When Mandla Mandela, eldest grandson of the late former president, tied the knot with a Muslim woman at the weekend - this after he himself had converted to Islam - he drew flak from some sectors of society.

In my honest opinion, the attacks on him for marrying Rabia Clarke in Cape Town were not justified.

In fact, the man, who has not been lucky with his marriages, needs to be congratulated. It will hopefully be fourth time lucky for the outspoken traditional chief or inkosi of Mvezo, where Nelson Mandela was born.

He was previously married to Tando Mabunu-Mandela, who left him, claiming he was infertile.

His second wife, Frenchwoman Anaïs Grimaud, gave birth to a daughter, but in 2012 Mandla denied paternity, claiming Grimaud had cheated with his brother.

He then married Swazi princess Nodiyala Mbali Makhathini in 2011, but later filed for divorce.

But his latest wedding attracted the attention of the denizens of cyberspace not for its glamour, but for the very fact that the bride is a Muslim.

By converting to Islam, he will naturally have to subscribe to Islamic rituals. For example, in Islam, when a person dies, he has to be buried on the same day.

I suppose this would pose a challenge for the Mandelas considering that Mandla is an inkosi. In keeping with African custom, the head of a family needs to be mourned. The higher the person is in the social echelon, the longer and more intense the mourning period.

This is just one of the issues cited by those who have problems with the appropriateness of his conversion to Islam.

But methinks the critics are making a mountain out of a molehill. It's always easy and convenient to take aegis behind culture and tradition - sometimes to ridiculous extents.

People pretend as if culture is a static thing, an absolute. Culture is dynamic. Culture evolves. Human beings make culture, not the other way round. In its evolution, culture draws from other cultures.

Issues of practicality also influence culture. Controversially, I will cite the custom of male initiation and circumcision. This tradition, which persists among many national groups in southern Africa, including Xhosas, Pedis and others, used to be part and parcel of Zulu culture. But that is no longer the case.

Does that then mean Zulu culture has become weaker?

In some African cultures not so long ago the birth of twins was considered bad luck.

Upon birth, the twins would be taken to the bush and left to the mercy of the elements, or the wild animals. In fact, this "culture" is still observed in Madagascar.

In Zulu culture it was a norm that when the king died, a number of people would be killed to accompany him.

Notable among these was his manservant, called insila. Others who would accompany the king would be some of the palace girls, the izintombi zesigodlo.

Many will recall how Prince Cetshwayo, before he ascended the throne, had wanted one of his father King Mpande's wives to be killed to "accompany" the late king. But he was overruled by Masiphula kaMamba Ntshangase, the king's senior counsellor.

The woman's life was thus spared, a challenge to an established aspect of "culture".

One could also argue that Christianity was antithetical to African culture - so much so that King Dingane, for example, burnt down the now-legendary Amanzimtoti Institute (at some stage also called Adams Mission) in an attempt to dissuade black people from consorting with the newly arrived missionaries.

Some of those who still proceeded and converted to Christianity were killed. The name Maqhamsela Khanyile comes to mind.

Today, King Goodwill Zwelithini, the primary custodian of Zulu culture, swears by Jesus Christ. What happened? Culture evolved. Zulu culture is still there and strong, but it also now acknowledges and embraces aspects of Christianity and western influence.

There was a time when it was also considered "against African culture" for women to stand up and speak in the presence of men. Now, women are in parliament, they are bosses in the workplace and so on.

We have to remember that the architects of apartheid justified that evil system based on culture. It was culturally inappropriate and taboo for black and white people to mix, we were told.

We could go on and on about the abuse of culture to justify positions that are inimical to human progress.

I therefore cannot fathom the anger levelled at Mandla. The challenge for him will be to find the middle ground between Thembu traditions and Muslim rituals. It's not impossible. In fact, he might even get some of his subjects to convert to Islam! Why not?

When King Henry VIII fell out with the Catholic Church, he founded the Church of England, and his subjects followed him, in the process taking the culture of worship to another level.

Culture, my friends, is not sacrosanct, it is not absolute. It is dynamic. Amen.

Comments: fredkhumalo@post.harvard.edu