What is performance?
In answering this question I will look at Mark Fleishman and Richard Schechner’s point of view about performance. They talk about performance and explain it in a very interesting way which might or might not be very fruitful to what the study is about. Only the findings will show and determine the results this study. According to Schechner, on one hand:
‘Performances exist only as actions, interactions and relationships”Performances occur in many different instances and kinds. Performance must be construed as a ‘broad spectrum’ or ‘continuum’ of human actions ranging from ritual, play, sports, popular entertainments, the performing arts (theatre, dance, music), and everyday life performances to the enactment of social, professional, gender, race, and class roles, and on to healing (from shamanism to surgery), the media, and the internet.’The underlying notion is that any action that is framed, presented, highlighted, or displayed is a performance.'(2013, p.2-3)
On the other hand, Mark Fleishman sees performance as an epistemology, as a way of knowing and getting knowledge. And it is also seen to be creative in a sense that it layers meaning onto the world rather than finding out about the meaning in the world. (Fleishman, 2009, p.117) Furthermore, the definitions helped in understanding the vastness of performance. Having had the above mentioned theorists define what performance is helps in bringing the focus on which performance is the study interrogating. The performance I refer to here is the one that take place right after the checking of the genitals. There is a traditional performance that occurs after the testing process. As a result, I aim to investigate the importance of this performance in virginity testing as a practice.
Virginity Testing and the Politics of Sexual Responsibility: Implications for AIDS Intervention
Virginity testing is a cultural practice which is conducted as a method of controlling the sexuality of girls. It is most common in the Zulu tribe with the intention of maintaining self-respect, dignity and purity among females. Fiona Scorgie, (2002) explains further in full details:
‘The testing procedure itself is always the same: the girls line up, and then lie in a row on their backs on grass mats spread out on the ground. They part their legs, while the umhloli peers briefly at each girl’s exposed genitals before making her judgement (occasionally, the umhloli will use her hands to part a girl’s labia). With each confirmed virgin, the crowd of assembled women cheers and ululates to congratulate the girls. Those who ‘pass’ the test are awarded a printed certificate and a sticker or smearing of white clay on the forehead that visibly confirms their success in the test. Those who ‘fail’ are usually pulled aside to be spoken to briefly by the umhloli, who will try to establish what happened: which boy has taken her virginity? Was the girl willing? Was she abused? Advice on how to behave in the future ‘ to abstain from sex, in other words ‘ is also dispensed at this time’. (2002,p.58)
Virginity testing: managing sexuality in a maturing HIV/AIDS epidemic
According to Suzanne Leclerc-Madlala (2001), the testers had another way of knowing and finding out whether the girl is a virgin or not.
‘having a flabby stomach and loose buttocks could be taken as signs that a girl was sexually active. The stomach of a virgin is taut and tight. Breasts are firm. Buttocks are held high. They do not shake much when walking. Ukushikila was a way to check these things’ taut hamstring muscles behind the knees are also an indication of virginity’Contemporary virginity testing events take place in a wide variety of settings that range from the privacy of the family home, the kraal of a village chief, school halls, community centers or large public sports stadium’. (2001,p.9)
Leclerc-Madlala, (2001, 2003), and Scorgie, (2002), bring the idea that the practice of virginity testing is used as a tool to fight with diseases. It is conducted as a way of preventing pregnancy and diseases.
The virginity testing movement has been marked by controversy from its start in the mid-1990s, yet has continued to grow as communities seek to respond to a maturing HIV/AIDS epidemic and its deepening social impact’ Strictly monitoring and controlling women’s sexuality is being promoted as a solution to containing the growth of the HIV/AIDS pandemic
The idea of using the practice of virginity testing as a strategy to prevent and fight against diseases and prevent pregnancy has brought up an interest to want to know about the purpose of having the traditional performance. As a result, an investigation will be conducted to find out the importance of having this performance in the practice. In addition, Leclerc-Madlala (2003) then brings a point that the knowledge used to or rather when assessing girls (virgin or not) is indigenous not biological. She states:
‘basis for understanding virginity testing amongst Zulus is that one must be conversant in the metaphorical language used in the folk description of the human body and bodily processes because the qualities that testers look for as evidence of virginity are derived from folk constructs of the body and ethno-medical beliefs of health and illness’. (2003)
Furthermore, Virginity testing as a cultural practice is driven by oral tradition and folklore- the traditional beliefs, customs and stories of a community, passed through the generations by word of mouth, in a sense that the testers use their own knowledge that they got from cultural history and is passed on orally.
Oral literature in Africa
Finnegan (2012) studies oral literature, the written and unwritten traditions in Africa. She states
‘The unwritten forms, however, are far less widely known and appreciated. Such forms do not fit neatly into the familiar categories of literate cultures, they are harder to record and present, and, for a superficial observer at least, they are easier to overlook than the corresponding written material.’ (2012, p.4)
After reading what Ruth Finnegan say in her book Oral literature in Africa, talking about oral traditions not being recognized and appreciated, I had even more interest in the traditional performance. What is it significance to the practice, the girls, the testers and the community.
Fairytales, Folklore and Femininity: Making Sense of the (Un) Sexed Female Body across Time and Space
According to MacKay, (2014):
‘In the Zulu folklore immortal intombi (girl, virgin) nomkhubulwane is one of the two original great spirits. As part of the balance between male and female, she is associated with growth and creation. She has never married and has not born children, although all Zulu girls are her daughters. Like other gods, her people are required to pay her respect or she will turn her back on them.'(MacKay et al, 2014, p.20)
Oral Tradition is a tool that is used to pass history, folktales, religious beliefs and stories, from generation to generation. African communities perceive oral tradition as a primary method of conveying culture and it is linked to their way of life. As a result, African societies place a huge value in oral tradition. (Wilson, 2003) Traditional performances are not written, they are spoken. Therefore, they are part of oral tradition.
ext in here…