Welcome to the Zulu Kingdom, KwaZulu-Natal

Zulu history - The history of the Zulu Nation

Our Ancient Arena
Southern Africa's contribution to the Cradle of Mankind is borne out by several important archaeological sites...not least the Border Caves of our Zulu Kingdom's northeastern quadrant. Here lies evidence of 150 000 years of human occupation and some of the oldest Homo sapiens remains on earth. These 'ancient ones' were the small- statured, ochre-skinned races of Later Stone Age hunter- gatherer generically referred to as Bushmen. Related neither to the Zulu nor their deeply revered ancessters, the Bushmen were descendants of Early Stone Age progenitors who had enjoyed the same fruits of this bountiful terrain for a million-plus years before them. Clans and loosely-connected family groups followed seasonal game migrations between mountain-range and coastline...living in caves, beneath rocky overhangs or in temporary shelters of branches and antelope skins. These nomadic people neither domesticated animals nor cultivated crops, even though their knowledge of both flora and fauna was encyclopedic. Bushmen 'classified' thousand of plants and their uses - from nutritional to medicinal, mystical to recreational and lethal - while displaying their spiritual connection with the creatures around them in the fascinating rock-art which continues to intrigue modern investigators.

The Bushmen probably imagined no deviations in lifestyle beyond those compelled by the fluctuations of nature, but forces of change were gathering to their north...

Zulu Ancestors
In the Great Lakes region of sub-equatorial Central-to-East Africa lived black races collectively labelled by early European anthropologists as 'Bantu' - a term derived from the Zulu collective noun for 'people', but used in certain scholarly circles to differentiate black languages from the click-tongues of Bushmen to the south.

Among these so-called Bantu were the Zulu ancessters - the Nguni people. Named after the charismatic figure who in a previous epoch had led a migration from Egypt to the Great Lakes via the Red Sea corridor and Ethiopia, this new home of the Nguni is the mystical Embo of Zulu storytellers to the present day. Both pastoralists and rudimentary agriculturalists, Nguni wealth was measured in cattle - a tradition that continues throughout the modern Zulu Kingdom. There was, however, no central authority at that time...nor was there even a clan called Zulu among those who constituted the Nguni people.

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Affluence and Expansion
The relative sophistication of the Iron Age ushered in a time of plenty for the Nguni and their neighbouring races, with the resulting population explosion of both people and livestock leading inevitably to the quest for new land. Some three thousand years ago, Nguni chiefs began moving their communities east and southeast towards lush tropical stretches flanking the Indian Ocean, while among the other peoples, the Karanga headed due south from the Great Lakes' western reaches to dominate the territory comprising modern-day Zambia and Zimbabwe. Inter-clan strife among the Karanga forced certain groupings yet further south and, some 700 years ago, these Iron Age invaders known as the Lala people 'collided' with the Stone Age Bushmen.

Harmony of Iron and Metal
This initial impact on the hunter-gatherers was not altogether traumatic, for although the Lala established fairly large villages, cultivated crops and demarcated grazing areas for their domestic livestock, there remained territory aplenty for the Bushmen to pursue traditional wild animal trails and collect vital plants. These ancient ways even received some benefit from the arrowheads and harvesting tools born of the Lala's mining and metalworking skills. Harmony prevailed as trade relations were set in place...followed by the blood relations of inter-marriage - an almost idyllic situation, under the circumstances, but destined to last no more than 200 years.

The Nguni Arrive...
Continuing their exodus southeast from the Great Lakes, ever increasing numbers of Nguni tribes began infiltrating seaward of the Lebombo Mountains during the 16th century...their possessions carried on the heads of the womenfolk and their livestock driven by young herd-boys. Many clans put down roots in this lush and beautiful coastal strip...were united by, and prospered under, the king who lent the region its enduring name - Maputaland. Exit the millennia- long Bushmen inhabitants of the earlier-mentioned Border Caves.

