The Issue of Ukweshwama and an Insider at the Zulu Tradition - Assignment Example

Running head: Zulu Tradition The Issue of ukweshwama, an inside at the Zulu tradition [Writer’s Name] [Institution’s Name] Zulu Tradition KwaZulu-Natal is a province of South Africa. KwaZulu-Natal, as the name of the province indicates is the place where Zulu Monarch or ruler, King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu rules. Even though not holding any direct political authority, the government pays the Zulu King, and accounts for substantial influence over more conservative Zulu population of the area. To end the wave of poverty, malnourishment and joblessness, in a desperate attempt, the king “Zwelithini” urged his people many times to progress in the newer skills that are available for plowing the fields in order to produce food. He says that in the last 30 years it has been deeply painful for him to see such great number of his people suffering in a cesspit of “indigence and squalor.” The king believes that the place that is inhabited by the people of his area is their “chief meal-ticket”. He is determined to startup an agricultural upheaval and has, over the past ten years has brought back to life the “Ukweshwama” or “First Fruits Festival” initially founded by his descendants. As per the practice, long ago, the people were not allowed to take part of the “first fruit yields” before offering it to their king. This event also served the purpose for being a Thanksgiving ritual for God in order to have provided them with food. The king accepted the “early harvest” first, as he was the leader, from God for his realm. A lot of emphasis was laid upon the requirement for all “Zulu men” being “big and strong” in order to be able to help and defend the “might and power of the Zulu kingdom.” As part of the belief of the ritual the men could not eat or take part from the first fruit or bounty before the king did otherwise they would remain weak and not grow up to be strong and powerful men. In short we can say that “the festival ordained that when the new harvest season arrived, the king had to eat first before the nation could eat.” Taking a look at this point from a more minute level we find the same principle being applied in households where as respect the elder members of the family eat first. “The unbridled merriment and cultural song and dance routines that characterize the Ukweshwama festival are symptomatic of the Zulu nation celebrating the fact that they could look forward to bountiful supplies of food in the kingdom” One of the big highlights of this festival is “the ritual killing of a bull by members of the amabutho with their bare hands.” The reason why this was followed was that with this test the warriors could prove that they had courage and were brave enough to be worthy of being recruited to the army of the king and to serve him. According to legend, when the bull was killed its power was transferred to the warrior who had killed it and then through their “salutation” to the king the power was further shifted to their king, who in turn would use it to protect his people. There are many reasons or rationales why there is nothing wrong with practice ‘ukweshwama’. First of it’s a symbol of gratitude to their master; it shows a symbol of loyalty they owe to their lord, being thankful to what they receive. It’s a way for all of them to come together on an occasion in which they try to be thankful for what they have; it’s a symbol of sharing, caring, loving and helping each other. It’s a good in a sense that they abide their cultural customs and rites in a world where cultural values are diminishing, people are living in a way whatever they wan to do, without considering whether or its right or wrong, they just do their job ass long as its serve their purpose; the tradition of “ukweshwama” is a tradition which brings people of the clan close together and help reshape the ties, its like an “Eid” in Islamic Tradition, a “Thanksgiving” in Christian Tradition, a “ Kosher” in Jewish Tradition, a “ Nauroze” in Persian Tradition etc. People are suffering in this world every day and every night, of every week in a year, and if someone tries to pin point a every single imperfection in every ritual, custom or tradition, then there is not going to be any tradition, custom or ritual followed in this world, for the sake of an example, Christians celebrates Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ, they go out to churches, pray, ask for forgiveness and wish for a wonderful new year, and a comfortable life and a peaceful death etc but if someone tries to point out the negative aspects of Christmas, is the bad effects it has on the economy, shops remain close, there’s no business, besides hot dogs, or beers, Hospitals employees are on leave so the health care institutions becomes under staffed and if someone gets sick, then God knows better how will he be treated. Or in Islamic tradition, on the occasion of “Eid-ul-Adha”, Two weeks or a week before the occasion, people go out to get a cattle for their sacrifice, some people gets sheep, some people gets sheep, some gets a goat, some gets a camel, while other gets cows, bulls etc. and the meat of these animals are distributed among the poor and malnourished and the needy, these are the positive aspects of the occasion, now look at the negative characteristics of the occasions, thousands of millions of cattle grazing animals are slaughtered at once, which can lead to a shortfall, money is spent without any consideration, it’s a long three day long holiday, and if we look at it rationally, millions of billions dollars worth of Business stays at a standstill, etc that does not mean we have to stop celebrating “Eid-ul-Adha” or people should go to work on Christmas. These occasions are given by God, to celebrate our lives with our love ones, and to forget everything that makes us sad, or