Every June and December, Xhosa boys who have come of age leave their homes for initiation school. This is a rite of passage to manhood in Xhosa culture. It’s meant to teach self-control, discipline, humility, accountability and respect — principles embedded in culture. But an insidious trend is threatening these teachings — alcohol companies are using initiations to market hard liquor brands — drinks that have a high alcohol content.
The principles taught at initiation school are in direct conflict with drinking hard liquor. Someone who consumes hard liquor can hardly be expected to exemplify discipline, responsibility, care and self-restraint. This is why we as Xhosa men and women, are perturbed by an advert promoting the use of certain hard liquor brands in Umigidi/uLwaluko. (Umgidi is the celebration that takes place after initiation and uLwaluko is an umbrella term for associated activities).
Hard liquor is not a part of our culture
Hard liquor does not strengthen our ceremonies. It weakens them, disrupts them, and can endanger lives. uLwaluko is meant to mould boys into responsible men. A time when elders teach initiates how to manage their anger, settle disputes, show deference, and think things through before acting. These teachings demand mental clarity, which is undermined by alcohol, particularly high-alcohol spirits that impair judgement.
Many families use alcohol during celebrations surrounding initiation, but hard liquor is not traditional, nor is it a core component of Xhosa rituals. One could make the argument for Umqombothi’s place in these ceremonies as it’s a traditional beer often made from sorghum or millet and has a lower alcohol content compared to hard liquor.
Gin, vodka, brandy or whiskey are not born of Xhosa culture; their origins are colonial, their ownership is corporate, and their purpose is profit. To portray hard liquor as something woven into our cultural fabric deliberately distorts our heritage. Culture evolves, yes. But when alcohol brands position themselves as a component of our identity — it’s manipulation.
Initiation season is already a bit of a powder keg. Consider the ingredients: men charged with pride, bravado, and the testing of boundaries. It is customary (if not mandatory) for Xhosa men attending Umgidi to carry a knife for symbolic and practical purposes like cutting meat, slaughtering livestock, or cutting rope. Add hard liquor and you have a recipe for trouble.
We know from police statistics and hospital records that alcohol fuels violence, especially among young men. The mixture of intoxication, sharp weapons, and the pressure to “prove” oneself are ingredients for a dangerous situation.
The manufactured link between alcohol and manhood
Alcohol companies have long sold the idea that “real men” drink. Even outside initiation season, advertising normalises drinking as a badge of adulthood, success or belonging. Advertising that portrays drinking as a sign of success, maturity, or status sow the dangerous idea that manhood is determined by one’s consumption rather than one’s behaviour.
When initiates return from the mountains, they are vulnerable, still forming their identities, and learning about their social roles. Practically, does the normalisation of drinking hard liquor help in this social formation process?
How alcohol has been used to exploit Black people
Alcohol has historically been used to subjugate Black communities. Under apartheid, alcohol was used to exploit and control. The dop system trapped farmworkers in cycles of dependency and exploitation; taverns proliferated in townships while schools, clinics, and recreational spaces were underfunded; and heavy drinking became both a coping mechanism for Black people and a tool of the state for social fragmentation.
These patterns did not end in 1994, they continue in a different form as alcohol marketers target Black youth, and corporations insert their brands into cultural spaces where they do not belong.
Crucially, traditional leadership must lead this change. Traditional leaders and government (CONTRALESA and COGTA) must safeguard cultural practices by preventing corporations from manipulating tradition for profit.
Policymakers must strengthen alcohol regulation, traditional leaders must protect cultural integrity, and communities must reject harmful corporate narratives.
Many villages experience the burden of alcohol harms most intensely during initiation season. In response, the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality gazetted its Traditional Circumcision and Initiation By-Law. Amongst other things, the by-law makes it an offence for any person, including an initiate or person involved in the initiation to possess, deal in, or manufacture liquor for the purpose of supplying such liquor to initiates; for a traditional nurse to provide or offer liquor or drugs to initiates and for a traditional surgeon to perform a circumcision under the influence of alcohol or any substance that will impair judgement.
Traditional leaders should publicly support such reforms for the protection of their communities. They are the custodians of culture, and their voice is essential in defending uLwaluko from commercialisation and restoring its core values of discipline, respect, and self-control.
This is a moment for collective action.
Kwanda Ndoda, Sibongiseni Peacock and Zimasa Mpemnyama are development practitioners at the DG Murray Trust (DGMT) and Kolping Mbumba is with the NPO Heroes Academy.
The Sowetan originally published this op-ed on 05 December 2025.
