Domba (plural, madomba) is the most important Venda initiation school. With tshikona, the national dance, its drum ensemble shares the honour of incorporating the big bass drum (ngoma), played in the traditional Venda fashion (note). Its best known and most dramatic feature is its ritual song and dance. This is performed at least once every morning and evening, as long as the school is in progress. Its distinctive rhythm also accompanies a song of dismissal, which is performed only in the evening: 'Ri a humbela tshilalelo' (we ask for our supper).
The school is essentially for girls, but youths who pay a reduced fee are also allowed to dance with the girls and listen to the instruction given by the master of initiation. A woman who has for some reason been married without passing domba, may qualify for graduation by attending the rites of the last night and day. She is not required to strip down to the loin covering, which is compulsory 'undress' for girls when they dance, and for this privilege she pays a bigger fee.
Interspersed between performances of the great ritual song are always recreational songs (lit. play-songs, nyimbo dza mitambo), which may be arrangements for the domba ensemble of beer-songs and other dance melodies, or songs composed specially for domba.
From time to time, novices are ordered to take their turn in performing special rites (dzingoma, lit. drums) which are compulsory for all. Furthermore, each master of initiation arranges mimes or shows (ma
ano) which, like dzingoma, are usually intended to convey some lesson. Whereas the dzingoma and several ma
ano appear to be the same at all schools (note), there are some ma
ano that have been invented by particular masters of initiation, who wish to attract more recruits by the promise of novelties.
Domba is held shortly after a new ruler has been installed, in which case it is called domba 
a tshifularo. Otherwise, it is held at intervals of some years, as the number of girls of marriageable age increases and the need for initiation arises. It usually lasts for a year, though it may continue for as much as two years or be stopped after only three months. Many informants said that it should be 'set up' during the time of reaping, when there is an economic surplus, and continue until the planting season of the following year: but others insisted that it should be both 'set up' and 'burnt' at a time when the maize is beginning to sprout. I found that neither custom was in fact rigidly observed, and that several other factors of convenience were taken into account.
An important aspect of the school is its function as a labour pool, and this is one reason why it is begun soon after the installation of a ruler: he may want to build a new village, or at least to reorganise his father's home, especially as it is customary to change residence after a death. On a number of occasions, I found that madomba lasted as long as there was work to be done. A story of the origin of domba relates that the first school was held nearly two centuries ago, when the chief at Nzhelele wanted labour to build the village of Dzata, which is today a well-known stone ruin (see Stayt 1931:6-7). The participants of this first domba are supposed to have been men and women; but as time passed, the character of the institution changed and it became a pre-marital initiation school for girls and boys. Whether or not the story is true, it serves as a myth to justify the present ownership of the schools by rulers. This is, perhaps, necessary, because those who run domba and teach its milayo are invariably commoners, and there is much evidence to suggest that it was a well-established institution of the clans who were living in Vendaland before the ancestors of the present ruling clans arrived two centuries ago (Blacking 1969b:23-24 and 32-33).
Domba is described popularly, and even by some anthropologists, as a fertility rite. Indeed, this is a conclusion that may be drawn from a superficial study of some of its laws and rites. However, a study of the sociology of domba reveals that Stayt (1931:112) was correct when he wrote: "The school is a general preparation for marriage, where boys and girls, who are usually separated, are brought together, and, by means of symbols and metaphors, are together taught to understand the true significance of marriage and child-birth, and by the same means are warned of the pitfalls and dangers that they are likely to encounter during the course of their lives."
In their preparation for marriage, Venda girls must learn how they can assist the tribal economy by working for their family economies, and how they can help to maintain a stable labour force by marrying and producing more workers. They must learn that uncontrolled mass production is not allowed, that free-lance motherhood is abhorred.
If domba were simply a fertility rite, surely a novice who fell pregnant would be praised! In fact, if this happens to a girl, she is condemned. Domba stresses the value of institutionalised motherhood, with all the checks and balances necessary to maintain the stability of the social system. It is the dramatic final stage in the series of schools which prepare girls for marriage. By contrast, marriage itself is inconspicuous and private; the bride, accompanied by a few companions, is taken to her husband's home by night and the transition is accomplished with the minimum of ceremony. This is primarily because the 'transfer' of the bride is but one small link in the chain of events which consolidate relationships between wife-givers (vho-makhulu) and wife-takers (vhakwasha).
It is for reasons such as these that I cannot share van Warmelo's (1932 :52) view that "the effect of Domba is to teach the young folk the complete Venda vocabulary of foul language and to acquaint them with all the aspects of sexual life, and that from a very sordid point of view. Its core is obviously a fertility rite."
Still less can I accept van Warmelo's (1932:74) uncritical translation of the conclusion of an informant on the subject of the milayo of domba: "All these obscenities are to disillusion the young people, and to make it clear that there is nothing left in life for them to hope for." On the contrary, domba opens the door to full participation in the society of women by incorporating girls in an informal age-set. Seniority of age is an important principle of Venda social organisation, and as women grow older they become more powerful and respected and play a leading role in ritual and ceremonial.