by the colonial authorities but resuscitated in 1984 by the present King, His Majesty Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu.

Since then participation by maidens has increased every year, with 20 000 attracted in 2005 and 25 000 expected this year. The maidens come from all parts of KwaZulu- Natal, urban as well as rural, as well as from Swaziland, the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and other regions.

The occasion – organised by the Royal Household and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Arts, Culture and Tourism – presents immense logistical problems. The maidens have to be bussed in from every corner of the province, received and fed on arrival and provided accommodation in huge marquees erected for the purpose, which are also used as their change rooms.

The ceremony is at eNyokeni, the Royal Residence outside Nongoma, and it lasts two days.

The highlight is when traditionally clad maidens form up and march to the Royal Residence, each carrying the traditional reed which signifies purity and virginity.

Led by the Chief Princess, each hands over her reed to King Goodwill Zwelithini before joining traditional dances in the arena.

Participation is a source of pride to the young women themselves, their parents and their communities as it signifies purity and virginity, as well as acceptance of traditional Zulu values and culture.

The Royal Reed Dance will be held this year over September 9 and 10.

Further information: Graham Linscott – 083-3078964

Copyright © Tourism KwaZulu-Natal