Every June and December, Xhosa boys over a certain age leave their homes for initiation school – a rite of passage to manhood in Xhosa culture. The schools are meant to teach self-control, discipline, humility, accountability, and respect. But an insidious trend is threatening this practice – alcohol companies are using initiations to market drinks with a high alcohol content.
Hard liquor does not strengthen our ceremonies. It weakens them, disrupts them, and can endanger lives. When elders teach initiates how to manage their anger, settle disputes, show deference, and think things through before acting, these teachings demand mental clarity, which is undermined by alcohol.
One could make the argument forumqombothi’splace in these ceremonies, as it’s a traditional beer with a much lower alcohol content. To portray hard liquor as something woven into our cultural fabric deliberately distorts our heritage. Culture evolves, yes.
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But when alcohol brands position themselves as a component of our identity, it’s manipulation. Initiation season is already a bit of a powder keg. Consider the ingredients: men charged with pride, bravado, and the testing of boundaries.
It is customary (if not mandatory) for Xhosa men attendingumgidito carry a knife for symbolic and practical purposes like slaughtering livestock, cutting meat, or cutting ropes. Add hard liquor, and you have a recipe for trouble. The mixture of intoxication, sharp weapons, and the pressure to “prove” oneself are ingredients for dangerous situations.
Alcohol companies have long sold the idea that “real men” drink. Even outside initiation season, advertising normalises drinking as a badge of adulthood, success, or belonging. This sows the dangerous idea that manhood is determined by one’s alcohol consumption rather than one’s behaviour.
When initiates return from the mountains, they are vulnerable, still forming their identities, and learning about their social roles. Does the normalisation of drinking hard liquor help in this social formation process?
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