Eczabini Homestead with Pix following
Eczabini was actually a really really interesting trip in a surreal kind of way. The man who greeted us in full Zulu costume at the homestead was white but I think he grew up around here and he speaks Zulu fluently. He was extremely knowledgeable but he's also clearly embracing a very New Age lifestyle, picking and choosing from different cultures as he sees fit, because although we saw the sort of "pure Zulu" homestead which they keep as an educational center, we also saw his personal hut, with the Hindu prayers. BUT, in his defense, KwaZulu Natal has the largest population of Indians outside of India, so it actually is a part of the local flavor and culture--however, I would venture to say that Zulus don't adopt it, whereas as a South African white who is living like Zulus in the rural areas, he probably feels more free to include whatever he wants.
However, the actual homestead that is used as an educational center seemed pretty spot on, from what I've read and how our teachers grew up.
He showed us around and told us a lot of really interesting things about how Zulus lived traditionally and how they live in the rural areas now. First, we were shown the cattle kraal, which occupies the central part of a homestead. Nguni cattle were and are extremely important to Zulu culture for a number of reasons.
First of all, they are a sign of wealth. Like many African cultures, wealth was carried in cattle, not in money or other acquisitions.
Second, they are an important source of food, especially milk.
Thirdly, cows are used for making muthi--medicine. Traditional healers frequently use Nguni cows (and they can't be the ordinary European cows imported here in the 19th century by colonialists) for healing rites. The slaughtering of a cow is an important connection to ancesters, and can be a request for help. The use of other cow parts, such as urine or bile, may be used to break curses laid on an individual by other sangomas. (For example, if a young woman is jealous of another woman, she may lay a curse on the other woman. In order to break the curse, the young woman who was so cursed will undergo an important ceremony, involving not only teh slaughtering of an Nguni cow, but also perhaps drinking the bile until the regurgitates and the spirits that are plaguing her leave.) (I have a lot more to say about cattle in Zulu culture historically. When the British colonized Natal, and later Zululand, during the 19th century, they broke the backs of the amaXhosa and amaZulu by destroying their cattle and robbing them of this wealth. It's actually a very very interesting historical study, which you may read more about if you read any of the papers I write in the next year. :-)
Fourthly, and perhaps most importantly, since they form the basis of lobola, they are important in making and keeping connections between family. Marriage in many African cultures is a relationship between clans and families. The exchange of cattle from the husband's familiy to the wife's family is a gift so that the children she bears belong to the husband's family. If there is no exchange of cattle (and other gifts), then the children belong to the wife's family. The exchange of cattle is called lobola. In today's South Africa, lobola is a real problem. In the mid 19th century, the British colonial official in charge of Native Affairs, Theophilus Shepstone (who is very important in my research, by the way) set the number of cattle at 11 for ordinary girls and 15 for the daughters of chiefs. That is the minimum number of cattle you can offer BY LAW (though a parent could ask for more.) You CANNOT get married without exchanging lobola. Currently, there is a lot of talk and negotiation to try and change this law but it is complicated. In the meantime, it takes a very long time for people to acquire the money to pay the lobola. (Under the apartheid system, it was virtually impossible. In addition, apartheid laws were designed to keep men as migrant workers living separately from their families so that mining corporations etc. did not have to pay a man a living wage that could maintain a family as well.) Thus, many many many men and women start having their families long before they are married; rarely do they live together--they simply start their families and after ten or twenty years, the man completes the lobola payment and then they get married. I have a lot more to say about this but not now.
OK. So I already knew all of that that I wrote above but at the homestead, we learned why kraals are circular. There are no corners in Zulu culture, according to this man, because corners are where spirits linger. It is also were snakes and other creatures can hide but if a homestead is built in a circular manner, they are less likely to find places where they can curl up. Interesting--I'd like to find out more about that. We learned how the Zulu spread a thin layer of cow dung on the floor (which has a lot of antiseptic properties, by the way), and we saw how the women made the bed mats, and how they thatched the grass roofs, and a typical altar to the ancestors. We got to taste utshwala, which is traditional sorghum beer (has about 1-2% alcohol content, by the way, so Utah state has nothing on traditional Zulu alcohols). (If you're interested in alcohol in history and in African culture, I wrote a paper about this last May, so I also have a lot to say about it historically, as it was used as a means by government to control African labor in the late 19th century all the way through the apartheid era. Thus, protests and riots that centered around alcohol--especially traditional sorghum beer brewed by Zulu women--were part of the anti-colonial and anti-apartheid protests of the 20th century.) Anyway, it tasted kind of like a thick and sort of sour wine. I could really like it if I had enough time to get used to it.
