Lobengula Khumalo (1845–1894), the last king of the Northern Ndebele people

 

From Wikipedia

For other uses, see Lobengula (disambiguation).

 

Lobengula Khumalo
King of Matabeleland (also encompassing Mashonaland)

Reign	September 1868 – January 1894
Coronation	1869
Predecessor	Mzilikazi (Father)
Successor	None
Born	ca. 1845 Matabeleland
Died	presumed January 1894 ca. 70 km south of the Zambesi river in Matabeleland
Spouse	Lozikeyi (1st royal wife), Lomalongwe (2nd royal wife)
Issue	Mpezeni (royal son and heir) born in Bulawayo ca. 1880 and died at Somerset Hospital on 9 December 1899 of pleurisy, Njube (royal son), Nguboyenja (royal son) sent to Cape Town after death of Lobengula and buried at Entumbane near to Mzilikazi, Sidojiwa born at Nsindeni ca. 1888 (royal son) and died 13 July 1960 (buried at Entumbane near to Mzilikazi),[citation needed] and at least one daughter[1]
House	House of Khumalo
Father	Mzilikazi Khumalo, first king of the Northern Ndebele people
Mother	Princess of the Swazi House of Sobhuza I., an "inferior" wife of Mzilikazi

Lobengula Khumalo (1845–1894) was the second and last king of the Northern Ndebele people (historically called Matabele in English). Both names, in the isiNdebele language, mean "the men of the long shields", a reference to the Ndebele warriors' use of the Zulu shield and spear.

 

Background

The Matabele were descendents of a faction among the Zulu who fled north during the reign of Shaka following the mfecane ("the crushing") or difaqane ("the scattering"). Shaka's general Mzilikazi led his followers away from Zulu territory after a falling-out. In the late 1830s, they settled in what is now called Matabeleland in western Zimbabwe, but they claimed the sovereignty of a much wider area. The resulting kingdom was an Iron Age society in which the members of the tribe had a privileged position against outsiders whose lives were subject to the will of the king.
In return for their privileges, however, the Ndebele people both men and women had to submit to a strict discipline and status within the hierarchy. That set out their duties and responsibilities to the rest of society. Infringements of any social responsibility were punished with death, subject to the king's seldom-awarded reprieve. This tight discipline and loyalty were the secret of the Ndebele's success in dominating their neighbours.^[2]

Birthright

After the death of Mzilikazi, the first king of the Ndebele nation, in 1868, the izinduna, or chiefs, offered the crown to Lobengula, one of Mzilikazi's sons from an inferior wife. Several impis (regiments) disputed Lobengula's ascent, and the question was ultimately decided by the arbitration of the assegai, with Lobengula and his impis crushing the rebels. Lobengula's courage in the battle led to his unanimous selection as king.

Coronation

The coronation of Lobengula took place at Mhlanhlandlela, one of the principal military towns. The Ndebele nation assembled in the form of a large semicircle, performed a war dance, and declared their willingness to fight and die for Lobengula. A great number of cattle were slaughtered, and the choicest meats were offered to Mlimo, the Ndebele spiritual leader, and to the dead Mzilikazi. Great quantities of millet beer were also consumed.
About 10,000 Matabele warriors in full war costume attended the crowning of Lobengula. Their costumes consisted of a headdress and short cape made of black ostrich feathers, a kilt made of leopard or other skins and ornamented with the tails of white cattle. Around their arms they wore similar tails and around their ankles they wore rings of brass and other metals. Their weapons consisted of one or more long spears for throwing and a short stabbing-spear or assegai (also the principal weapon of the Zulu). For defence, they carried large oval shields of ox-hide, either black, white, red, or speckled according to the impi (regiment) they belonged to.
The Ndebele maintained their position due to the greater size and tight discipline in the army, to which every able-bodied man in the tribe owed service. "The Ndebele army, consisting of 15,000 men in 40 regiments [was] based around Lobengula's capital of Bulawayo."^[3]
 

