It’s all systems go for the homecoming umgidi ceremony of fluent Xhosa-speaking teenager Chad Baling, 18, after he successfully underwent the ancient Xhosa ulwaluko initiation rite to manhood.
Baling, who had been staying with a Xhosa family in Sunnyridge since March after finding himself homeless, begged the head of the family Xolile Bungu, 72, to send him to the mountain just like many Xhosa teenagers.
Bungu, eldest brother of world boxing icon Vuyani Bungu, opened his home to Baling after his daughter Sisipho Bungu, 16, who met Chad at school, brought him home earlier this year.
“Sisipho told me about this boy at school who was homeless and who was mixing with wrong people, and she asked me if she could bring him here to stay with us.”
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