Reed Dance draws thousands of maidens to oPhongolo

Zulu King Misuzulu hosts the nation’s biggest cultural stage as maidens converge on eMashobeni Palace for tradition, spectacle and renewal.

By CHRIS MAKHAYE

ALL roads lead north on Saturday. To oPhongolo. To eMashobeni.

There, at the new royal palace on the dusty border between Nongoma and oPhongolo, King Misuzulu kaZwelithini will take centre stage as tens of thousands of maidens lay reeds at his feet.

The big return

It is uMkhosi woMhlanga — the Reed Dance — and KwaZulu-Natal says it is ready.

On Saturday, more than 30,000 young women from KZN, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and Eswatini will converge on eMashobeni Royal Palace for the main event. The buses are being prepared. Last weekend was just the warm-up, with more than 5,000 maidens gathering at eMachobeni Royal Palace in eNgwavuma for the first leg. Saturday is the one everyone waits for.

And it comes with weight. Four years ago, in October 2022, Misuzulu kaZwelithini was crowned King of the Zulu nation after the death of his father, King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu. It has been a tumultuous reign — court battles over the throne, bitter family disputes over the royal estate, the controversial shift of the Reed Dance from the iconic eNyokeni Palace in Nongoma to the new eMashobeni, and most recently, a viral video in which the King, appearing intoxicated and holding a beer bottle, is heard swearing at his wife.

Why the reed still matters

It was his father who revived this dance, but its roots go much further back.Professor Sihawu Ngubane of the University of KwaZulu-Natal told The Quest this week that the Reed Dance was done in ancient times and was revived by the previous king, Zwelithini in 1980 after visiting eSwatini and deciding to revive it for the Zulus.

“It is essentially a celebration of purity and abstinence amongst the maidens so that they respect themselves and not partake sexual activity before they reach the age where they are married. It is important that those who participate are virgins and in the past those who tried to participate after having had sex in their lives their reeds faltered and broke. It's importance in our time is that it helps maidens not to fall pregnant or contract sexual disease like HIV and others," Ngubane said.

That message still draws them.

If you have never been, picture this. Early morning cold, then dust. Then song. Thousands of bare-breasted maidens, in bright beaded izigege and iminene, white anklets clicking, leg rattles hissing shh-shh-shh as they step. Each will carry a long river reed upright on her shoulder, both hands steady, back straight, eyes forward. No slouching. No shortcuts.

They will follow royal princesses — Princess Simesihle and Princess Buzetsheni in recent years — singing and ululating in lines that snake across the hills. They will present those reeds to rebuild the guma, the protective fence around the Queen Mother's residence.

On Friday at noon, preparations were in full swing in the south.

At oShabeni, near Port Shepstone, Nokwanda Buthelezi-Lushaba, wife of oShabeni traditional leader, was readying about 200 maidens for buses to oPhongolo.

"This ceremony is important in that maidens get lifelong lessons that they cannot be learnt anywhere else or outsourced, lessons that will sustain them throughout their lifetimes and help build homes, societies and a nation," she said.

All systems go

The province says it will be ready for them.

Department spokesperson Ntando Mnyandu said on Thursday evening: "The MEC for Sport, Arts and Culture Hon. Mntomuhle Khawula wishes to assure all patrons, maidens and guests that it’s all systems go for the successful hosting of the 2026 second leg of Umkhosi Womhlanga at Emashobeni Royal Palace. Khawula has stressed for drivers ferrying maidens to drive with caution and to obey the rules of the road."

The hill will be full on Saturday. Dignitaries, government ministers, kings from Eswatini and Lesotho, traditional leaders, queens, princesses, diplomats. In other years, presidents. This is still KZN's biggest cultural stage.

And oPhongolo will cash in. Taxis full. B&Bs full. Women frying amagwinya at the gate, selling water, selling Zulu hats. For a small northern town, Saturday is business.

On Saturday, eMashobeni is ready. TQ