Hermeneutical injustice and the Zulu reed dance

Abstract

In this article, the authors argue that the exposure of the naked bodies of Zulu maidens for public consumption during the reed dance festival could lead to their misrecognition as sexual tools for public entertainment and constitutes a form of hermeneutical injustice because it harms some of them in their capacity as knowers. Using a critical analysis of literature and a comparative analysis of some victimologies, the authors aver that some of the Zulu maidens who dance half-nude to celebrate their virginity, or to showcase the identity of Zulu maidenhood, suffer a hermeneutical gap and a hermeneutical interference. More so, the organisers of the reed dance festival foster hermeneutical obstruction as well as hermeneutical colonisation, which is a novel concept introduced by the authors of the article. To address this injustice, the authors recommend among other things that: the international declarations on child rights should be taught in the classrooms to equip female children with the relevant hermeneutical resources needed for sense-making even when hermeneutical obstruction and hermeneutical colonisation constitute obstacles to sense-making; the victimology narratives of maidens who take part in the reed dance festival should be sorted for, heard and publicised; the views of the maidens concerning how they feel about dancing nude should be considered; and finally, with the help of political legislation, dress codes that expose the nudity of Zulu virgins for public consumption should be replaced with others that protect their right to sexual privacy.