The chameleon and the fly: "Did you ever see a chameleon catch a fly? The chameleon gets behind the fly and remains motionless for some time, then he advances very slowly and gently, first putting forward one leg and then the other. At last, when well within reach, he darts his tongue and the fly disappears. England is the chameleon and I am that fly."
— Lobengula^[4]

Rule

Lobengula was a big, powerful, man with a soft voice who was well loved by his people but loathed by foreign tribes. He had well over 20 wives, possibly many more; among them were Xwalile, daughter of king Mzila of the Gaza Empire, and Lozikeyi.^[5] His father, Mzilikazi, had around 200 wives. It is said that he weighed about 19 stone (270 lb; 120 kg). He was a fine warrior but not an equal of his father. Life under Lobengula was less strict than it had been under Mzilikazi; still, the Ndebele retained their habit of raiding their neighbours.
By the time he was in his 40s, his diet of traditional millet beer and beef had caused him to be obese according to European visitors. Lobengula was aware of the greater firepower of European guns so he mistrusted visitors and discouraged them by maintaining border patrols to monitor all travellers' movements south of Matabeleland. Early in his reign, he had few encounters with white men (although a Christian mission station had been set up at Inyati in 1859), but this changed when gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand within the boundaries of the South African Republic in 1886.
Lobengula had granted Sir John Swinburne the right to search for gold and other minerals on a tract of land in the extreme southwest of Matabeleland along the Tati River between the Shashe and Ramaquabane rivers in about 1870, in what became known as the Tati Concession. However, it was not until about 1890 that any significant mining in the area commenced.^{[citation needed]}
Lobengula had been tolerant of the white hunters who came to Matabeleland; he would even go so far as to punish those of his tribe who threatened the whites. But he was wary about negotiation with outsiders, and when a British team (Francis Thompson, Charles Rudd and Rochfort Maguire) came in 1888 to try to persuade him to grant them the right to dig for minerals in additional parts of his territory, the negotiations took many months. Lobengula gave his agreement to Cecil Rhodes only when his friend, Dr. Leander Starr Jameson, who had once treated Lobengula for gout, proposed to secure money and weaponry for the Matabele in addition to a pledge that any people who came to dig would be considered as living in his kingdom. As part of this agreement, and at the insistence of the British, neither the Boers nor the Portuguese would be permitted to settle or gain concessions in Matabeleland. Lobengula sent two emissaries to the British queen. However, they were delayed by Alfred Beit's associates at the port. The 25-year Rudd Concession was signed by Lobengula on 30 October 1888.

Life in Bulawayo, ca. 1900

Matabele War

It soon became obvious that Lobengula had been defrauded and that Beit and Rhodes's team intended to annexe his territory. The First Matabele War began in October 1893, and the British South Africa Company's use of the Maxim gun led to devastating losses for the Ndebele warriors, notably at the Battle of the Shangani. As early as December 1893, it was reported that Lobengula had been very sick, but his death sometime in early 1894 was kept a secret for many months, and the cause of his death remains inconclusive. By October 1897, the white colonists had successfully settled in much of the territory known later as Rhodesia, and Matabeleland was no more.

Lobengula's youngest daughter, ca. 1880-1910

See also

• Shangani Patrol
• Pioneer Column

Notes and references
 

"Lobengula's Youngest Daughter". World Digital Library. 1880–1910. Retrieved 2013-05-30.

Dodds, Glen Lyndon (1998). The Zulus and Matabele: Warrior Nations. Arms and Armour. ISBN 978-1-85409-381-3.

Meredith, Martin (23 September 2008). Diamonds, Gold, and War: The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa. PublicAffairs. pp. 207–208. ISBN 978-1-58648-677-8.

Parsons, Neil (1993). A New History of Southern Africa (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan Press. ISBN 978-0-8419-5319-2.

