DL Phiri, 49255266

It was a Saturday morning and I woke up to birds chirping loudly, my window is next to the biggest trees is my residence and I know when I hear the sound if birds the sun has come out and it is almost time for me to wake up, I stayed in bed a little longer as I scrolled through WhatsApp and TikTok sending my family and friends good morning texts before I start my day.

I finally woke up and I made my bed neatly and cleaned my room, I took a shower right after cleaning my room and I dressed up in light, yellow dress after all the sun was out and you could tell the weather was going to be very warm throughout the day. I made breakfast for myself, and I watched my favorite series on Netflix as I waited for my friend to get ready because she is always late. We have planned to go grocery shopping because it is the only day where we can both run our errands because during the week we have back-to-back classes and Saturday is the most convenient day for both of us. Before I could finish my episode, she called me and told me that she is ready and to my surprise she is earlier than ever before.

I took my bag and packed my wallet, student card and my umbrella because it was surprisingly hot after coming from a few weeks of rain everyday and cold weather. We waited for a taxi to appear outside our residence, and we stood there for close to 40 minutes waiting for a taxi and not even one appeared, because it was a Saturday we could not even ask the residence bus driver to please drop us off near the mall. We decided to walk all the way to the shopping center and lucky for us the shopping center is a 20-minute walk from our residence we are just lazy most of the time to walk. Personally I was tired when we arrived because the weather was too hot and I don’t really walk such a distance every day, we bought everything we needed separately because we do not share groceries after we were both done she decided she wants to stop as the salon and relax her hair, I accompanied her and I ended up falling asleep on the couch because grocery shopping can be draining not mentioning we walk here, I could feel my feet swelling in my sneakers.

After what felt like forever her hair was relaxed and styled. We decided to go back to our residence because we had no other errands to run. When I got into my room, I packed everything I bought which was an extreme sport, immediately remembered I had a psychology quiz that was due the next day, so I wrote it and I took a good and relaxing nap. I woke up and cooked dinner. I usually cook a lot of food because during the day I always come back from campus tired, and I am normally lazy to cook. After having dinner, I ate while watching a few episodes of my favorite series.

After relaxing for a while, I washed the dishes and scrubbed the pots, and I went to the bathroom to take a shower. After my shower I read my bible and prayed before I switched of the lights and went to bed early because I had to wake up in the morning and prepare for church the next day.

DL Phiri, 49255266

My ethnic group is the Zulu speaking people. Growing up in a Zulu household we were taught the importance of consulting and communicating with our ancestors. I grew up watching my family perform rituals and slaughtering animals as thanking our ancestors for “opening opportunities for us”, or slaughtering for pleading with them to grant us the things we wish to have and sometimes they would slaughter to welcome a new baby into the family and introducing the baby to the ancestors. Another teaching that I have learned from my ethnic group is that girls should gather together and do virginity testing by the elderly women who not only offer the virginity testing but they also teach girls and young women how they should handle themselves and behave as females and encourage that women should be able to perform house duties as it will help them when they have their own houses and married to their future husbands.

Now that I am older and with the help of anthropology, I realize that a person can have a mind of his own. My ethnic group has social standards for both men and women. As a young woman right now I have taken my own path which is becoming a Christian, I believe that God is the creator of things and he grants us everything that I was made believe that my ancestors do, I acknowledge my ancestors as a black child but I will not live up to my society’s expectations which is worshipping my ancestors and slaughtering animals for them as much as this is a normality to my society but I will be taking a different path. I also find it appalling that girl children are taught to obey their husbands, learn house duties and bear children while a boy child is encouraged to work hard, have money, build a home for his wife and children as if a girl child is not capable of doing so. At this day and age we see so much change and we see that what was normal then is not normal now, people are changing the narrative and they are more open to not conforming to society’s expectations but conforming to what they believe is right for them.