- Title
- Umguyo practice and violent crimes in the Amathole District Municipality: a criminological perspective
- Creator
- Mdlungu, Tandiwe https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7751-3873
- Subject
- violent crime -- Social aspects
- Subject
- Xhosa (African people) -- Rites and ceremonies
- Subject
- Initiation rites -- Religious aspects
- Date
- 2023
- Type
- Doctoral theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/29706
- Identifier
- vital:78873
- Description
- This study aimed to investigate the factors contributing to the prevalence of violent crimes during the Umguyo practice. This is a traditional ceremony held the night before a Xhosa male adolescent’s Traditional Male Circumcision (TMC) or Ulwaluko. Despite it being a sacred and joyful occasion for the community, parents and initiates, violent crimes such as murder and assault have increased during the Umguyo practice season. They are mostly committed by young adolescent males from different villages as individuals or in large groups. Furthermore, little or no convictions are made for these crimes. The study adopted the Neutralization Theory, Rational and Differential Association Theory to explain the phenomenon of violence during the Umguyo practice. In-depth interviews were conducted with the custodians of knowledge on Umguyo practice, as key informants, in various villages in the Amathole District Municipality in South Africa. The study found that male adolescents use the Umguyo practice as a cover to commit violent crimes and that the following factors played a role: territorial disputes, the lack of significance of the practice to the young boys, excessive alcohol use in the name of culture, and the economic status of the hosting families. The study also revealed that other crimes, such as burglary and livestock theft, increased during the Umguyo practice season. The study recommends that community leaders, such as chiefs, should enforce stricter curfews on the night of the Umguyo practice, strengthen relations between law enforcement and community members to build trust, and encourage more witnesses of crime to come forward. The study also suggests that awareness campaigns should be held in the build-up to the initiation season. This could be beneficial for the criminal justice system, custodians of the Umguyo practice, and future generations.
- Description
- Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2023
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (iv, 263 leaves)
- Format
- Publisher
- University Of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
- Language
- English
- Rights
- rights holder
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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UFH Department of Criminology
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | MDLUNGU TANDIWE THESIS.pdf | 81 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |