Imbeleko

When Religion Meets Culture



Ever sat and wonderd what happens when a child of any race, culture, let alone religion is born? Well wonder no more when it comes to the Zulu culture and Shembe religion because I will be giving you the insights, the in between, the stages of which a Zulu girl goes through from being a baby to womanhood.
When the baby girl is born there are certain procedure, steps of which the two families need to follow. If the mother and father of the child are not married they do things abit different from a child that is born in wedlock. If they are not married, the father of the baby has to pay inhlawulo (damages) for him to have titles when it comes to the baby. If they are married, then the the stages are much easier hence the families move straight to what we call Imbeleko.
Our topic for today. Imbheleko is done in most cultures even though some families don't give it the same term as Zulu people. Imbeleko is a ceremony that is conducted on the 10th day after the baby is born, or later. This is an act of detaching the umbilical connection from the mother and introducing the child to the ancestors. Directly translated, imbeleko means the act of giving birth or to carry on your back.
A goat is slaughtered as a sign of sacrifice to the ancestors. The mother has to eat a piece of meat cut from the foreleg of the goat. The elders of the family normally speak and ask the ancestors to accept, guide and protect the child. As mentioned above this is a common practice in cultures like the Zulu, Xhosa, Ashanti and many more. Shembe or not, when the ritual of Zulu girl is done, it is done in this way, culture and sense.
This is one way of having your child introduced to her forefathers and having her become  part of the family - a community that wishes her well.
#ReligionMeetsCulture #ZuluGirl #RootingCulture #Imbeleko

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