BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – Babukisi Foundation has made a massive contribution to the popularity of Incwala Ceremony, as it has been able to show the traditional ceremony to over 2 million people during the month of December.
This information was shared by Babukisi Foundation Founder and Executive Director Thobejane Magagula, who mentioned that they made use of social media to teach about Eswatini culture and traditions. Magagula said the information he shared was taken from their Tik Tok page.
He said Tik Tok was one of the social media platforms they used to showcase not only Incwala, but also other cultural events, such as Umhlanga and Buganu. Facebook is also one of the platforms used by Babukisi Foundation, according to Magagula.
Concerning their Tik Tok page, Magagula said the 2 million people were the ones who viewed posts made by his Foundation on Incwala, ever since it started on December 1, 2024. Magagula said comments were 4 554, while likes were 115 000. Shares were 3 781, while profile views were 31 000.
Magagula said his organisations did not just work on cultural events, but it also went to places such as schools to teach learners on the beauty of Eswatini culture. The director highlighted that most of the children liked being taught about culture using visual means such as films, as they were able to learn faster using such ways.
He said they taught the children about how a homestead was built in SiSwati. They also taught children on gender roles assigned to all Emaswati, in terms of Eswatini Law and Customs, according to Magagula. Babukisi Foundation started operating in Eswatini in 2012 and the intention was to teach Emaswati on their culture. However, they started intensively using social media recently, as they have realised that it was easy for people to access content on social media.
The director said they were surprised by the positive response they got from social media users in accessing information on Eswatini culture from social media. According to Magagula, about 60 percent of the people who accessed their content were from outside the country. They were from countries such as South Africa, United States of America (USA), Botswana, and other countries.
As much as they were surprised by this statistic, Magagula said they eventually realised that Eswatini’s population was small, compared to these other countries. They also liked the fact that people from outside the country liked Eswatini culture.
