Cape Town – I read with interest the letter from Koketso Marishane who talks about slaughtering the animal on Clifton beach.
He says they could easily have slaughtered the poor animal in a “non-violent manner” which excludes pain, but remembering that in African customary ritual, the practice of slaughtering requires blood spilling and animal yelling.
In other words the poor animal must baa or bleat in pain to appease the ancestors.
I really feel we are in 2019 and this is a custom that could be dropped.
Any custom that allows cruelty to animals should be abandoned.
There are many customs over the years that have been dropped.
For example, ducking witches in the village pond, putting people into stocks and allowing people to throw things at them, etc.
I know there are many people out there who will say the dairy, beef and chicken industry is a cruel one as well and I would agree.
But one has to start somewhere and there are boards that hopefully do keep a check on the cruelty to these animals being killed for our consumption.
But ritual sacrifice cannot be totally controlled and the poor animal is tied up badly, left lying in the hot sun until someone comes to slit its throat.
I know there is another custom where young men grapple with a bull to kill it with their bare hands.
It is called Umkhosi Woselwa (first fruit ceremony) and is done in KwaZulu-Natal.
They shove sand down its throat, gouge out its eyes and dozens of them try to kill one poor bull.
Once again this is a custom that should be dropped.
If I was an ancestor I wouldn’t want anything cruel or barbaric done in my name?
How can this be called bravery when dozens of young men leap on one poor defensive bull and kill it in the cruellest way?