Intonjane is the traditional Mpondo girls’ initiation ceremony in South Africa.
The rite is associated with the Mpondo people of the Eastern Cape and traditionally marks a girl’s transition toward womanhood. It involves seclusion, instruction, ritual observances, and guidance from older women. The lessons can concern social responsibilities, relationships, family life, and conduct within the community.
Intonjane belongs to a wider southern African pattern in which initiation institutions transmit cultural knowledge between generations. Its forms and frequency have changed over time, and not every Mpondo community observes it in exactly the same way.
It is often confused with ulwaluko, the Xhosa male initiation tradition. The Umkhosi woMhlanga, or Zulu Reed Dance, is also a different event: it is a public cultural festival rather than the Mpondo girls’ initiation rite called Intonjane.