THE ZULU - South Africa's People of Heaven
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The Zulu are South Africa's largest and most famous ethnic group. A people of pomp and full of character, they take great pride in their colourful martial history, which played a big role in shaping southern Africa, -especially between the 17th and 19th centuries.
The Zulu are very keen on their culture and ostentatiously celebrate their distinctiveness.
They largely still live in their native habitat -South Africa's Kwazulu Natal province. Considerable populations also thrive in Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Free State provinces, and all together they make up 24% of the country's population. Sparse populations of Zulu-speaking communities also dwell in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
Zulu has about 10 million speakers and in South Africa, and is one of country's 11 official languages.
The Zulu, or "people of heaven" have long considered their KwaZulu domiciles as a heaven on earth. They settled here only in the 16th century, on lands originally inhabited by the San Bushmen. Their ancestors, the Nguni, had been pushing southwards from the central Africa's Great Lakes region for at least three thousand years.
The San hunter-gatherer society was very sparing in its demands on the land. The arrival of the Nguni, a people with numerous cattle herds and great thirst for land, put the Bushman under great stress and severe disadvantage.
The San however had great influence over the Nguni, whose traditions and customs possess sturdy strains of the San culture, including the distinctive click consonants of the spoken tongues.
As the Nguni increased in numbers they split into three main groups, which are today classified as the northern Nguni -Zulu, the southern Nguni -Xhosa, and the Swati.
The Zulu derive directly from a clan head of the Nguni named Zulu or "Heaven", who established a territory bearing his own name or KwaZulu in the Umfolozi valley.
The Zulu were a fairly insignificant power, even among the Nguni, until the arrival of Shaka Zulu. Shaka, born around 1787, was first-born son to Chief Senzangakona, but was considered illegitimate as he was born before his mother was properly married. Shaka's name derived from the subterfuge that his mother Nandi initially used to explain the swelling of her belly in the first months of her pregnancy. She explained that she was infested with 'shaka' -an intestinal beetle.
Though Zulu custom required that the eldest son succeed the father in office, and Shaka was indeed Senzangakona's eldest son, he was not accepted as his father's heir.
Mother and child were ostracised, and eventually exiled to Chief Dingiswayo's territory of Mthethwa. Here Shaka was incorporated into warrior-hood. He proved to be an outstanding student and graduated into a fearless warrior.
Around 1812, on the death of his father, Shaka accepted Dingiswayo's aid and, by arms, reclaimed his place as heir to the Zulu throne.
Thus did Shaka rise to be chief of his people by 1816.
He was a man gifted with great daring, cunning and imagination. He repulsed numerous attacks by the
Ndwandwe- a rival and more militarily superior Nguni people, and eventually forced the enemy to flee northwards. Shaka appreciated that the Ndwandwe would rise again unless he created conditions to make it impossible.
Above all else a military leader, he devised such weaponry, battle tactics and training methods that resulted in an unbeatable army among known enemies of the day. Among the drastic changes he implemented in his army, included the abolition of male circumcision. He also replaced the long assegei spear with the short iklwa that was better suited for close combat.
He created a standing army, derived from young Zulu's males under the age of 40, who were not allowed to marry while in service. By numerous treacherous devices -war, assassination, deceit and intimidation - he subdued smaller and larger clans, and gathered all to his realm.
Within three years to 1819, the Zulu nation emerged as the largest and most feared in the whole of southeastern Africa. And Shaka, now King Shaka, was sitting pretty as its head.
During Shaka's rule, Zulu lands expanded in area more than one hundred fold, to reach about 11,500 sq miles.
His success however caused unprecedented mayhem in the region, and aroused bitter jealousy amongst rivals and compatriots. He also ruled with an iron fist and was such a tyrant as had never risen before in this part of the world.
Shaka was done to death by Dingane -his half brother, in 1824. The Zulu kingdom survived him, but his legacy was to be severely tested, later in the century in conflicts with new rivals - the British and Boers.
Dingane's reign was maintained by the flow of blood, as he sought to put away other royals and those who had done well under Shaka. His end came in 1838 after a confrontation with Voortrekkers that resulted in defeat at the Battle of Blood River. Dingane had agreed to cede to the Boers the lands south of the Tugela River to the Mzimvubu River, but thereafter relented and had 100 of them killed.
Dingane's successor was his half-brother Mpande, who had been in alliance with the Voortrekkers at the Battle of Blood River. The Boers settled in the lands they had negotiated with Dingane, but were evicted in 1842 after war with the British. The British had all along been uncomfortable with the Boers proximity to the British settlement of Port Natal (now Durban). Mpande maintained good relations with the victors.
Cetshwayo succeeded Mpande after a short succession struggle.
