page_title: Incwala
section_title: Big Incwala
hierarchical_section_title: Incwala / Activities / Big Incwala
caption_attribution_description: English: weekend warriors
context_page_description: Incwala is the main ritual of kingship in the Kingdom of Eswatini. This is a national event that takes place during the summer solstice. The main participant in incwala is the King of Eswatini; when there is no king there is no incwala. Incwala takes place over a period of time of about a month, starting with the small incwala, incwala lencane, and culminating in the big incwala, incwala lenkhulu. A number of activities—such as lusekwane, kuhlamahlama, and umdvutjulwa—mark the key events of this age old tradition.
context_section_description: Following lusekwane, is the great day where the year-end is marked. On this day the, King appears in all his splendor, and the ambivalent attitude of love and hate felt by his brothers and by his non-related subjects to him and to each other is dramatized. Only sacred incwala songs are sung on this day. Two songs are heard at once, the lullaby song of the boys as they drive the incwambo (parts of the umdvutjulwa) into the inhlambelo and a chant of hate from the men and women. By now he is sufficiently strong to bite (luma) the most powerful of the new seasons crops and after that his people can perform their own ' first fruits ' ritual. On this day he is Silo, a nameless creature, a monster of legends. 
  The following day is a day of kubhacisa. There is a restriction on what people can do on this day, and the King remains secluded in the sacred enclosure. The regiments cannot shake hands, or engage in sexual activities. The King can only see the ritual wives. The final day of incwala is a day of purification where all material no longer needed is burnt. Among these are remains of the undvutjulwa, the previous year’s gourd (luselwa), utensils and fines collected by Bemanti during kuhlamahlama. Warriors and women enter the cattle byre and sing and dance only the imigubho as all incwala songs are now closed. As the people dance they ' know' that rain must fall to quench the flames. No matter how heavy the storm, the people do not seek shelter, till, drenched to the bone, they finally round off the performance with the incaba kancofula. The last day of the Incwala ends with feasting and revelry.
  A last service remains to be performed for the rulers—the weeding of the fields. Early the next morning the warriors collect in the cattle byre, sing ordinary march songs, and leave for the Queen Mother's biggest maize garden. It usually takes a couple of days to weed them, and then the regiments slowly drift back to their districts. The permanent royal battalion moves over to the King's gardens and, having cleared them, usually works in the gardens of the queens. Throughout the country the local contingents serve their local chiefs, demonstrating in the order of their service the hierarchy of their society. And everywhere, before the people eat of their food, the conservative headmen collect the members of their homesteads and ritually partake of the crops of the new season; those chiefs who were sufficiently important not to attend the king's Incwala have a more elaborate rite than the commoners about them.
caption: Warriors in full incwala dress
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