5. Kathleen E. Sheldon (2005). Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-5331-7.

• Hensman, Howard (1900). A History of Rhodesia (PDF). W. Blackwood and Sons.
• Burnham, Frederick Russell (1926). Scouting on Two Continents. Doubleday, Page.
• Wills, W. A.; Collingridge, L. T. (1894). The Downfall of Lobengula: The Cause, History, and Effect of the Matabeli War. "The African review" offices.
• "LOBENGULA IN A TRAP.; Not Believed that the Matabele King Can Escape". The New York Times. 3 November 1893. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
• "SOUTH AFRICA: The Skull of Lobengula". TIME.com. 10 January 1944. Retrieved 18 August 2016.

External links

• Texts of the Moffat Treaty and Rudd Concession, signed by Lobengula, which gave Britain and the British South Africa Company rights over his land
• History of Lobengula: Last King of the Matebele

Tales from Dystopia XXI: Capitalism and alcoholism (a voice from South Africa)

"...It was about capitalism, not alcoholism. It was not about the failings of the flesh of flesh and blood alcoholics, but about the world powers (kosmokratores) of this present darkness (Ephesians 6:10-12)."

Khanya e isoe ho Molimo holimo

One of the notable features of life in post-apartheid South Africa is the way the Christian churches seemed to drop the ball after 1994. Before 1994 many Christian groups were quite vocal in their critique of apartheid, and in analysing the ills of society. Once the first democratic elections were over, however, they seemed (with a few exceptions) to breathe a collective sigh of relief, sit back and take the attitude that the government should get on with fixing things. After all, the government was now a democratically-elected one.
Perhaps this contributed to the government’s losing its moral compass, and the government seemed to become aware of it before most of the Christian bodies, and the Moral Regeneration movement was a government initiative, though even that has now been forgotten.

Now there is talk of “white monopoly capitalism” and “radical economic transformation”, which I think is more smoke and mirrors, but perhaps that, and some aspects of Christian blindness, can be illustrated by some more tales from the apartheid dystopia.
If I name names, it is not to blame particular people (I think the people named are probably dead by now, and anyway they are no more to blame than many others) but rather to show that this took place in concrete history.
In 1980 I attended a consultation called by the South African Council of Churches (SACC) at Hammanskraal. It was ostensibly called to evaluate the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) Programme to Combat Racism, but it didn’t do that at all.
I was in a group that was discussing racism in the church, and one member of the group, Ben Ngidi, of the Congregational Church, called for a Black Confessing Church. He said it was necessary because blacks responded to the gospel from a position of poverty and oppression, while whites did so from a position of power and privilege. I thought that this was something of an oversimplification, because here we were, a bunch of mainly middle-class mainly clergy, and that black middle-class church leaders were probably not in a better position to respond from a position of poverty and oppression than white middle-class leaders. I was trying to point out that we needed to look at class as well as race.
I gave an example of a black Christian business man whose behaviour could be seen to be oppressive, and everyone in the group sought to justify it. One member of the group, Maredi Choeu, himself a businessman, said, “Perhaps he gives bursaries.”

The example I gave had to do with Nondweni, a resettlement area in Zululand.
In South Africa white people built towns and established businesses, but complained about the shortage of labour. They induced black people to settle close to the towns (but not in them) in places called “locations” or “townships” to provide the labour needed. So there was established a pattern of a white bourgeoisie and a black working class.
When apartheid came in 1948, however, the Nationalist government thought the “locations” were too close to the towns, so they established a different pattern. They built large rural “towns” further away from the white towns, so that the “labour” would commute long distances by bus, train or taxi. But these “towns” where people settled were unnatural. They were urban residential areas in rural areas. There was no industry, no employment. When they were established, and people were forcibly moved to them there were no public buildings at all. There were no shops, no schools, no churches, no clinics. Such places were the product of ethnic cleansing, and most of the people who lived there were unemployed, because there was no work nearby, and as it was an urban area, people could not keep cattle, sheep or goats, which normally fed people in rural areas.
Nondweni was such a place.
And the first public building in Nondweni was a bottle store (liquor store). It was owned by a Christian businessman, Gideon Mdlalose.