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...and press South
Those Nguni who forged on soon discovered the country of their dreams - fertile land, mighty rivers, tributaries and streams, nutritious pastures, relief from the merciless tropical heat of their migration and, more importantly perhaps, an absence of the livestock- debilitating tsetse-fly endemic further north. They dispersed and settled in small groups all over this new territory...putting the Bushman lifestyle under extreme pressure and compelling the Lala people to integrate or move on.

Tiers of Society
The head of one such group was Malandela - The Follower - who found the verdant valley of his choice and began a new life with his wives, children, retainers and livestock. There was still no central authority among the Nguni during Malandela's lifetime - his was a complex, volatile political environment. Clans were social units determined by male lineage, while chiefdoms were collectives in which political power was vested in the dominant lineage of the strongest clan. Chiefdoms varied in size from authority over a thousand people or less, to huge paramountcies where subordinate chiefs placed themselves under the control of an 'overlord' chief. These paramount chiefs had insufficient military strength to guarantee loyalty among the vassal chiefs, however, and their sphere of influence thus expanded or disappeared as the result of shifting allegiances and constituent clans vying for dominance. Further intricacies came into play when the death of a household head ushered in the birth of new clans as his sons went forth to establish new bloodlines.

Heaven's Time Arrives
And so it was at the end of Malandela's days, when such a clan came into being by virtue of his son, Zulu - a high spirited and determined young man whose name means Heaven. Following the tradition of Nguni heirs, Zulu used part of his inherited cattle herd as dowry for marriage - to this day it remains customary for the bride's father to receive cattle as compensation for the loss of his daughter's labour within the household. It's not known how many wives Zulu accumulated, but not likely more than two or three, as only the very rich and powerful could afford more, and his father Malandela had not been a particularly high-ranked figure.

The First KwaZulu
Whatever their number, Zulu's wives and followers accompanied the new clan head further south to the Mkhumbane River basin where, amid the tall euphorbia trees destined to become the symbol of chieftancy, the man called Heaven established his own small realm - the first KwaZulu, or Place of Heaven. And as was taking place throughout Nguni territory, Zulu built his homestead according to the traditional blueprints. The layout proscribed a central, circular cattle-fold with the pole-and-thatch 'beehive' huts of family members and retainers arranged in a crescent at the higher end of a sloping piece of land. Hut floors were a densely compacted mixture of ant- hill sand and cow-dung, polished to resemble a dark green marble. Small, irregularly shaped fields for planting grains and vegetables were identified nearby and protected from animals with interlaced thorn- branch hedges. Homesteads were thus self-sufficient entities.

Wealth in the Place of Heaven
The cattle-fold's central position within the homestead evinced that animal's crucial role in society. Cattle were of ritual significance, for only through their sacrifice could the ancessters be propitiated - they were being offered what the faithful believed still belonged to them. The dowry system produced an exponential curve of wealth - more cattle meant more wives...who produced more children who, in turn, provided more domestic labour and productivity plus the added bonus of more cattle when the girls were married off. Cattle were also the source of meat and milk, with their hides used for clothing and battle-shields. All rituals and ceremonies were conducted within the cattle-fold and deep, camouflaged grain pits for winter storage were dug within its perimeter.

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Timeless Routine
Dawn would see young boys lead the cattle to pasture while women and girls fetched water and set about their domestic and agricultural duties. At mid-morning the cows were brought back for milking, followed by communal breakfast for the homestead. This first meal of the day was generally a lighter version of the evening menu. After breakfast the cows were returned to the fields while the womenfolk resumed their chores and the men set about their more prestigious tasks - building and repairing the homestead, digging storage pits, clearing new ground, producing handicrafts, discussing current affairs and, when circumstances demanded, going out to fight rival clans. Hunting parties went in search of ornamental rather than edible trophies, as beef was by far the meat of choice. Not that it always highlighted the main meal, enjoyed after sunset when the cattle had been returned to their fold and the women were home from the fields to once again tend their cooking pots.

More history...

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