By Omoseye Bolaji
It was a magnanimous gesture on the part of Ntate Thabo, the nigh-veteran South African police officer. Although exactly 50 years of age now, he has been in service for decades.
Now, he painstakingly tracked me down to buy me special lunch!I had been rather busy and could not meet him for a couple of days. He kept on phoning me. “My friend, stop avoiding me,” he said. “I have some extra money now, and I want to make you happy....” Anyway I did meet him, and we went for some drinks – and a magnificent lunch, at his expense.
We talked. A very hearty straightforward, genial man, this man is a mine of so many intriguing stories. He has had a somewhat checkered career while serving his country, but at least he is very much a fulfilled man in his own right. This became evident as he told me about his son. Thabo grinned. He does have a wonderful smile!
“Ah, my son – in his early 20’s – will soon become a man. You know, he will be spending weeks at the arcane initiation centre, up in the mountains; where he’ll be circumcised during this winter. I’ll be driving my boy there,” he said.
I winced. Initiation ceremonies have become somewhat controversial in South Africa these days, with horrifying tales of kids being abducted, suffering harrowingly, bleeding to death during these initiation ceremonies. And here was a proud father, who will soon drive his own son there very much willingly.
Officer Thabo was still smiling. “Thank God, my boy will soon become a veritable man. I’ll be supporting him all the way whilst he’s there (in the mountains); taking food and other material support to him; blankets....”
I managed to say: “you mean, you are not worried...about your son. I have read so many negative things about these initiations...the practice is not anachronistic?"
Whether he understood what I meant by “anachronistic" I am not sure; but he continued smiling effulgently. He said: “My son knows that without going through the initiation rites he would not be regarded as a true man in many circles as he grows up. That is why you see some very old men in my culture (the South African Xhosa people) going to the initiation schools in the end...."
My mind went briefly to Camara Laye’s masterpiece, ‘The African Child’, which brilliantly re-creates the poignant ambience, fear, dread, pains, and travails of such initiations in his own old society (Guinea). I suppose there is a lot to be said for Africans still having pride in certain ancestral customs.
“What are you thinking? Still worried about the initiation? I’m the boy’s father, and I’m not worried. Why should you?" my cop friend said, still good naturedly.I said: “You know, I’ve always felt that maybe some sort of printed certificate should be given out at these initiation schools, maybe as a token to modernity. I mean; all those weeks of deprivation, great discipline, learning, learning, the old ways...."
Thabo laughed. “There is no need for any certificate. There are special songs they learn at the initiation, which nobody else can know. The uninitiated cannot pretend to have gone to the school....Stop worrying about nothing. Let me get you another drink, my friend," he added, still with sparkling good humour.
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This piece, in its original form, sparked some interest and comments. I was particularly interested in the comments of my good friend, Soqaga "Dada", a very proud Xhosa man who commented thus:
"You must also know that we the Xhosas we are
unshaken and unafraid to practice our ancient culture of initiation.
It is the old culture and since this western and so called advanced super
power states have problem about it and certainly we cannot compromise
our noble,lovely and beautiful heritage of our forefathers. This is
the best school for the boys to learn to behave in a manner that is
moral and disciplined in our society..."
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