The Swazi Culture

I decided to look into the Swazi culture as the exposure of bare body parts of young girls in their tradition shows a different perspective on revealing.

According to articles by Squidoo, it is customary tradition for unmarried Swazi girls to dance bare breasted for their king in the festival called the Reed Dance. I found out that this custom has been in existence for generations and still happens today.

With much curiosity, I stumbled across an article by Nosimilo Ndlovu (Aug 2008) explaining their recent Reed Dance. She explains that thousands of Swazi maidens make their way to Enyokeni Royel Palace in Nongona every year to celebrate their culture and virginity to their king. They spend months preparing their outfits - strings of colourful beads are worn over bare breasts and short beaded skirts adorn bare buttocks to denote Chastity and signify maidenhood. The girls are told by their elder females not to wear underwear under their short beaded skirts as they were pure and had nothing to hide. Ndlovu further explains that the king does not think of the maidens in a sexual way but rather as pure. He sees the beauty of culture and is not fazed by their bare breasts or private parts. And they should not feel ashamed.

However after much preparation for this dance in 2008 the king had a change of heart and stated that after years of feasting his eyes, he now argues that nude buttocks could decrease the credibility of the Reed Dance and make the maiden vulnerable to exploitation. Ndlovu was horrified to the kings response as this is an infringement on Swazi culture. His exit from the Reed Dance is not a sufficient reason to change a practise that has been in existence for generations.

In my opinion, I believe that the king has conformed to reality of the modern world. I respect tradition and culture, however we live in modern times and traditions should be modified and adapted to todays livinf forces. According to Calefato (2004), covering oneself out of a sense of modesty means recognising that clothes have specific functions and dressing in order to convey specific meaning. Including the social meaning attributed to the notion of modesty. This therefore concludes modesty plays a big role in modern times despite strong ancient cultures.