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Fondly remembered: Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu was the King of
the Zulu nation from 1968 to his death in 2021. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy

A right royal salute: The life and legacy of King Goodwill Zwelithini

Monarch’s nearly five-decade reign bridged apartheid, democracy and modern South Africa, leaving a lasting mark on Zulu cultural identity and traditional leadership

Protesters gathered in Durban to challenge Google’s restrictions on cultural content and to force it to rethink its guidelines on nudity
Video

‘Hey Google, our breasts aren’t sexual’

The multinational’s restrictions on videos of Reed Dancers sexualise cultural practices, say critics

Rights will be eroded by new chiefly laws

The disturbing trends run counter to the country’s constitutional and legislative advances.

A group of young girls take part in the annual Reed Dance at King Zwelithini’s palace at eNyokeni

Buthelezi: Reed dance reduces Aids figures

The reintroduction of the annual reed dance has decreased the spread of Aids in the country, the IFP’s Mangosuthu Buthelezi has said.

President Jacob Zuma recently married his sixth wife in a traditional ceremony in Nkandla.

Mpho Moshe Matheolane: Living with culture, letting it go

Debates around cultural practices like lobola will always become a spectacle if they don’t address its relevance to the people who practise it.

A Swazi maiden poses in a makeshift studio before last year’s reed dance.

Unions want boycott of Swaziland’s cultural highlight

Swazi unions are calling on the government to pay out a 4.5% salary increase and end the teachers’ strike or risk a boycott of the reed dance.

Reed dance under scrutiny

A piece at this year’s Dance Umbrella interrogates the annual reed dance, in which young virgins are presented before King Goodwill Zwelithini.

Reed Dance keeps traditions alive

Reed Dance keeps traditions alive

Fikile Khubone was one of the 26 000 Zulu maidens who turned out for uMkhosi WoMhlanga — the Reed Dance — on September 11.

Teen gang-raped at reed-dance ceremony

A girl participating in the reed-dance ceremony at King Goodwill Zwelithini’s palace on the weekend was gang-raped, it was reported on Tuesday.

Women’s league says reed dancers must cover up

The women participating in the reed dance in KwaZulu-Natal must not expose themselves in public, the African National Congress Women’s League said.

Swazi maidens prepare for reed dance

Swaziland’s King Mswati III on Thursday sent more than 50 000 young women into the fields to cut reeds for an annual ritual next week.