The Mthonjaneni Deanery of the Anglican Diocese of Zululand, of which I was then a member, was aware of this, and it was discussed at a deanery conference. In many of the resettlement areas where black people were forced to move the first public building that was erected was a bottle store, so that the unemployed could squander what little money they had on booze, and the businessmen who owned the bottle stores, whether they were black or white, were making private profit out of public misery.

Location of KwaZulu (red) within S. Africa

The Deanery Conference, after discussing this, proposed a very cautious and diplomatically-worded motion on this to be presented to the Diocesan Synod, to the effect that the synod requested the KwaZulu government to be very careful about granting liquor licences in places of high unemployment. The resolution named no names, pointed no fingers at anyone. It did not mention Nondweni specifically, because there were many such places.
The problem, of course, was that the liquor trade was lucrative. KwaZulu was then a “homeland” controlled by an army of (white) civil servants from the central (Nationalist controlled) government in Pretoria, many of whom taught everything they knew about corruption to their black underlings (yes, blaming corruption on apartheid is not entirely wide of the mark).
We debated all this in the Deanery Conference. We could propose blustery resolutions condemning such abuses “in the strongest possible terms” (without, of course, actually using such terms), but we felt that that might make us feel good and self-righteous, but would not actually change anything. So we sent the diplomatically-worded motion to the diocesan office to be included in the synod agenda.
The people at the diocesan office, when they received the motion, decided that it was marvellous, and decided they were going to make it the central focus of the whole synod. The only trouble was, they got it spectacularly wrong.

They hired a film on alcoholism, and were going to get some social worker or someone to speak about alcoholism. And when it came up for discussion at the synod, the clergy, in particular, got up one after another to speak and denounce drinking as a sin. Only one (who was one of the very few white clergy) got up to point out that it was not drinking, but drunkenness that was a sin.
But the sin that the motion was aimed at was not drinking, or even drunkenness, but the sin of economic
exploitation, and one of the chief sinners actually got up and confessed his sin — Gideon Mdlalose himself got up and confessed that the first public building in Nondweni was a bottle store, and that he was the owner of that bottle store, and that terrible things happen there, but if it wasn’t there people would just go to buy their liquor at Nqutu, or if that was closed, they would go to Dundee. But the point of the motion was that hardened drinkers might well do that, but the young children would not. I read Nehemiah 5:7-13 to the synod. Does that not have something to say to all of us, black and white, about “radical economic transformation”?
And it was that example that I put before Maredi Choeu and others at Hammanskraal.
Yes, there is a problem with white monopoly capital. But there is also a problem with Indian monopoly capital, represented by the Guptas. The problem is not with the colour of the capital, but with monopoly capital itself. The ones who are concerned about the colour of the capital are themselves the bourgeoisie. So talking about “white” monopoly capital is something of a smokescreen.

But it is the other problem concerns me more — that a motion to a church synod about capitalism should be transformed into one about alcoholism. By doing so, the church was essentially blaming the victim. Yes, if people did not drink, there would be no business opportunity for a bottle store. But the business opportunity arose because of an unjust political system which removed people from their homes and dumped them in the veld where there were no churches, schools, clinics, sports clubs and above all no work — what else was there to do but drink?
And yes, if a Christian businessman had had scruples about establishing a bottle store in a place like Nondweni, a non-Christian businessman would have even fewer scruples about doing so. Gideon Mdlalose was not a bad man, and I’m not trying to get at him. In fact he was one of the most perceptive people at the synod, because he was one of the few, outside the Mthonjaneni Deanery, who could see what the motion before the synod was really about. It was about capitalism, not alcoholism. It was not about the failings of the flesh of flesh and blood alcoholics, but about the world powers (kosmokratores) of this present darkness (Ephesians 6:10-12).
And the problem persists in our day. We still fail to see the wood for the trees. It is not the racial epithets we put in front of monopoly capitalism, it is monopoly capitalism itself, and the value system that serves it, that we need to be aware of.
___
This is part of a series of blog posts on Tales from Dystopia — memories of the apartheid years in South Africa.

