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(f) The novices are dressed in their graduation uniform outside the chief's place, near the tshivhuyu pole. They are carried up to the chief's courtyard on the backs of their 'mothers', and splashed with water as they enter the courtyard. At Thengwe, they are showered with medicated seeds of maize and millet. This is a repetition of what is done when a new-born child is first brought out of the hut of confinement (Blacking:1964:18). The novices crouch in the middle of the courtyard, whilst married women and graduates dance round them, and then they join in the final dance of the school.
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Dressed in their graduation uniform, the girls are carried up to the courtyard on the backs of their ritual 'mothers', while their older relatives and/or their future husbands' people come up to witness the final dance.
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The doctor sprinkles seeds over the graduates, as they kneel after entering the courtyard. It was pouring with rain at the time. |
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tshi swa - THE END (lit. BURNING) OF DOMBA