Social media users were left in shock after reading a Facebook post shared by isiXhosa community page Masibuyel’embo – ingcambu zesiXhosa. The page shared pictures of an Eastern Cape family celebrating umgidi (a traditional homecoming of a boy from initiation school) but the boy died in 2002.
In the Xhosa culture hosting umgidi means that the boy child has gone through the initiation passage, spent weeks being taught how to be a man and later brought home to celebrate his new status as a man.
Captioned in isiXhosa, the community page detailed that the ceremony was hosted by the deceased brother Nkosi uDalubuhle (Lukho Mrwetyana) at Lapesini kwa Ngamlana a village in Eastern Cape’s small town called Cala.
The post also noted:
“Greeting, it is an honour to have hosted a successful homecoming event for my brother who died in 2002, we celebrated this on October 5th and 6th. My brother died a boy in year 2002 while in an age that is ready to go to the bush.”
The post also shared that the family performed both the going and coming back service, adding:
“Everything went well even though we got a remembering and missing him. We did however console ourselves knowing that he is smiling where he is.”
The family finished off stating that next on the list was to take a wife for him, and perform two more cultural rituals.
Social media users shared and tagged others for them to read the post, some commented:
“Chomee I think you will find answers here, love and light ke MaMhaga.”
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