depressed or tensed etc. This reminds me of an old story, in which two guys were hanging out, one guy said lets play soccer, and the other said, “No” stating that if I play soccer my legs starts to hurt, and they both starting fighting over it, it was a non-issue about which the quarrel of both the men was endless cause there’s no point regardless of who win or lose. The arguments against this practice of “Ukweshwama” are crystal clear, or clearer than anyone can see. From a cruelty point of view, the way the animal is killed without a doubt painful which is magnified by the fact that the animal is killed by Warriors own bare hands. The way the bull’s horns are broken by the warriors gives you goose bumps when you think about the suffering and pain of the animal. I mean if someone just twists my fingers between his or her arms, it is at the time of the twist like the worst pain anyone can suffer. There are many ways to kill the animal which are less painful like the machines in slaughter houses, in Islamic traditions; the way to kill an animal is by slitting the throat of the animal from ear to ear, let the blood drain until the soul departs the body, the pain there is to a great extent lesser than the way the animal is killed by the those soulless monsters. The PETA (People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals) with whom I disagree with more than a Jew disagreeing with Christianity, cause they say that “Even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we'd be against it. but I hate to agree with them, that in the name of the culture these animals cannot be killed or even if killed not in that way at least, I mean if anyone ever experiences a visual experience of something like that he or she is surely going to either throw up, or collapse in fear by this ruthless aggression version of animal slaughter. The way his head is removed from remaining of his body and his skin pealed off from his body like a peal from an orange, is without a doubt very outrageously mind numbing act. I personally am too afraid to make an observation on this matter, I am not vegetarian which means that I have eaten many kinds of meat that includes cow, sheep, chicken, goat, camel, ham etc, so I don’t have any objections to the way the animal are slaughtered as long as I don’t have to see it and food is delicious. The thing about this practice is that from the Zulu King’s view point is that it shows how much people are loyal to him, the way they feel no guilt in killing the animal cruelly, mercilessly and ruthlessly. There are a few examples that I can distantly relate to this Issue, In Islamic Tradition, one day Abraham in his dream saw that he is trying to cut the throat of his dear son Ishmael, when he woke up from his dream and asked God what was that all about, God told him you are an intelligent and humble person Abraham, I want you to sacrifice your son Abraham in my honor, Abraham I know you are very generous and you have done many things for your lord which are not the caliber of an ordinary human being and that what makes you special, its time that we test your loyalty to your to your Master, Abraham with even exclaiming a whiff or even without a single teardrop went to bed again, and started thinking about the task that he has to do, he didn’t sleep the whole night, and was changing sides the whole night, every emotions was running through his head of fear, of love, of loyalty he tried to convince himself that it’s a God’s command, not for the love or attraction of heaven, but because of loyalty to his master he went agreed that before the sunrise the following morning, he will sacrifice his beloved and most favorite son Ishmael to prove his loyalty and faith to his Lord. So he arose from the bed, awake Ishmael, and told him to come with him, when they both went to a mountainous region of that area where they used to live, Abraham told his son Ishmael to lie down on the ground, who as a good son obeyed every word that was coming out of his father mouth, Abraham had a knife which he brought with himself. He tried a few times to do it but failed because the pain a person feel when trying to pluck a flower from a garden, is inexplicable, and this was his son we are talking about, so he took a cloth from somewhere and rolled around his eyes like a blindfold, and then tried to cut the throat, but God through his kindness and used a little sense of humor and replaced the Ishmael with a sheep, who Abraham slaughters without knowing who’s throat he was slicing, and when he was done with slaughtering, he rose up and took a few steps back turned around and tried not to look as what he thought was his son’s corpse lying there draining blood, so he turned around and started crying, as he lost his most admired son but was happy that his sacrifice was done to please his Savior not for his own selfishness, when suddenly Ishmael came out of no where to see his father crying and exclaimed at his father that he was alive. Abraham shocked to his very core, hugged and kissed his son, then suddenly a voice from sky come, I have seen what you have done to please your master, and you’ll be rewarded at the “Day of Judgment” for what it is, that you have done you will be rewarded with more than you can even imagine or you deserve and your intent to sacrifice your son means as to much to him as if you had in fact done it as you are the most righteous among them all, your sacrifice will be remembered till the end of time, and people will celebrate your intent to sacrifice your son till the end of time. And every year, since that day the Arabs celebrate his sacrifice by sacrificing a sheep, or a goat or any farm grazing animal and that occasion is known as “Eid-ul-Adha”, and the same thing is with the Jews, but they believe that it was Isaac instead of Ishmael and in his honor keeps kosher in their house. If we look at it, who doesn’t want that, if we were