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Africa Travel Newsletters > The Zulu > Page 2

So 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 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.

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