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Munzhelenzhele - THE MIXTURE
I did not see this rite, which is also described as ndayo (exercise). Boys and girls stand opposite each other, holding in their hands grains of white and red maize. They show each other their grains and exchange them. Boys should give white grains to girls, and girls give red to boys.
Lesson
This teaches quite simply that white and red maize seeds produce one and the same maize plant, though it may also later produce white and red grains. Similarly, the fusion of male and female, symbolized by the white and red respectively, produces one and the same human being, though the person's sex may be male or female. |