to be rewarded by making such a small sacrifice why in the name everything Holy, we wouldn’t for that. To get a place in heaven, for doing a small thing like in exchange for heaven is not a tough sell. Now my point that I would also like to emphasize is that bull is a animal that can be sacrificed in a much better way if it is given to someone who really needs it, like a farmer or a cattle grazer, or some who wants to own a bull cart, the bull being killed in such a situation is more likely to be put to a better use if it is given as a sacrificial gift to the needy. The Basic reason that I am at a crossroad is that I am not a vegetarian and I just eat meat also I am a huge supporter of animal rites, the way they are used in fields, used in carts, they way people just kill them for their skin so that they can make jackets, wallets or blankets etc. kills me like there is no value of an animal life, for a few hundred or thousand bucks they are killed for no good reason. If we look at it from percentage format, I am 50 percent in support of this ritual, cause this have to be done for the God, and 50 percent against cause the whole idea of killing the animal with bare hands, breaking its horns, breaking its bones, putting sand in its mouth so it can choke on it, ripping its penis and testicles off, honestly I die a little inside cause just thinking about this ritual is getting me to the point of pain which I have never experienced for an animal. “Animal Rights Africa (ARA)” will approach the “High Court in Pietermaritzburg” on November 24, 2009 in an attempt to end this very painful “Ukweshwama” rite, due to happen on December 5, at “Nongoma, KwaZulu-Natal”, through the First Fruits Festival. An ARA spokesperson, Michele Pickover, said, “It physically pains us and is an affront to our dignity that an animal is made to suffer in such an overtly cruel and protracted way. “ ARA has drained all additional solutions to have a meeting with the concerned parties and discuss the problem at hand but it’s fruitless. ARA thus asked “Tina Costas”, an environmental lawyer at “Garlicke and Bousfield” to act on ARA's behalf. The advocate “Michael Smithers SC” arranged the documents and will present the request to the High Court on Tuesday. They have “cited as Respondents: King Goodwill Zwelenthini, the national Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the KZN MEC for Local Government, Housing and Traditional Affairs, the Premier of KZN and the national Minister of Police.” The “Ukweshwama” custom has not done anything so far in strengthening “nation building, social cohesion or peace”. This ritual is extremely cruel as it involves a group of warriors’ first torment and then “kill a bull with their bare hands.” The bull has to suffer immensely. An eyewitness describes the event in these words , "For 40 minutes, dozens trampled the bellowing, groaning bull, wrenched its head around by the horns to try to break its neck, pulled its tongue out, stuffed sand in its mouth and even tried to tie its penis in a knot. Gleaming with sweat, they raised their arms in triumph and sang when the bull finally succumbed.” Comparatively, the ARA is working for “inclusive justice, peace, promoting positive values and ending violence”. “We defend innocent victims and speak on their behalf. It is unfathomable that given our experience of oppression and exploitation in South Africa that those who had previously been innocent sufferers would inflict such terrible pain on an even more innocent victim”, Pickover commented. The association is also apprehensive that the custom of bull killing will also deaden members and spectators. “Violence begets violence and violence to animals and violence to fellow human beings is interlinked.” According to evidence seen in scientific world there seems to be a certain link between both types of violence’s. The action taken by ARA is not nearly regarding the narrowness of culture or chauvinism shown in respect of racism, as has been stated by followers of the “Ukweshwama practice”. The ritual or festival does not have a place in the democratic “South Africa” and cannot be overlooked. We have the “support of animal welfare groups” and establishments all over Africa and at Pan-African discussion on animal welfare, held in Nairobi, Kenya, on 21- 24 September 2009, deputies signed up a request asking the parliament of South Africa to put an immediate stop to this ritual. Mr. Josphat Ngonyo, who is also the director of the Africa Network for Animal Welfare said, “The cruelty meted out to these animals is barbaric, inhumane and retrogressive. It is conducted in the name of ‘culture’ but culture of this nature needs to be abandoned as swiftly as the culture of female circumcision…..This is not the face of Africa that will see us contributing to global discourse as competent and dignified participants.” One of the experts in the religious practices of the African people, Ndela Ntshangase, suggests that this ritual was performed in order to show that there was a strong army for the defense of the Zulu nation and the king. However we all know that the country is not at war, and there is no “Zulu army”. They have only 1 nationwide armed force. That means that everyone - Zulus and non-Zulus- citizens of South Africa, are safe guarded by the “SANDF and the SAPS”. The interesting thing is that the Zulu king himself is protected by “VIP Bodyguards provided by the national government”, through the “tax-payers money, and they have other, more legitimate ways, overseen by legislation, regulation and policy of ensuring that they are competent and effective.” These people are not an identical group and most of the people won’t approve of this kind of pain; whoever performs the “Ukweshwama ritual” doesn’t signify all Zulus. The identity and culture of the Zulu’s is not exclusively demarcated by the customary and by not working, refusing or dissociating