Around the world, people mark transitions, from birth to death, through celebrations and ceremonies. In South Africa, many ceremonies are aimed at securing the spiritual well-being of the individual and of the community. Until the 18th century, all chiefdoms in southern Africa observed initiation practices to prepare young men and women for their roles in adult society. In present day KawZulu-Natal, these rites were abandoned in favour of age-grade regiments in the early 19th century, before the time of King Shaka. A number of celebrations associated with the coming of age of young women survive to this day, while the "Reed Ceremony", associated with puberty rights among the Swazi, was adopted by their Zulu-speaking neighbours as late as the mid-1980s. Among other southern African groups there was a revivial of interest in male and female initiation rights in the course of the 1990s, and young people from urban areas often participate in ceremonies organized by rural chiefs and ritual specialists.
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Peter Magubane is an internationally acclaimed photographer who has published over a dozen books on the people and events of South Africa. His work appears in magazines and other printed media all over the world, and he has won numerous awards and wide-spread recognition. He lives in Melville, Johannesburg. The text is by Professor Sandra Klopper. She lives in Gardens, Cape town.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
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This review is from: Ceremonies (African Heritage) (Multilingual Edition) (Paperback)
This review applies equally to three of Peter Magubane's very similar books, "Vanishing Cultures of South Africa," published in 1998, "African Renaissance" published two years later in 2002 and "Ceremonies," published in 2003. These books are almost unconscionably similar, with many photos in the second book either outright recycled from the first book or pictures taken in the same photo-shoots as the ones in the first book--sometimes of the very same people, in photos apparently shot moments apart. The first book is organized by tribe, while the latter is organized by categories such as dress, rites, arts, homesteads, etc. Nevertheless the books are largely the same, covering the same material, same people, with the same or similar pictures. One can get the impression somebody just wanted to make a fast buck. In fact, a third book by Magubane, published a year later and titled "Ceremonies" seems to be almost entirely reprints from both of the prior books--with no warning to the prospective purchaser! As for Ceremonies, I sooner see this colorful little book of under a hundred pages in an elementary school room than in the library of a serious student of African history and ritual. The one-page introduction and the short paragraphs among the pictures are rather superficial, inadequate for the inquiring mind. Why not buy one of the other 2 books instead of this smaller, condensed version? There exist still more books by this guy, but these are the only three I bought, so I don't know exactly how thin he spreads his work. As for these three, I should have bought only one of them (if any), and will return at least "Ceremonies." As for their content, you have to be aware that these pictures, taken in well-developed South Africa, depict tribal lifestyles and rituals that hark back to the past--remaining only in a modern context of revival and preservation of the old traditional ways. People dress up for them, in other words. You'll see costumes that look neat and clean and store-bought, and some evidence of modernity in the background (buildings, shirts and ties). You'd buy one of these books to see how the modern culture chooses to embrace some form of ritual (cultural heritage) from the past in the hope of informing today's culture in positive ways. If you want to see and learn about African tribal cultures that still exists today as they have for hundreds of years (the "dressing up" is still every-day attire), then you must look elsewhere (such as, for example, the amazing books on Ethiopia's Omo Valley, by Silvester, Giansanti, Beckwith & Fisher, etc.). Three stars might be too many for these works that are a repeated rehashing of previous works, almost identical, apparrently just to make another buck off unsuspecting customers. Shame.
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