The British were very keen to cut down the Zulu nation to size, and they goaded Cetshwayo to war. The Battle of Isandlwana in January 1879 saw the Zulu emerge victorious. But at the Battle of Ulundi, fought a few months later, the mighty Zulu nation was defeated. This was the first time since Shaka that the Zulu had drunk from the bitter cup of defeat. The indigestion it caused marked the beginning of the end of Zulu grandeur.
Chief Bombatha led their last organised uprising against European domination in 1906. The rest of the 20th century, particularly under Apartheid, was a largely an unhappy period.
But the Zulu kingdom maintained autonomy, except for a short period between 1933 and 1948. They today remain a kingdom under the South African government, with King Goodwill Zwelethini kaBhekuzulu as the current monarch.
The Zulu have vibrant traditions, and their everyday lives gracefully inter-twin old and modern- in beliefs, arts, music, rites and rituals. The traditional religion is grounded on Nkulunkulu, the creator of all things. But Nkulunkulu is a grand deity, who does not stoop to be involved in mortals'
daily lives. For mundane day-to-day troubles, believers consult with the spirits of the dead that watch over the living. To interact with the spirits, divinations are performed through a diviner, seer or witchdoctor- Sangoma, who in most cases is a woman.
The Zulu believe that once a person dies, he becomes a spirit that hovers around in various forms. They attribute all misfortunes to evil sorcery or 'doings of spirits', either in revenge or punishment. It is believed the dead can see and hear things the living cannot, and that they hold solutions to all earthly problems.
To appease the spirits and ancestors and receive favour, sacrifices of cattle are offered. If a sacrifice is not accepted, the sangoma as a temporary measure issues a talisman until the spirits are in a better mood and an enduring solution emerges. Today, Christianity is widely practiced, alongside the traditional Zulu religion.
A traditional Zulu homestead primarily consists of several huts and a cattle kraal. The family huts are built in a dome or beehive shape and are made entirely of thatch-grass structured with reeds. The interior floor is plastered with a mixture of anthill soil and cow-dung to give it a polished green crust.
The huts are built next to each other to form a crescent.
The head of the family has his hut at the centre, with the eldest wife's hut- "the right hand house" to his right, and his preferred wife's hut- "the great house" to his immediate left. The others build their huts on either side of the two wives' huts to complete the crescent. The cattle kraal takes centre stage, as here the animals have maximum protection from both raiders and wild animals. The livestock fold is secured with thorn hedges, and is ringed by the crescent hut formation.
Cattle are a measure of a man's wealth and are a means of exchange. Cattle are used as: bride price, for meat and milk, cowhide for making clothing, and are favoured by the ancestors as a sacrifice. A man with numerous cattle is on a happy roller coaster- they get him more wives, who beget children, through whom he gets more cattle as bride price.
Beyond the huts and cattle enclosure, small gardens thrive.
This is where the family plant their vegetable, tubers and grains for food. The Zulu are largely small-scale subsistence farmers. They plant in the rain, and in winter camouflage pit-holes are dug in the cattle kraal to store grain.
Maize in various forms is the staple Zulu food. Maize meal porridge, coagulated sour milk, vegetables, grains, tubers, legumes and traditional sorghum beer make a substantial part of the everyday Zulu diet. Beef is spared for worthy guests and on occasions such as birth and death celebrations, and weddings.
Among the Zulu, marriage is an important aspect of life.
Courtship through to marriage is a subtle and complex process.
The girl makes the crucial first move, by sending an adornment of coloured beads through a trusted friend. Through her colour choice of beads, she sends across powerful love messages to the favoured young man.
In Zululand, colour is symbolic and can be used as a language.
Therefore, every coloured bead speaks a particular message: red means love or passion, white -faithfulness and purity, blue - thoughts of love, loyalty or loneliness, yellow -jealousy, and black expresses the wish for marriage or may sometimes convey anger. In courtship, if a reply is required, the girl includes some grey-blue beads.
On receiving the beads, the boy seeks the correct interpretation of the message. If he accepts her ornament of love, then courtship begins. They continue to exchange hot messages coded in beads, until they are ready to marry. Though this is a very exciting time for the lovebirds, it is out of question that they may engage in sexual relations before marriage. Zulu customs are very clear about this, and the girl must be married a virgin.
On the boy's request his family approaches the girl's family to ask for her hand in marriage, and the process of bride-price negotiations, - lobola, begins. This marks the official engagement.
During lobola negotiations, the two families set and agree on gifts to be offered to the girls' father in terms of head of cattle. The bride price is paid in instalments, and continues after the wedding, until the whole amount is paid up.
The proper meaning of bride price here is the compensation a father is offered for the loss of a daughter. For once she leaves her father's home, she becomes a member of her husband's family.
A man may marry as many wives as he may afford, but a woman belongs to one man only.
