The significance of neglected themes in the visual representation of Ulwaluko

Abstract

This study investigates the significance of the neglected themes in visual representations of the Xhosa (also AmaXhosa) ritual of manhood called ulwaluko. The focus is on attire, cosmetics, language, food, games and music. These themes are part of the various components that constitute ulwaluko as a complex and significant practice amongst the Xhosa people, which comprises layered meanings, activities, and procedures involved in the ritual transformation of males from boyhood to manhood. The neglected themes are imperative in the education and socialisation of Xhosa men, and the formation of their identity and pride. Through ulwaluko, Xhosa men gain significant knowledge about maturity, cultured demeanour, marriage, family, human rights, and domestic and substance abuse. These teachings are essential in educating, shaping and moulding Xhosa men. Throughout the three decades from the 1990s to the 2020s, ulwaluko has suffered a crisis evidenced by injuries and deaths of initiates through careless procedures of circumcision, irresponsible nursing of the initiates and unfavourable conditions where the education of initiates takes place. This crisis has been a burning subject not only for journalists and scholars but also artists and filmmakers. The crisis dominates visual representations of ulwaluko in South African contemporary art. This study argues that even amid fatalities such as pain, injuries and the death of initiates, ulwaluko is still an essential institution that contributes to social practices and the moral fibre of society. Using Afrocentrism and the indigenous knowledge system as theoretical lenses, this study appreciates ulwaluko culture by interpreting researched data from an African-centred perspective. This approach produces African knowledge that recognises the African voice and affirms the centrality of cultural experience. The use of indigenous knowledge is to access the neglected themes in popular knowledge and culture by appreciating the Xhosa ways of knowing, being and understanding in contemporary African society.