[NSFW] Zulu tribe elder explains how still to this day they do virginity tests in South Africa, defying a 2008 ban on the practice

One week before, Nonhlanhla Mhkize had risen early, walked to her tribal chief's home, climbed a desolate hill and lain on a blanket for what leaders of her Zulu culture call an "inspection" of her genitals. Now the teenager glowed as she held up a document she had earned for the fourth year. It declared her a virgin.

"Here is my certificate!" Mhkize, an 18-year-old with magenta-streaked hair, said giddily.

Surrounding her were thousands of girls -- some barely school-age, most adolescents -- who had traveled to this windswept valley for an annual dance in honor of the Zulu king. Like Mhkize, all were bare-breasted and wearing traditional beaded skirts and necklaces. All were certified virgins, a requirement for participation.

In this rural Zulu stronghold on South Africa's eastern coast, it seemed of little matter that the Zulu custom of virginity testing, decried by gender and human rights activists, was banned for most girls in a bill passed by Parliament and enacted last year. Zulus here, who say it is a way to curb teenage pregnancy and AIDS, defiantly embrace the practice.

"There are changes and development in life, but that does not mean people have to change their culture," King Goodwill Zwelithini told the crowd, the fur tassels of his animal-skin cloak whipping in the wind.

The debate over virginity testing is an example of the clash common throughout Africa as governments try to regulate traditional practices that have long held sway, particularly in rural areas. Legal experts say the topic is particularly complex in post-apartheid South Africa, where patriarchal tribal cultures have dusted off long-stifled traditions under one of the world's most progressive constitutions, which lauds diversity but requires cultural customs to bend to individual rights.