Virginity is highly valued and respected by many African community.
You have probably heard of many certificates issued,but you have probably not come across this one.
Zulu girls are awarded a virginty certificate during a ceremony that is perfomed every year.
In South Africa, it is practiced, among others, by the Zulu ethnic group who live mainly in the province of KwaZulu Natal. After falling into relative disuse in the Zulu community, the practice of virginity testing made a comeback some 10 years ago at around the time of the country’s first democratic election and coinciding with the period when the HIV pandemic began to take hold.
Every year thousand of young girls around South Africa are tested to find out if they are virgins.
Although this practise is done some respect it while others find it degrading.
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The practice is a popular tradition in South Africa, especially among the Zulu ethnic group.Girls who participate in the ceremony will get the certificate if they are verified by a qualified virginity tester.
The process is done in a secluded using bare hands.The girl is lies on her back and the tester confirms with both her hands to see if her hymen is intact.
Although this might seem to be good it is not an exact science. Examining the physical attributes or the vagina of a young woman is not a reliable way to determine virginity for a number of reasons.
Virginity testing in South Africa is common in Zulu culture. It is an old religious practice that, according to sangoma and founder of the Nomkhubulwane Culture and Youth Development Organisation in Pietermaritzburg Nomagugu Ngobese, was revived in the early 1990s.
Ngobese, who conducts virginity inspections in communities around KwaZulu-Natal, said that the ritual is meant to preserve the “purity” of young Zulu girls and women.
When asked how they conduct virginity inspection, Ngobese told Scooper that the knowledge is “sacred to us. We do not want to unlock things that are so sacred to us”. She only divulged that “we do it practically with gloves and icansi (grass mat)”. After the testing, the girls that are “pure” are given certificates to prove their status as virgins, Ngobese said.
Inspections are conducted by women in their communities who specialise in virginity inspection, Ngobese added, and the form of inspection they practise is based on indigenous knowledge within the Zulu tradition.
“Old women always teach the young ones how to inspect,” she said.
Firstly, traditional testing relies on certain physical attributes such as “looking innocent” and muscle tone to prove virginity, which are very subjective forms of observation.
In the second place, the hymen is not a reliable indicator of virginity because it differs in each woman, is not present in every woman, can remain intact after penetrative s*x and can be eroded over time due to physical activities or the insertion of tampons.
