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Zulu- South Africa's People of Heaven > Page
2
1.1 The Zulu-
South Africa's People of Heaven
SoThe 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
colourful, 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 programmes 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.
New:
Visit our Africa Travel forum
and share ideas, experiences and post questions on any aspect
of your trip planning to South Africa.
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