One of the first warnings I received upon arriving in Lesotho was not to hike aimlessly in the mountains, for if you happen upon an initiation school you’ll be captured. A group of boys spend about six months in initiation school up on a summit, being circumcised, learning to stickfight, practicing a unique form of local poetry, reciting the lyrics of secret songs, being taught how to conduct themselves as men in the village, and more. We don’t know the more. We don’t know the details. “We” being not only foreigners, but even Basotho who have not themselves “gone up the mountain.” Initiated men ferociously guard the specifics of what happens up there.
But I wanted to offer a photographic supplement to my description of an initiation ceremony in the beginning of The Mountain School. I had the photos; I just wasn’t sure if I could post any.
As you’ll recall, over my years in Ts’oeneng I got to know Witchdoctor Santu, the man who ran the initiation school in our area, and he eventually let me in on some activities, even allowing me to photograph an initiation ceremony. Normally, the uninitiated are not even allowed to look makolonyane — new men in the face, let alone photograph them. So I wasn’t sure if the photographs I had been given permission to take were for my eyes only. Sadly, Witchdoctor Santu has passed away, so I couldn’t ask him. I was, however, able to consult a former student who is now an initiated man, and he gave the sanction for me to publish these types of images (the photo above and the video below).
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