Children having babies nothing to celebrate

I WAS saddened and disheartened to learn that the majority of ‘mothers’ who gave birth to Christmas and New Year’s babies throughout the KZN province were ‘babies’ themselves.

According to the KZN Health MEC’s recent report, one of these mothers must have fallen pregnant at the age of 13.

Instead of congratulating these mothers, one feels it more appropriate to ponder about this depressing situation which is eroding our social fibre.

Why children are having babies is beyond comprehension. What happened to the pride the girls and maidens used to have?

Where are the parents of these girls, more specifically their fathers?

According to Zulu culture they are supposed to safeguard their father’s ‘kraals’ until they come of age – until their fathers ‘thank’ them for being good maidens with exemplary behaviour and being appreciated by the whole community and Isizwe at large.

To thank her for protecting his ‘kraal’, her father would arrange a big function to celebrate his daughter’s maidenhood through the Umemulo cultural event.

Nowadays it’s very rare to come across a young woman, around age 23, who doesn’t have a baby.

Some sectors of our society have returned to the roots of our once beautiful Zulu culture. They have brought back isiko lokuhlolwa kwezintombi (virginity testing), with the hope this will instill pride in girls for keeping themselves pure and safe from teenage pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases.

But to some this is frowned upon, because people feel this once beautiful practice has come of age.

For our girls to continue exposing themselves to teenage pregnancies, exposes them to STDs, damages their future and leaves them vulnerable to be preyed upon by wolves in sheep’s clothing for the rest of their unhappy lives!

ZULU FATHER