Zulu people are a native people of Southern Africa of the Nguni. The Zulu people are the largest ethnic group and nation in South Africa, with an estimated 14.39 million people, in total of which 13.78 million people live in South Africa, mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
Traditional healers of Southern Africa are practitioners of traditional African medicine in Southern Africa. They fulfil different social and political roles in the community like divination, healing physical, emotional, and spiritual illnesses, directing birth or death rituals, finding lost cattle, protecting warriors, counteracting witchcraft and narrating the history, cosmology, and concepts of their tradition.
Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can be part of a ritual or spiritual event.
Bwiti is a spiritual discipline of the forest-dwelling Punu people and Mitsogo peoples of Gabon and by the Fang people of Gabon. Modern Bwiti incorporates animism, ancestor worship, and in some cases, Christianity, into a syncretistic belief system.
Xhosa music has long been a major part of the music of South Africa, especially in the field of jazz. Since olden times, singing has been a tradition and part of culture among the Xhosas.
A jengu is a water spirit in the traditional beliefs of the Sawabantu groups of Cameroon, like the Duala, Bakweri, Malimba, Subu, Bakoko, Oroko people. Among the Bakweri, the term used is liengu. Miengu are similar to bisimbi in the Bakongo spirituality and Mami Wata. The Bakoko people use the term Bisima.
Dances in Iran or Iranian dances are dance styles indigenous to Iran. Genres of dance in Iran vary depending on the area, culture, and language of the local people, and can range from sophisticated reconstructions of refined court dances to energetic folk dances. The population of Iran includes many ethnicities, such as Kurds, Azerbaijanis, Arabs, Baluchis, Turkmen, Jews, Armenian, Georgian peoples, in addition to numerous Iranian tribal groups which can be found within the borders of modern-day Iran. Each group, region, and historical epoch has specific dance styles associated with it. Raghs is the Arabic word for dance, and is almost exclusively the word used for dance in Persian, as the Persian word for dance, paykubi, is no longer in common usage. It is also the word in Azerbaijani for dance (Reqs). The Kurdish word for dance is Halperke, and the Lurs from Lorestan use the word Bākhten for dance.
Punjabi wedding traditions are a strong reflection of Punjabi culture with ritual, song, dance, food, and dress that have evolved over centuries.
African dolls across the continent are created for young girls to play with and as a charm to ensure fertility in women. Their shape and costume vary according to region and custom. Frequently dolls are handed down from mother to daughter. Western dolls are popular in Africa and are often dressed with traditional garb.
The Xhosa people, or Xhosa-speaking people are a Bantu ethnic group native to South Africa. They are the second largest ethnic group in South Africa and are native speakers of the isiXhosa language.
The Gcaleka House is the Great house of the Xhosa Kingdom in what is now the Eastern Cape. Its royal palace is in the former Transkei and its counterpart in the former Ciskei is the Rharhabe, which is the right hand house of Phalo.
Nicholas Hlobo is a South African artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was born in 1975 in Cape Town. He earned a Bachelor of Technology from Technikon Witwatersrand in 2002. He creates large sculptural works that are expansive masses that at once feel oozey, voluptuous, and highly structured. Through his work, he navigates his identity as a gay Xhosa man in South Africa and reevaluates the definitions of masculinity and sexuality in his country. The variance between femininity and masculinity is created by his use of materials such as rubber inner tubes, ribbon, organza, lace, and found objects. Hlobo cuts and sews objects back together to symbolize the idea of the healing that comes after a tearing apart in order to express his interest in the history of colonization in South Africa as well as the overt and covert ways that colonization occurs in modern life.
Ulwaluko, traditional circumcision and initiation from childhood to adulthood, is an ancient initiation rite practised by the Xhosa people, and is commonly practised throughout South Africa. The ritual is traditionally intended as a teaching institution, to prepare young males for the responsibilities of manhood. Therefore, initiates are called abakhwetha in isiXhosa: aba means a group, and kwetha means initiate. A single male in the group is known as an umkhwetha. A male who has not undergone initiation is referred to as inkwenkwe (boy), regardless of his age, and is not allowed to take part in male activities such as tribal meetings.
Intonjane is a Xhosa rite of passage into womanhood practiced in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The ritual takes place after a girl has had her first period. This ritual is symbolic of a girl's sexual maturity and ability to conceive. It is through this ritual that girls are taught about socially accepted behaviours of Xhosa women, while also encouraging them not to have sex before marriage. The origin of the name intonjane is associated with the life cycle of a stick insect. At the end of its larval stage, caterpillars encase themselves in a little grass-like mat cocoon until they are ready to emerge as adults. During these months, trees have these grassy cocoons that Xhosa people refer to as ntonjane. The kind of grass that the girl sits on during the ritual, called inxkopho, bears a resemblance to the cocoons encasing of the caterpillars on the tree, hence the name intonjane. The intonjane ritual takes three to six weeks, and several events take place during that period.
Lebollo la basadi also known as female initiation among the Basotho is a rite of passage ritual which marks the transition of girls into womanhood. This activity is still practiced in the Free State, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal provinces of South Africa. In Sesotho, lebollo means initiation. The Basotho rite of passage ritual, unlike other practices in Africa, does not involve procedures which remove parts of the female genital organ. However, the inner folds of the labia are enlarged and elongated by stretching for a more pleasurable sexual experience. In areas where initiation is still valued, uninitiated girls are ridiculed by society.
Folk dances of Sindh are the traditional dances of the Sindhi people, which are indigenous to Sindh region which is now in Pakistan. These dances are performed at various events including marriages, ceremonies, special occasions, on birth of a child and for cultural purposes.
Ukuthwasa is a Southern African culture-bound syndrome associated with the calling and the initiation process to become a sangoma, a type of traditional healer. In the cultural context of traditional healers in Southern Africa, the journey of ukuthwasa involves a spiritual process marked by rituals, teachings, and preparations. It begins with a calling, idlozi, from ancestors, often received through dreams or altered states of consciousness. Initiates, known as ithwasaneor ithwasa, undergo formal training under a mentor, gobela, which can last months to years. Ukuthwasa process entails physical, psychological, and spiritual manifestations, which are believed to cleanse and prepare the initiate. The term ukuthwasa, meaning "come out" or "be reborn," signifies the transformative nature of the experience. Both men and women can become traditional healers through this calling.
Ukusina is a type of traditional dance that has its roots in South Africa's coastal region. For the Zulu people, it is an expressive and rhythmic dance form with deep cultural importance. The Ukusina requires dancers to kick their legs in any direction up and out, and then stamp each foot into the ground. The majority of the time, this dance is performed for entertainment during social occasions such as wedding ceremony. Ukusina dances, as a result, are socially created and center on the song leader singing interlocking word phrases. Traditionally, it was thought that no religious event would be complete without at least one ukusina dance performance. Ukusina dance is a fundamental component of the social, religious, and cultural life of the Zulu people, as evidenced by the descriptions of traditional dances in South Africa. Everyone in attendance is drawn into a coherent action atmosphere by the intimate relationship between body movement and music.
