Sipho Mabena Watch as The Citizen follows a young boy while he undergoes the traditional Ndebele initiation ceremony of Ingoma. Mxolisi Skosana looks back after leaving his maternal grandparents home after the initiation process he and his friend Siyabonga took part in, 19 April 2022, Manyanga, near Groblersdal, Limpopo. Picture: Jacques Nelles It is just…
Sipho Mabena
Watch as The Citizen follows a young boy while he undergoes the traditional Ndebele initiation ceremony of Ingoma.
Mxolisi Skosana looks back after leaving his maternal grandparents home after the initiation process he and his friend Siyabonga took part in, 19 April 2022, Manyanga, near Groblersdal, Limpopo. Picture: Jacques Nelles
It is just before dawn on a Wednesday and 15-year-old Mxoli Skosana is on edge, pacing about in his makeshift kraal, built from tree branches. In a few hours, he will be whisked off to the mountains of his Mpumalanga village of Manyebethwana, where he and thousands of his cohorts will undergo the Ndebele rite of passage ritual or Ingoma. The grass ball or Usonyana, dangling on his forehead indicates that he is a boy about to embark on a two-moth journey of transformation into manhood. Mxolisi’s parents Alfred and NamaGobholi, have ensured that their son has received his Covid…