yourself from it make Zulu a Zulu. Nothing stops the preparation in order to embrace change. “Traditions and cultural practices by their very nature are fluid, dynamic and ever evolving.” Significantly, tradition should not be used as the justification for being cruel. So far numerous cultures have put an end to or are trying to end “traditional practices”, being the reason for the suffering of animals or humans like “slavery, human-trafficking, cannibalism, infanticide, female circumcision, foot-binding, bullfighting and fox hunting.” Commented upon by Fred Khumalo, “culture is about taking the beautiful, spiritually fulfilling, inspiring manifestation of life, as lived by our ancestors, and striving to improve these instead of reliving the hurtful, nonsensical aspects of life in the past”. Indian animal rights activist, Maneka Gandhi who is also the campaigner of the South Africa, said that currently they were trying “to have a Zulu ritual banned that involves a group of youths killing a bull with their bare hands.” "We will ask for an urgent interdiction of this practice at the Durban High Court," said Steve Smith another spokesman for Animal Rights Africa. After what Gandhi had written to the President, one of the Zulu, last month to ask him to get the rituals stopped, the groups had no option but to go to the courts. "While I respect culture, this bull-killing ritual causes extreme suffering to an innocent creature and has no place in the modern world," the letter that Gandhi had written on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said. The universality of human right is that, that it is their rite, it’s their freedom of movement; they can kill the animal which ever way they like, whether they kill them with a knife by slitting its throat from ear to ear, or they use an electrical saw to cut the animal in half, whether or not they beat it to death, try to rip its penis off, or feed his mouth full of sand so that the bull can choke on it, nobody’s perfect, what they do is cruel, no one is arguing against it, but you cant tell an entire group of people what to do and what not to do. And if someone who is idiot enough to tell them what they cannot kill the animal that way, their simple answer will be to tell them why not ask the Muslims to slaughter the animals on their festive occasions, or Jews to not keep the Kosher, or Thousands of Butcher shops around the world, to stop slaughtering, pork, cows, sheep, goats, chicken, or the will tell you to ask to Koreans to stop slaughtering dogs as they are considered man’s best friend. Human right is less than important in this issue cause people have to eat food, today people are saying that they shouldn’t beat the bull to death, then its going to be the barber shops, then they are going to ask not cut crops cause they are alive creatures, they can breath, they eat, they feel pain, they starve, they die, then, what are human beings are going to live on. What can’t live on water, Human Digestive System is capable of digesting both animals and plants, God gave us teeth in a way through which we can chew both meat and plants, and as to what PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) as we should stop harming animals, and stop eating meat and we should all be vegetarians, what kind of a pathetic logic is that, If we look at scientifically, when we breath, we inhale thousands if not millions of microorganisms every seconds, and all of those micro organisms die as we breath them in, can’t that be considered unethical, killing microorganism, I mean after all they are also alive creatures, and we should do everything we can to stop killing those microorganism, so the logic says that we should stop breathing, of course not, a three year old boy knows that we cant live without air. There are millions of germs in waters that are in water that we drink everyday, so in order to be safe we boil it and those germs die, now science never lies, these germs are living species, so in order to keep them alive, we should risk our own health for saving those creatures that we cannot even see, that one of the most stupidest thing anyone can even think, hundreds of birds collides with vehicles every year, and those birds includes crow and pigeons which according to scientific studies will be extinct before 2050, so the logic says that we should stop driving cars, I mean, for the sake of everything that is Holy, does that makes any sense at all, I mean who cares if some birds die, we cant go back to stone ages and just walk if have to go somewhere, for the sake of an example, whale hunting is one of the most cruel things human beings do, any they can also be extinct very soon, now whales have oil that is used in medicine to treat sometimes potentially fatal diseases, so we should also stop doing that, the answer is simple and clear, a big no. But I do agree that they way these thing are done can be considered cruel, I become shocked when I first heard of this practice, but as some great philosopher said, “Tradition is Tradition”, but heir are ways through which we can kill the animals in which they can experience minimum level of pain for example, they can be tranquillized through a tranquilizer, or could be medicated so that they cant experience minimum pain, use of sharp knives so that the bull can be cut easily, their bones shall not be broken cause that’s what cause the pain, if just their throats are slit, the pain is not that much as the animal get numbed and the only pain is the loss of blood from the contraction of muscles, which as compared to the broken bones cause a lot less pain to the animal. References African Conservation Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved 19 February 2010, from http://www.africanconservation.org/dcforum/DCForumID12/114.html The Zulu Nation. (n.d.). The Zulus. Retrieved 19 February 2010, from http://www.zuluroyals.com/zuluculture.htm Read More