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uMthayi Festival 2011 Marula Festival set to be the biggest ever.

South Africa: Catapulting festival into big time

Date Posted: Monday 22-Feb-2010From time immemorial, a cultural ceremony of "huge significance" has been celebrated in northern KZN, as well as in Mozambique and Swaziland.

Now, if the plans of regional tourism bosses (the Department of Economic Development and Tourism and Tourism KwaZulu-Natal) come to fruition, the Umthayi (Marula) First Fruits Festival will be "catapulted" onto the national and international tourism calendar.

The festival is a celebration of culture, heritage and trans-border relations, the highlight being the Tembe people's practice of taking gourds of marula beer to Inkosi Mabhudu Tembe, who is the first to sample the brew before the whole community joins in.

About 10 000 people - many from Mozambique and Swaziland - attend the ceremony at KwaNgwanase in northern Zululand every year, and now the plan is to attract even more visitors.

This year, the provincial government teamed up with the Tembe Traditional Council to host and publicise the event, which was held on Friday.

"We would like people from Johannesburg and other parts of the world to come too," said Inkosi Tembe at a special networking session between South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland on the eve of the festival.

General Paulo Geubuze - brother of the Mozambican president - told the thousands of festival-goers in a giant marquee the following day that he was attending the festival because of its "huge significance".

Then he invited them to come to Maputo in 2011 to attend the All Africa Games.

King Goodwill Zwelithini was represented by Prince Mbonisi Zulu, while the eldest sister of Swaziland's King Mswati III, M'ntanenkosi Thfobhi, headed the Swaziland delegation.

It was a day of celebration as hundreds of people dressed in traditional clothing - some sporting marula leaves in their hair - descended on the party site.

After the VIPs had been seated at the top table, the women brought in the first bottle of beer and bowls of marula fruit.

Then they demonstrated how they washed the fruit, peeled it and made the beer, said by those who sampled it for the first time to taste gingery.

The first gourd of beer was duly given to Inkosi Tembe, who passed it down the line to the other VIPs.

Outside the marquee, a long line of other women carried containers of beer to pour into a giant jojo tank.

It was then measured out into an assortment of containers that the festival-goers took along with them.

And as the beer flowed, the party continued.