Happy Indigenous New Year as September is the first month of the indigenous year, celebrated through Inzalo yeLanga on September 23, 2025, in Mpumalanga, the place of the rising sun. This precolonial context continues to requisition indigenous knowledge research within Africa, while the contemporary era has labelled this season as Happy Spring.
However, the Kingdom of Eswatini, Africa’s living library, has preserved this Indigenous New Year through Umhlanga – the Reed Dance. This exemplifies the indigenous context of the first rainmaking process in preparation for ploughing and planting, which requires rain.
Umhlanga the Reed Dance and Indigenous Dignity
Umhlanga unlocks indigenous dignity ecosystems through maidens who represent families, chiefdoms and communities that require these first rains of the New Year. Revered for their purity and abstinence, maidens are believed to be heard by Somandla, the Supreme Being, when they plead for rain.
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Thus, Umhlanga is a critical component of the indigenous dignity ecosystem. It teaches self-preservation and chastity without physical circumcision, anchoring mental initiation and transparency reflected in dress code, rather than virginity testing.
Reed Dance as Rainmaking
This indigenous dignity is rooted in the belief that the Reed Dance evokes Mother Earth as a living organism, who births life through rain. As Knappert (1990) wrote:
“The earth lives and gives birth to ever new generation of beings. She will make the grass grow when heavens give her rain…”
Led by Princess Sakhizwe and commissioned by His Majesty King Mswati III, maidens honour Mother Earth at the wetland, pleading for rain and food sovereignty.
Umhlanga is the most democratic rainmaking process, as rain blesses the entire kingdom regardless of which maidens participated. As Cajete (2000) notes:
“Plants present the life energy of the universe… evident in how after the Umhlanga rainmaking process the Kingdom of Eswatini is covered by green landscape.”
Reed Dance as Rain Dance
When maidens deliver the reeds to the monarchy, the rain dance begins. Their songs resemble indigenous rain birds, invoking the green philosophy of life, where humans, animals and nature are intertwined.
Maidens’ traditional attire symbolises dignity and transparency, balancing positive and negative energies within society. The nation ululates and participates, affirming harmony between masculine and feminine energies.
Conclusion
Umhlanga marks the Indigenous New Year and remains a pillar of Eswatini’s indigenous dignity ecosystem. Despite being misrepresented by outside perspectives, it embodies rainmaking, food sovereignty, and the preservation of cultural values.
This knowledge-sharing has attracted global platforms such as the University of the State of African Diaspora, where lectures on Indigenous Knowledge Theory and Applied Ubuntu will highlight Umhlanga’s role in sustaining cultural and spiritual life.
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