vegetarians DO NOT look

ambiˈgyoō-itē

ambiguity_ambigious 

DEFINED by MAC DICTIONARY as: uncertainty or inexactness of meaning in language • a lack of decisiveness or commitment resulting from a failure to make a choice between alternatives• double meaning • unclear • obscure

I have been hounding Mbuyi 'Trinity' Ndlovu _ my 'other' brother from my birth town Eshowe, (click to see place I was born on Google Maps) for a long time for this image_ and even Sakhile (his good friend) has been avoiding me_ incase I  begin harass him about where to find Mbuyi. It was hard work, and even though I also got myself in a sticky and rather embarrassing situation (yes I went red) when I made an attempt to answer a question conversed to me in Zulu, about receiving the image, and then tried to answer back in Zulu...I was adamant to blog this.  Ironically double meanings or ambiguities implied in words can also be prevalent in images... and this is exactly what drew me to  Mbuyi's photograph in the first place. 

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Besides the visual power of this image_ it's 'rawness' (excuse the pun) and it's specific 'documentary style/reference' to cultural ritual and custom, that are not of my culture.  I (a white female, unmarried and a former vegetarian) also find myself intrigued by other things. For instance_I am mostly captivated by the ambiguity of the form [which has come about by the angle of view], it monumental size [which has been accentuated by close framing and its central placing] and the contrasts of colour and textures (red meat on green grass on brown soil). I am also held by the many narratives that are present in the image, the onlookers, the gatherer and the slaughterer_ all male.  I find my eye wondering around watching all the activity but at the same time coming back to the red shape and form, with splayed legs_ looking rather vulnerable and completely helpless. Even though I know what it, and can make my own associations, I always find myself back in a 'space' where I experience mixed feelings or contradictory ideas (ambivalence) about elements and actions in and around the photograph.  I am unconvinced by my own assumptions and feel uncertain about myself in relation to what my eyes show me... Is this due to my cultural make-up as I am challenged by another culture? Is this image ambiguous to me because of me?

Mbuyi emailed me this 'blurb' about his image: "I shot this image when I was at the rural areas of Eshowe, a place called Mbongolwane.  The reason I shot this image is to show people that Pick n Pay or Woolworths don't manufacture red meat, they just provide the price tag. Red meat comes from a cow.  This cow was slaughted for a wedding and it was killed by the bride. It is the culture of the Zulus."

I spoke to Mbuyi about his 'blurb'_ he told me that the bride is given the knife to make the first 'kill' (hard to find the right word) by the male elders of her husband-to-be's family, as a symbolic gesture to welcome her into their family.

Can anyone else make further comment on the ritual/ceremony that has taken place or simply share what you see or feel?