At a set date before the wedding day, the bride and bridesmaids depart for the groom's home with all the bride's belongings.
On arrival, the bride first presents her future father-in-law with gifts from her father. Accepting the gifts signifies acceptance into her new family. Early the next morning, the bride and her girls take to the river where they bathe naked as a sign of cleansing and purification. The bride thereafter goes through a string of rites and rituals before she is declared ready to be wed.
The preliminaries include a virginity test conducted by elderly women with experience in such matters. The results of the virginity test are eagerly awaited. Before the verdict, there is tension between the two families; they line facing each other as they haul across teasing insults. This may drag on for as long as two or three days. When the girl is declared fit to be a Zulu wife, there is jubilation on all sides.
Celebrations begin with the downing of two head of cattle, and the two families exchange meat as a sign of unity.
The official wedding is conducted at night, usually when the moon is full or bright, in order to avert ill fate. The bride's parents do not attend the wedding so as to keep sad emotions from the joyous occasion. The wedding celebrations and feasting may last another two days, and will only end after the bride picks up her sleeping mats and heads for her husband's house.
Among the Zulu, different types of dressing define a person's status in society. A young unmarried girl wears heavily beaded, short hip-length skirts and is adorned in bead necklaces and walks around bare-chested. When she gets married she wears a black pleated leather skirt, decorated with beadwork. The men usually wear two stringed pieces of cowhide -one to cover his front essentials and the other, his rumps. Little children strut around in their birthday suits, punctuated by a few bead strands around the waist.
Zulu music integrates tune, harmony, tempo and vigorous dancing to convey emotions and experiences. Maskanda and Mbaqanga are genres of music that bring out the true flavour of Zulu rhythms.
The group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, was instrumental in introducing the essence of Zulu music to international audiences after they collaborated with Paul Simon -the American singer-songwriter, in his very successful 1980's album 'Graceland".
The most important Zulu cultural festival today is the annual Royal Reed Dance Festival -Umkhosi woMhlanga. Every September, thousands of Zulu maidens take part in this ceremony at the Enyokeni Zulu Royal Palace. After undergoing virginity testing, the girls are led by a royal princess to pick their finest reed at the river. Traditionally, the girl who returned back to the royal palace and presented the king with the finest reed became his youngest wife.
With changing times, the king no longer takes advantage of his royal privileges to take a bride. The festival is now a celebration of Zulu culture. The occasion is very colorful, and is accompanied by Zulu singing and dancing, and is no doubt a gathering of the nation's finest women. The king uses the opportunity to promote sexual morality, respect for women, and sermonize the dangers of HIV/ AIDS.
The festival draws many visitors from all over the world. King Zwelithini restarted the Reed Dance tradition in 1984, almost one hundred years after the British banned it with the arrest of King Cetshwayo.
The Zulu's are very conscious of their unique history, and every year they celebrate Heritage Day in remembrance of King Shaka, the central figure in Zulu history. Shaka was brought to a wider world audience through the highly successful 1986 TV mini-series "Shaka Zulu", which featured among others Edward Fox, and Henry Cele as King Shaka. This must-view movie was so successful that by 1992, over 350 million viewers were estimated to have seen it.
Shaka was voted among Great South Africans in a 2004 SABC3's national television poll. In more recent times, another great Zulu was Albert Luthuli, who was awarded the 1960 Nobel Peace Prize for his anti-Apartheid work.
The demise of Apartheid in 1994 has seen the revival of Zulu and other African languages. There are today Zulu programme’s on South African TV. In 2004, a full length Zulu language movie titled "Yesterday" was nominated for an Oscar.
Though numbers living the Zulu traditional lifestyle are in decline, adherence to traditions has heavily weighed down the larger Zulu population. Traditional ways appear to encourage the people to survive on hand-to-mouth subsistence farming and casual labour as a way of life. Further, apartheid racial policies denied the Zulu, among other African groups, opportunities to receive modern education. Those with little or no education have been relegated to the fringes of the domestic help and casual jobs market in the cities.
The remarkable diversity of attractions of the KwaZulu-Natal region is unsurpassed in South Africa. To discover KwaZulu-Natal, rent a car at Durban or take a South Africa tour or safari that covers the region. The region encompasses the splendid Drakensburg Mountains, sublime subtropical beaches, top rated nature and game reserves, historic battlefields, rolling green hills of the Natal Midlands and the city of Durban.
The range of activities possible is a challenge even for those with the most eclectic of tastes: swimming, fishing, boating, scuba diving, hiking, abseiling, game viewing, cultural and historical touring, whale and bird watching and golfing. While in the area, there are opportunities to learn about Zulu history, and buy the bright and beautiful beadwork and basketry souvenirs produced here.