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healers, who are entrusted with conducting circumcision schools, are close
confidants of the chiefs and they are usually personal doctors and healers
of the royal family.
The circumcision schools produce graduates with distinct social identities. In
Makgabeng, each age group which goes together to a mountain school, has
its distinct name and they are observed by the community as belonging
together. There are the Madingwana, Matlakana, Mabjana and other
circumcision age groups 618 . The significance of this distinctive identification
is that graduates of the same age group are expected to uniformly comply
and execute their social obligations. For instance, communal duties such as
fixing fences, tribal meetings and hunting parties, age grouping is necessary
in performing such duties in a more organised and systematic way 619 . For
instance, a particular age group may be individually called upon to perform
a certain communal duty. It is easier and convenient for instance, to call the
Matlakana for a hunting expedition, than to call all men of the village. Young
men who return from the mountain school have a special place in society as
they have graduated to manhood. In the Makgabeng area they would be
expected to attend community meetings in which their ideas would be
listened to and taken seriously 620 . They would also be expected to start their
618 Interview, Elias Monyebodi, Acting Headman of Ga-Monyebodi village, Ga Monyebodi
village, 22 December 2002.
619 Ibid.
620 Interview, Nkadi Ngwepe, Norma A village, 16 and 19 May 2003.
358