The Zulu [antikvár]

The black people of southern Afhca belong to one of a number of broad cultural and linguistic groupings. Of these, the Nguni is the largest, and includes the Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi and Ndebele people. The identity of these important Nguni nations emerged onlyin comparatively recent times; before this social organization was on the basis of independent clans. These clans grew like enlarged families, with leadership following down through the original male line. The chief ascended to his position through a clearly defined pattern which was, basically, the elevation of the eldest son of his. father's main wife - his Nkosikazi. This custom is still followed, as is polygamy, but intermarriage within a clan is not permitted. No matter how many generations removed,members of a clan are still 'brothers and sisters'. According to oral history the name Zulu was first heard round about the 1620s. Literally the word means 'sky', and was the name given to the son of a couple called Malandela and Nozinja, members of a clan which lived in what was later to become known as Zululand or, in the Zulu language, KwaZulu. It is apparently unknown what Malandela's clan was, but Dr AT. Bryant, the late missionary, linguist and historian, suggests that it may have been Gumede. Irrespective, an interesting situation developed when young Zulu, who was his mother's favounte, grew to be a man. His eldest brother, Qwabe, became jealous of him andplanned his end. His mother, however, came to the rescue and took Zulu away supported by an Induna (headman) named Mpungose, to make his way in the worldand - as it happened - establish the Zulu clan. Qwabe, for his part, branched out and founded the now-large clan which bears his name. In generations since, the idea of blood relationship between these two clans has been forgotten and they intermarry freely. Not much is known of Zulu's life, nor of the reigns of his successors, Punga, Mageba, Ndaba and Jama but, in the sixth dynasty of the clan, in 1787, Chief Senzangakona and Nandi, who became his third wife, produced a remarkable son - Shaka Zulu. At Senzangakona's death in 1816, Shaka seized control of the Zulu clan which even then numbered only some seventeen hundred people. Shaka's meteoric rise to famethrough brilliant strategy and bloody conquest is, of course, well documented. But perhaps what does justify repeating here is that, in 1828, at the end of his short, 12-year reign - when he was assassinated by his half-brother Dingane - Shaka had conquered all the clans of Zululand and had united them into a single Zulu nation under his rule. The Zulu reputation was, of course, by no means built only around the Shakan saga. Their wars of the mid-19th century against both Boer and Briton attracted world attention. The Zulu kingdom still exists and continues to command considerable respect. The present King, Goodwill Zwelithini is descended from the same bloodline as Shaka, and the Chief Executive of the KwaZulu Assembly, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, is related to the royal family. Many Zulu have now become urbanized and follow callings in all walks of city life, but a great number are still rural and by and large follow many of the old traditions which were practised long before the arrival of white people. For example, a Zulu man may, even today, take as many wives as he likes,-provided, of course, he can raise the required lobolo cattle for the fathers of the brides. The Zulu living in rural areas are basically a farming people and love their livestock.They grow maize as a staple diet and pumpkins, beans and other vegetables according to their needs. Sorghum is also grown as an essential ingredient of beer. In addition to their use as lobolo, cattle pull their owners' ploughs and supply milk and meat and are a token of wealth. Of particular importance, too, cattle are slaughtered insacrificial offerings to a family's ancestral spirits. The traditional Zulu religion, in common with that of other Nguni peoples, is ancestor worship, and great importance is attached to the need for families to remember theirforefathers by offering them meat and beer. The ancestors 'care' for the everyday things in a family's life - their crops and cattle and 'things they knew on earth' - but inmatters of life and death they act as intermediaries to the Creator whom they call Nkulunkulu. The intermediary between the people and the spirits, on the other hand, isthe diviner (the Sangoma or witchdoctor). Ancient folklore is still very much part of the old country way of life, but it is rapidly being eroded and in this work aspects of vanishing Zulu customs and traditions are depicted.