Inspiration Corner

Carole Spiers is one of the UK's Leading Empowerment Gurus. An International Female Keynote Speaker, Conference Chairs and Business Mentors who helps you to achieve step by step success with inspiration and motivation. www.carolespiers.com

South Africa
December 2005

We drive along the road to a clearing where we can see a small hut. This is an initiation ceremony hut. This is where African boys are brought for circumcision, prior to them becoming a man.

Women are not usually allowed to visit these dwellings but with Clive our guide at our side, we were invited.

We are introduced to three young men all daubed in white paint. They have been initiated and are now waiting for the full 30 days before they go back to their homes for a celebration.

The General, Headmann (his nickname) comes over to me. He is wearing a hat stating his position and he holds a stick which he puts towards me as an act of friendship. His whole body is daubed with white paint and his only wearing a camisole and a loincloth. He stands erect with pride of his position.

He has been in the camp for 25 days and at the weekend, he will return back to him homestead. Headmann speaks perfect English and so we communicate easily. He has been the longest on the site and so because of this, he takes the title of General.

He is a young man of 17 years old with his birthday on 30th January. He will return for one more years study before going out into the world. He says with sadness that he does not know what he will do when he leaves his studies. He does not know if he will get a job.

His friends and family are able to come and visit him while he stays on the site but usually no-one else.

He tells me that when he leaves the site, he will burn his tent as his past is now left behind and his future lies before him. And as we look around, we see the ashes of many tents and people’s pasts that are left behind them.

He will go home wearing only a loincloth and he will have new clothes given to him for his future life.

There is much emphasis on burning the past and taking on the future.

When Headmann leaves the site, the symbolic hat will be passed onto another and another in time.

And so we leave Headmann and his many friends that surround him. The picture is one of everyone listening to our conversation. Many had not seem him communicate so clearly before – particularly to a white English woman.

And we say farewell, he offers me his stick again. I hold it and we shake hands in this way. We are not allowed to touch each other.

We smile, we have communicated and his story of an ancient tradition has been told.

I walk away knowing that I have been privileged to share in a very special part of Headmann’s life.

I turn around to say ‘goodbye’ again but as I do so, everyone has disappeared. There is no sight of them. It was as if this conversation and experience had not taken place. It was almost as if I had experienced a mirage.

But I hadn’t. The pictures are taken, the conversation is written and the memory banks are stored.

Carole Spiers is one of the UK's Leading Empowerment Gurus. An International Female Keynote Speaker, Conference Chairs and Business Mentors who helps you to achieve step by step success with inspiration and motivation. www.carolespiers.com