South Africans have been referred to as the Rainbow Nation, a title which epitomizes the country’s cultural diversity. Almost 70% of the population is Black. The remaining 30% is White (11%), Coloured (6%, this simply means of mixed race), and Indian (3%). The cultural diversity does not end there by any means. For example, within the Black population there are 4 major ethnic groups and countless sub-groups. Within the White population there are 2, Afrikaans and British. With 7 official languages, it’s a miracle South Africans communicate with each other at all!
Today, we focus on one of the largest ethnic groups within South Africa, the Xhosa. Approximately 18% of the South African population speaks Xhosa and it is the second most common language in South Africa. The language is marked by a number of tongue clicking sounds.
Once powerful settlers in southeastern South Africa, the Xhosa tribe had success through most of the mid 1600s and 1700s expanding the territory in which they lived. Their expansion was halted in the 1770s when the Xhosa and Boer tribe were in a pastoral land dispute. This was known as the first Cape Frontier War.
In the early 1800s and into the 1900s, the Cape Frontier Wars, which lasted nearly 100 years, were between the British settlers of the Cape and the local Xhosa people. As British policy forced itself upon the Xhosa people, the Xhosa culture began to slowly take on more modern characteristics.
Christian missionaries began settling into southeastern South Africa, pushing Christianity and English education upon the Xhosa. At first, the Xhosa refused to take part in any British influence, but as the Xhosa began to lose more of their political rights and as disease swept the area, the Xhosa were forced to obey British policy.
Slowly, the Xhosa people began to take on Christian faiths, British attire, and received westernized education from the missionaries. But as the Xhosa began to slip deeper into British control and lose much of their pastoral lands, they also slipped deeper into poverty. Eventually the Xhosa people were forced into migrant labor jobs in order to provide for their family.
When apartheid rule was upon South Africa, the Xhosa were forced into a designated land. But, the introduction of democracy in 1994 brought a delightful change to the Xhosa people by eliminating these designated lands. Unfortunately, the abolishment of apartheid did not yield great wealth to the Xhosa. Today, they are still poverty stricken, and working in nearby cities.
Even though the influence of British rule has forced the Xhosa tribe to accept a lifestyle that is considered more modernized, the Xhosa people have been able to keep a firm grasp on most of their ancient traditions.
The Xhosa People Today
With a population of around 7 million individuals, the Xhosa is one of South Africa’s largest tribe. Today, many of the Xhosa people can be found throughout both rural and urban areas of the Eastern Cape and much of the Republic of South Africa and are still working migrant labor jobs.
Thanks to British policy, the Xhosa people—who once solely worshiped their ancestors—now incorporate Christianity faiths into their ancestor worshiping, use mostly non-natural resources to build their homes, and wear non-traditional attire.
Some things that haven’t changed much for the Xhosa people include their exceptional beadwork, dance rituals, and the Xhosa language, a dialect derived from their ancestors, the Nguni people. The Xhosa also uphold one of their most sacred traditions, the rite of passage into manhood. Although controversial, the Xhosa have been performing male circumcision since their beginnings, and uphold almost every traditional element that their ancestors employed, making this procedure extremely risky.
When boys pass through the rite of passage into manhood, it takes a circumcision ritual. The purpose of this ritual is to instill pain on the boys as a passage into manhood. During this ritual, boys are painted with white paint, then circumcised, and isolated from the rest of the tribe for weeks in small huts as they heal. During this rigorous initiation period, the boys cannot drink water or eat water-based foods until they are healed.
Because the Xhosa do not use modern medicine in this ritual, it is considered a highly dangerous surgery—not to mention, the surgeons are not trained doctors. The hygiene is extremely poor and many infections do arise. Sometimes, the boys even die from infection. If a boy does in fact get an infection, they must decide whether or not they wish to seek medical help. If they do receive medical aid, they will never be able to become accepted into the Xhosa tribe as a man. But the risk is necessary to become a man.
Will modernization eventually rid the Xhosa of nearly all traditional customs or will they have the power to continue to uphold their ancient rituals such as the rite of passage into manhood?
