Zulues In Sout-Africa Essay, Research Paper

The Zulues in Sout-Africa

Nobody knows how long there have been people living in the

southern part of the African mainland. Experts dates foundings of

irontools in the Swaziland to the 4th century. Sailors who were

shipwrecked outside the coast of South-Africa had contact with people who

earned their living by farming and cattlebreeding. Later on when the

Europeans arrived to South-Africa, they found a people on the east coast

of Natal who called themselves” A ma zulu”. These people were tall and

very atleticly build, they could take great effort in both hunting and war

and their knowledge to the nature was incredable.

The Zulu tribe was once one of South-Africas biggest and most

powerful tribes and they managed to stand up against the British until

they lost the Zulu war in 1897. The tribes defece system was wery simmular

to the system we have in Norway today. The troops were devided into

regiments according to their age. And they got military training in

diffrent parts of the country, just as we do in Norway today.

The Zulues want to keep their tradition and identity alive, but they have

a lot to struggle against. The lack of land and the demands from the

whites way of life has disturbed their old way of living based on

cattlebreeding and farming. The majority of the Zulues today live in the

villages near by the mines and the cities where they have their work,

others work on farms owned by whites.

The zulu society has lost a lot of its stability. But one thing they

havent lost is the solidarity to their fellow tribe members, and they are

all very keen on maintaining their old cultur, inheritated threw

generations.

The Zulues are traditionally polygame. They live on farms in huts

made of grass and each and every wife has one or two of the huts, one to

sleep in an the other one for daily doings. But the women havent only got

their own cabins, they`ve got their own corn storage and their own fields

too. But snice there are not to much land available, and the women has to

grow the land themselves to back up their husbands salary, these kind of

farms becomes rearer and rearer. The majority of the marriges nowadays are

monogame anyway. The farms are split up in smaller units, and the men

leave the farms to seek work in the cities.

Sharing of the gods

The principle about sharing the gods between each other is a very

important issue in the Zulu society. The main meal of the day are served

by the women around two o`clock. All the wives makes three dishes, one for

the men, one for the women and one for the children, the dishes are

carried to the oldes ladys cabin where dinner is served. Inside the cabin

the men eat on the right hand side and the women eat on the left handside

of the room. If there are six married women and each of them have done

their part of the job, there will be six diffrent dishes for all of the

three groops of men, women and children. Every groop eat from one plate of

the time. They take their share and passes the plate on to the next one (

Like we did here in Norway a long time ago). This meal doesn`t only give

all the family members more than enough food. It is altso a sosial

occasion where people relax and talk to each other, and the grown ups

teach the young ones good maners. They watch how the child!

ren eat from the plate, because eating from a plate states the meaning of

sharing, and its important that the younger ones learn this as soon as

possible. because sharing is a very important issue in the Zulu society.

The idea of shearing isn`t only expressed during dinner. The

Zulues sets a lot of their pride in owning caddle, but the demand to share

is much stronger than the urge to own caddle. Each and every member of

workers can take milk from a cow when ever he wants. Its altso a custum to

share the milk outside the farm. The custum called ukusisa, is that a man

gives away his cow to a neighbour who doesn`t have a cow, and he borrows

it until he can manage to feed his own family whith milk from his own

cows. Kings and chiefs have allways used this system to their own

advantage. By borrowing people their animals, he made them even more

dependent to him, at the same time as he gave them milk and meat. If he

wanted to make difficulties he could retire all the animals, and the

lenders would have neither food or milk. This custum is very important in

the zulusociety even today. In times of need they also share their own

grow among each other, because letting a neighbour starv is a shame in!

this society. ” This is the way animals behave, not humans.”

In the spring when the growth come sto an end, everything depends

on the husbands sallary, but in the summer when everything is fresh and

green, they use the money to rebuild their houses and buy clothes and

tools. The chief of the tribe is the mediator if there is a disagreement

over a piece of land. The land is owned by everyone, and single persons

can`t own it, but they are in charge of the land and can use it however

they want as members of the tribe. All the members of the tribe can pick

herbs and firewoods in the forrest, but they can not cut down trees

without the chiefs promission. In general the natur is everybodys, but

nothing happends witout the chiefs promission.

PICKTURE

Daily life and religion

Newcomers can settle inside the tribes teritory if one of the

tribe members goes good for them. The new family lives together with their

friend until the other tribe members has decided if the newcomers are

accsepted or not. In the present of the chief or his representativ, the

newcomers friend points out a piece of land for his friend. As soon as the

new settlers have marked where their land is and payed a little tax to the

chief, they are no longer just paying visiters. They are just as much

members of the tribe as the others, and all the tribe members accepts

this. Maybe we norwegians have something to learn from this?

The overheads and the subjects of the farms prefer to speak about

themselves and their fellow tribe members as a big family, so they can

turn to eachother in times of needs. Members of one family has great

religious and sosial obligations to one another. They have religious

seremonies together and makes sacrifices together and must not practice

magic against eachother or fight. If they do this anyhow, they`ll have to

make a ritual to soften their ancestors and clear misunderstandings of the

way. The oldest man in the family is the leader, and he manages the area

for his relatives and he can not do anything without their agreement. He

also leads a kind of court where disagreements in the family are solved.

The ancestorswatch the familys behaviour and have much more influence in

the daily life than the higher beings – The first being and the Princess

of heaven.

In the beginning was only the first being. He was followed by the Princess

of heaven, and later grew a reed on the river bank and this created the

human. The human formated and the first being send a camelon to tell the

humans that they should not die. Then he send a lizard which told them the

opposite. This legend ends with the Pricess of heaven saving the humans

from distruction by making them fertile, that is why this legend has made

the fundation of the Zulu religion. Their god is “the Princess from

heaven.” Every spring since that time have girls and married women

performed a rituale to make sure they would get a good growth, more cattle

and healthy children.. The Zulues turns to the ” First Beeing” only when a

catastrophe or something bad is near. Normaly ” The first being” and the ”

Princess of heaven” live above the world, and they don`t interfear in the

Zulues daily life. The ancestors, the spirits of the dead, who live

“under” are allways standing by their people. N!

ow that everything goes the right way, the Zulues say: “The ancestors are

behind us.” But on the other hand, when something bad happends, they say:

“The ancestors have turned their back on us.” After the right rituals have

been performed, the spirits of the dead returns to this world and becomes

invisible members of the society.

When a man gets married, the Zulues say that he “takes a wife.”

When a woman gets married, they say she goes for a long journey, not just

because she fysicaly moves into the mans home. But because she also

becomes both wife and mother in his family. Her own ancestors protects her

like a daughter, while her husbands forefathers protects her like a wife

and mother. Gradually she becomes accepted in his family until she stops

doing her original familys rituals and taboos after her menstruation

ceases. When she dies she becomes the spirit of a mother not a daughter,

and she lives among the spirits of her husbands family, and she returns to

the word threw the sacrifices her husbands group brings. The children

belong to the fathers family. The child belongs to the man, the farmer who

sawed the first seed. If the marrige is broken, he will keep the

children.The women is compeard to the earth, which brings life to the

world. If the man dies, she will still be a member of his family, !

and if she is still capale of giving birth she will continue doing this

with her husbands younger brothers help. These children will not belong to

the brother, but to the dead husband.

The Zulues devide illness into to categories. According to their opinion

bad health, colds and epedemics are not a influed by evil powers and are

possible to heal with medications. The other kind of disease is cronic.

Cronic suffering are looked at as a result of magic, mad ancesters or a

dirty soul