See also

The Orthodox Church in the Republic of South Africa

Orthodoxy in South Africa before and after Apartheid 

Stephen Hayes, A children’s novel about apartheid

Mamelodi (South Africa) : Christina Mothapo’s funeral

How “White” is the Orthodox Church?
Orthodox Mission in Tropical Africa (& the Decolonization of Africa)
 

The Orthodox mission in South Africa (video)

A spiritual trip to South Africa in 2010!

Capitalism Orthodox Church & Capitalism: Orthodox Fathers of Church on poverty, wealth and social justice
Is capitalism compatible with Orthodox Christianity?

Grace and “the Inverted Pyramid” 

 

Kristo amefufuka kutoka Kanisa la Orthodox la Uganda / UKrestu yena kunje / Kristu uvukile yobuOthodoki of Uganda / Christ is Risen from Uganda!

Orthodox Mission in Kamuli - Eastern Uganda
Bukedde TV



Ona pia 

 

Kristo Amefufukka! Kweli Amefufukka! / Christus het opgestaan! Hy het waarlik opgestaan! / Christ is Risen from Africa! Truly is risen!

Yesu Kristo - Mungu akawa mtu na mtu inakuwa kama mungu 

Utatu Mtakatifu, Mungu ambaye anapenda ubinadamu
Bikira Maria, Mama wa Mungu
Kanisa la Orthodox na Kanisa Katoliki
Katika mwanga wa Mungu

Historia ya Kanisa la Orthodox : Ukristo barani Afrika

Maaskofu Orthodox watakatifu watatu: Basili Mkuu, Yohane Krisostomo na Gregori wa Nazianzo 

 

The Orthodox Church in Uganda, an outgrowth of indigenous self discovery 

Orthodox Mission in Tropical Africa (& the Decolonization of Africa)   

The Orthodox Church of Alexandria & the Patriarchate of Alexandria  

Orthodox Uganda (tag in our blog)

Orthodox Mtakatifu Liturujia katika Afrika - About Orthodox Holy Liturgy in Africa (videos)

  

Bondage, faith and spiritual revolution in the Orthodox Holy Liturgy of Holy Saturday
The Passion of Jesus Christ and the Passions of Africa...

The miracle of Holy Fire (Holy Light) in Jerusalem 
The Icon of Resurrection or The descent into Hades  

The Death of Christ and the Life of Man
The Orthodox Holy Week & Holy Easter (Pascha)
 

The Church as the Liberated Zone

"The African culture is ripe and ready for Orthodoxy because her people already live in community..."

"THE WAY" - An Introduction to the Orthodox Faith
Theosis (deification): The True Purpose of Human Life

Zulu

Zulu people

From Wikipedia

"Amazulu" redirects here. For other uses, see Amazulu (disambiguation).

Zulu People
AmaZulu

Jacob Zuma Shaka Albert Lutuli Jeff Radebe Mangosuthu Buthelezi Lucas Radebe Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma Zulu in traditional clothes
Total population
~ 12,159,000[1]
Regions with significant populations
South Africa	10,659,309 (2001 census) to 11,508,000[1][2]
Lesotho	320,000[1]
Zimbabwe	152,000[1]
Swaziland	106,000[1]
Malawi	64,000[1]
Botswana	5,300[1]
Mozambique	3,900[1]
Languages
Zulu (many also speak English, Portuguese, Afrikaans and Xhosa)
Religion
Christian, Zulu religion
Related ethnic groups
Nguni, Xhosa, Swazi, Ndebele, other Bantu peoples

Person	umZulu
People	amaZulu
Language	isiZulu
Country	kwaZulu

The Zulu (Zulu: amaZulu) are a Bantu ethnic group of Southern Africa and the largest ethnic group in South Africa, with an estimated 10–11 million people living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Small numbers also live in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique. Their language, Zulu, is a Bantu language; more specifically, part of the Nguni subgroup.

