Umhlanga (ceremony)

Common card · No. 257617

Umhlanga (Swazi and Zulu pronunciation [um̩ɬaːŋɡa]), also known as the Reed Dance, is an annual Swazi event that takes place at the end of August or at the beginning of September. In Eswatini, tens of thousands of unmarried and childless Swazi girls and women travel from the various chiefdoms to the Ludzidzini Royal Village to participate in the eight-day event. Today’s Reed Dance is a revival of the older "umcwasho" custom. Under that practice, unmarried girls were grouped into age-regiments. If a woman had become pregnant outside marriage, her family paid a cow to the local chief.

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