placing a knife between the legs (Pedi). The southern Sotho
designate both feminine initiation and masculine circumci-
sion with the same word (lebello). The Pedi, a northern Sotho
people, make boys go through two successive rites (Bodika
and Bogwera), but girls undergo a single collective rite
(Byale). The Lovedu have adopted the latter; they call it
Vyali and correlate it with the second masculine initiation.
Those peoples with Karanga origins initially held only indi-
vidual rites (the Venda Khoba or Lovedu Khomba) at the
first menstruation.
Among the Sotho circumcision enables young men to
become warriors. Each new class of circumcised youths forms
a regiment in their chief’s service. Although chiefs lack the
attributes of sacred kings, the symbolisms of Sotho initiation
and of the Swazi kingdom are strikingly close. Major Pedi
chiefs keep a tribal fire that neither women nor uncircum-
cised boys may approach. From it initiates take a brand to
light the fire that will burn continuously in the center of their
circular bush camp during the dry season. After being cir-
cumcised, they gather each morning around this fire, the “lit-
tle lion,” and stage a feigned attack. They “pierce the laws.”
The solar symbolism of the lion fire is indicated by its bed
lying along an east-west axis. The sun symbolizes the adult
Pedi man. The “spotted white hyena” represents the lunar
feminine principle but also refers to a small conical tower for-
bidden to those undergoing initiation. Built at the camp’s
eastern entry with carefully polished stones grouted with cin-
ders, it stands alongside a smaller structure, its child. At the
end of initiation, the newly circumcised follow the “hyena’s
tracks,” a trail of cinders inside the camp, from the western
entry northward to the eastern one. This path depicts the
moon’s apparent movement eastward, opposite to the sun’s.
The discovery of the hyena monument by initiates brings to-
gether pairs of opposites: sun and moon, male and female.
When the masculine ceremony ends, girls who have just had
their first period begin collective initiation. They experience
a pretend circumcision and are secluded for a month under
the authority of the chief’s principal wife.
The Matlala have made interesting changes in this cere-
mony. The fire bed, called “lion,” also lies along an east-west
axis. Initiates are awakened at dawn while the morning star
is shining. Since looking at the sun is forbidden during the
first phase of initiation, the boys turn their faces westward.
During the second phase, they look eastward and expose the
right half of their bodies to the fire’s heat. During this “night
of change,” a stake is erected and its top decorated with os-
trich feathers. Greeted as grandmother, this stake replicates
the Pedi’s lunar monument. Throughout their retreat, initi-
ates pretend to attack the moon. The Matlala use obviously
phallic metaphors to liken the waning moon to a female ele-
phant that has to be “stabbed” and “made to fall.” Pedi initi-
ation songs also mention a mysterious elephant, an image
that instructors take explicitly to mean the dangerous men-
struating woman.
Just as the lion is in opposition to the elephant, so a solar
fire along an east-west axis is in opposition to the moon. This
Sotho symbolism can be compared to that surrounding the
Swazi lion king, associated with the sun and fire, who rules
along with an elephant queen mother, associated with the
moon. During the Ncwala ceremony, the weakened king
runs after the summer solstitial sun. He finally has sexual in-
tercourse with the queen of the right hand, a notorious ac-
tion comparable to the solar quest for virility by newly cir-
cumcised Sotho youth. During their retreat, Pedi initiates are
as weak as the Swazi king during the Ncwala. They try in
vain “to run past the sun.” The king’s successor is chosen
from among his very young sons. This child king is the only
Swazi male who, at adolescence, goes through a circumci-
sion-like ceremony. Otherwise, the Nguni do not hold cir-
cumcision or related initiation ceremonies, although they
might have in the past. The Swazi seemingly concentrate the
symbolism of Sotho initiation within their royal institution.
The Swazi king may never drink water, just as those under-
going Sotho initiation may not. At the end of initiation, the
newly circumcised jump into water while their camp is set
ablaze; the Ncwala ends as the Swazi king washes while a pu-
rifying bonfire is lit. Like this king, the Pedi who have com-
pleted initiation become lions and brave warriors. Just as
Pedi initiation leads to the formation of new military regi-
ments, so the Swazi military age grades actively participate
in the Ncwala, under the sign of the moon. Throughout the
Sotho region, circumcision camps fall under the chiefs’ direct
control. The Swazi Ncwala and Sotho puberty rites are varia-
tions of the same symbolic and sociological themes.Similarities lie even closer. Recall how the lion fire in
the Pedi initiatory camp is lit. The chief’s principal wife has
a function like that of the Swazi queen mother—to keep rain
medicine. To be wedded, she appears at sunset as all fires are
put out. The fire ignited in her dwelling is used to renew the
tribal fire. The fire in the chief’s keeping (which he gives to
those undergoing initiation) and the rain medicine kept by
his principal wife (who gives birth to his successor) are both
complementary and opposite. The newly circumcised
youth’s solar/lunar quest for a woman is also a search for rain.
Strictly kept apart from the opposite sex, initiates gather
around the solar lion fire during the dry season. Ritual chants
invite them to follow the elephant’s (woman’s) tracks “when
it rains,” for then this animal has “no more force” and can
be killed easily. Such phrases mean that a man may approach
a woman only after her menstrual period. The cycle of fertili-
ty is linked to the change of seasons; menstruation suspends
sexual relations and, like the dry season, falls under the sign
of fire.The Tsonga and Venda use this cosmological code.
They borrowed and also adapted the institution of circumci-
sion camps from their Sotho neighbors. A feminine elephant
fire replaces the masculine lion fire in initiation camps. How
should this inversion be understood? For many southeastern
Bantu-speaking peoples, particularly the Swazi and Sotho,
the masculine sun is complementary to the feminine moon
(associated with rain and lush vegetation). But in general fire8666 SOUTHERN AFRICAN RELIGIONS: SOUTHERN BANTU RELIGIONS