EXPLICATION OF THE RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 5.1.INTRODUCTION
5.7. PROFILES OF RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS IN THE CASE STUDIES
168 freely with one another, and have a sense of belonging to each other and their communities. The cases reported below are from participants in the interviews.
169 Zulu girl in the rural area. She performed domestic chores as would have been expected of her. They were only two girls at her home. She is illiterate (according to the Western norms), does not know her date of birth, but has an Identity Document with a date of birth calculated through estimation of time. I estimated her age as +/- 45 years old (from her life history). She was blessed with nine children, of whom are all disabled except one girl of 18 years of age, who is the eldest at home and attended a local secondary school up to matriculation (which she wrote in 2007 and failed). Dleni is cheating in her marriage with another man in the local community. She said cheating is a means to “sustain her marriage”, and further explained that she does not love her husband but has no choice but to stay in her marriage for the sake of her children growing up in a “stable family”.
Dleni said she had never loved her husband at all but claims she was made to love him through the use of umuthi wentando (love spells) during the process of ukuthwala. She claims “umuthi usuphelelwe isikhathi” (herbal medicine has expired). She has a child (a boy) from her lover, but claims her husband thinks the child is his.
Vilakazi (1962) says “akukuhle ukuba undabamlonyeni” (it is not nice to be loved by everyone as a woman). Dleni says she grew up in a background of ukuthakathwakanye nokuphonswa (she was bewitched time and again) by her different suitors. She says there was intense competition among her suitors as they were so many, which consequently impacted negatively on her life. Dleni was bewitched by the man who thwala’d her in order for her to marry him. She says she grew up sickly because of this.
RESEARCH PARTICIPANT 3: Mrs Zoleka Zondi
Zoleka Zondi was a 19-year-old female when I first met her in 2008. She looked and dressed like a young girl when I met her for interviews during fieldwork. I say this because she was wearing a short (above her knees) navy blue skirt with a white sleeveless top, contrary to the dress code for married women at Zwelibomvu.
Zwelibomvu is predominantly a traditional setting and the residents of the area still wear traditional attire according to the stages in their lives. A married woman uyahlonipha
170 (pays respect) through her dress code. Magwaza (2001) and Msimang (1991) maintain that one of the functions of dress is to serve as a symbol of the rite of passage. She entered marriage when she was thwalwa’d and she has three children. I met her in her sixth year of marriage. The incident that threw her into marriage and adult life occurred on 28 June 2002 when she was about 12 years old. She grew up in rural areas of Zwelibomvu and has been a farm girl all her life. She grew up subjected to the rules and regulations of amaqhikiza. Zoleka later escaped from her marriage.
RESEARCH PARTICIPANT 4: Mr Ndoda Ngcongo
Mr Ndoda Ngcongo is a husband living with his spouses at Zwelibomvu community, and is a native of the community. He was 58 years old at the time when I collected data. He has no formal education, and is a member of Shembe Nazareth Congregational Church.
His parents were farmers and he too had been a farmer from childhood. He used to combine farming with a full-time job as a security guard at Zwelinjani High School. He is currently unemployed. He has two wives who live in different districts. He married his first wife through the normal marriage negotiation process. After a long process of courtship, he was first accepted as a lover, and then followed the process of ukumisa iduku, then ukucela. He then sent ilobolo to the parents of his bride-to-be, then waganwa (was betrothed) and finally wagcagcelwa (traditional wedding) was performed to finalise their marriage. A few years thereafter he thwala’d his second wife, who is 20 years younger than him. He claims he was and will always be an isoka (a man who is popular with women). He has 12 children, 9 by the first wife and 3 by the second. Educating his children is his first priority, but he is faced with financial difficulties. He says he also grew up in a polygamous family, and thus has no problem handling two wives. Mr Ngcongo gave invaluable insight into the practice of ukuthwala by giving an account of his experiences with ukuthwala from his childhood. He also gave differences between the custom of ukuthwala and the abuse of ukuthwala.
171 RESEARCH PARTICIPANT 5: Mr Lucky Mazibuko
Mr Lucky Mazibuko is a man who had been involved in ukuthwala practice from Bergville community. He was 48 years old at the time of collecting data. He is a staunch traditionalist and a local Inyanga (herbalist). He has no formal education. His parents were farmers and he too had been a farmer from childhood. He combines farming with a full-time job as Inyanga. His topmost desire in life is to build a huge house in Bergville (Emangwaneni); he has land, but is not yet able to commence building due to financial constraints. He is the last born of his mother, who was the third of his father’s four wives.
His father had 15 children. His uncle, a famous former Inyanga in Bergville, brought him up. Mr Mazibuko married his only wife at the age of 31 years and is blessed with four children. He highlighted that only those men with difficulty in getting girlfriends thwala young women. He gave valuable insight into powerless men who thwala females. He does not associate himself with this group, as he did not get married this way. However, it is interesting to note that Mr Mazibuko was involved in assisting his brothers to thwala a number of women.