All-right, pictures follow.
However, the actual homestead that is used as an educational center seemed pretty spot on, from what I've read and how our teachers grew up.
He showed us around and told us a lot of really interesting things about how Zulus lived traditionally and how they live in the rural areas now. First, we were shown the cattle kraal, which occupies the central part of a homestead. Nguni cattle were and are extremely important to Zulu culture for a number of reasons.
First of all, they are a sign of wealth. Like many African cultures, wealth was carried in cattle, not in money or other acquisitions.
Second, they are an important source of food, especially milk.
Thirdly, cows are used for making muthi--medicine. Traditional healers frequently use Nguni cows (and they can't be the ordinary European cows imported here in the 19th century by colonialists) for healing rites. The slaughtering of a cow is an important connection to ancesters, and can be a request for help. The use of other cow parts, such as urine or bile, may be used to break curses laid on an individual by other sangomas. (For example, if a young woman is jealous of another woman, she may lay a curse on the other woman. In order to break the curse, the young woman who was so cursed will undergo an important ceremony, involving not only teh slaughtering of an Nguni cow, but also perhaps drinking the bile until the regurgitates and the spirits that are plaguing her leave.) (I have a lot more to say about cattle in Zulu culture historically. When the British colonized Natal, and later Zululand, during the 19th century, they broke the backs of the amaXhosa and amaZulu by destroying their cattle and robbing them of this wealth. It's actually a very very interesting historical study, which you may read more about if you read any of the papers I write in the next year. :-)
Fourthly, and perhaps most importantly, since they form the basis of lobola, they are important in making and keeping connections between family. Marriage in many African cultures is a relationship between clans and families. The exchange of cattle from the husband's familiy to the wife's family is a gift so that the children she bears belong to the husband's family. If there is no exchange of cattle (and other gifts), then the children belong to the wife's family. The exchange of cattle is called lobola. In today's South Africa, lobola is a real problem. In the mid 19th century, the British colonial official in charge of Native Affairs, Theophilus Shepstone (who is very important in my research, by the way) set the number of cattle at 11 for ordinary girls and 15 for the daughters of chiefs. That is the minimum number of cattle you can offer BY LAW (though a parent could ask for more.) You CANNOT get married without exchanging lobola. Currently, there is a lot of talk and negotiation to try and change this law but it is complicated. In the meantime, it takes a very long time for people to acquire the money to pay the lobola. (Under the apartheid system, it was virtually impossible. In addition, apartheid laws were designed to keep men as migrant workers living separately from their families so that mining corporations etc. did not have to pay a man a living wage that could maintain a family as well.) Thus, many many many men and women start having their families long before they are married; rarely do they live together--they simply start their families and after ten or twenty years, the man completes the lobola payment and then they get married. I have a lot more to say about this but not now.
OK. So I already knew all of that that I wrote above but at the homestead, we learned why kraals are circular. There are no corners in Zulu culture, according to this man, because corners are where spirits linger. It is also were snakes and other creatures can hide but if a homestead is built in a circular manner, they are less likely to find places where they can curl up. Interesting--I'd like to find out more about that. We learned how the Zulu spread a thin layer of cow dung on the floor (which has a lot of antiseptic properties, by the way), and we saw how the women made the bed mats, and how they thatched the grass roofs, and a typical altar to the ancestors. We got to taste utshwala, which is traditional sorghum beer (has about 1-2% alcohol content, by the way, so Utah state has nothing on traditional Zulu alcohols). (If you're interested in alcohol in history and in African culture, I wrote a paper about this last May, so I also have a lot to say about it historically, as it was used as a means by government to control African labor in the late 19th century all the way through the apartheid era. Thus, protests and riots that centered around alcohol--especially traditional sorghum beer brewed by Zulu women--were part of the anti-colonial and anti-apartheid protests of the 20th century.) Anyway, it tasted kind of like a thick and sort of sour wine. I could really like it if I had enough time to get used to it.
All-right, pictures follow.
posted by Jessica Somewhere in the States at 7:35 AM
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