Origins

The Zulu were originally a major clan in what is today Northern KwaZulu-Natal, founded ca. 1709 by Zulu kaNtombela. In the Nguni languages, iZulu/iliZulu/liTulu means heaven, or sky. At that time, the area was occupied by many large Nguni communities and clans (also called isizwe=nation, people or isibongo=clan). Nguni communities had migrated down Africa's east coast over centuries, as part of the Bantu migrations probably arriving in what is now South Africa in about the 9th century.

Shaka, king of the Zulu. After a sketch by Lt. James King, a Port Natal merchant

Kingdom

Main article: Zulu Kingdom

The Zulu formed a powerful state in 1818^[3] under the leader Shaka. Shaka, as the Zulu King, gained a large amount of power over the tribe. As commander in the army of the powerful Mthethwa Empire, he became leader of his mentor Dingiswayo's paramouncy and united what was once a confederation of tribes into an imposing empire under Zulu hegemony.

Conflict with the British

Main article: Anglo-Zulu War

On 11 December 1878, agents of the British delivered an ultimatum to 11 chiefs representing Cetshwayo. The terms forced upon Cetshwayo required him to disband his army and accept British authority. Cetshwayo refused, and war followed January 12, 1879. During the war, the Zulus defeated the British at the Battle of Isandlwana on 22 January. The British managed to get the upper hand after the battle at Rorke's Drift, and subsequently win the war with the Zulu being defeated at the Battle of Ulundi on 4 July.

Absorption into Natal

Zulu warriors, late nineteenth century
(Europeans in background)

After Cetshwayo's capture a month following his defeat, the British divided the Zulu Empire into 13 "kinglets". The sub-kingdoms fought amongst each other until 1883 when Cetshwayo was reinstated as king over Zululand. This still did not stop the fighting and the Zulu monarch was forced to flee his realm by Zibhebhu, one of the 13 kinglets, supported by Boer mercenaries. Cetshwayo died in February 1884, killed by Zibhebhu's regime, leaving his son, the 15-year-old Dinuzulu, to inherit the throne. In-fighting between the Zulu continued for years, until Zululand was absorbed fully into the British colony of Natal.

Apartheid years
 
KwaZulu homeland  
Main article: KwaZulu
 

Zulu man performing traditional warrior dance

Under apartheid, the homeland of KwaZulu (Kwa meaning place of) was created for Zulu people. In 1970, the Bantu Homeland Citizenship Act provided that all Zulus would become citizens of KwaZulu, losing their South African citizenship. KwaZulu consisted of a large number of disconnected pieces of land, in what is now KwaZulu-Natal. Hundreds of thousands of Zulu people living on privately owned "black spots" outside of KwaZulu were dispossessed and forcibly moved to bantustans – worse land previously reserved for whites contiguous to existing areas of KwaZulu – in the name of "consolidation." By 1993, approximately 5.2 million Zulu people lived in KwaZulu, and approximately 2 million lived in the rest of South Africa. The Chief Minister of KwaZulu, from its creation in 1970 (as Zululand) was Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi. In 1994, KwaZulu was joined with the province of Natal, to form modern KwaZulu-Natal.

Inkatha YeSizwe

Main article: Inkatha Freedom Party

Inkatha YeSizwe means "the crown of the nation". In 1975, Buthelezi revived the Inkatha YaKwaZulu, predecessor of the Inkatha Freedom Party. This organization was nominally a protest movement against apartheid, but held more conservative views than the ANC. For example, Inkatha was opposed to the armed struggle, and to sanctions against South Africa. Inkatha was initially on good terms with the ANC, but the two organizations came into increasing conflict beginning in 1976 in the aftermath of the Soweto Uprising.

Modern Zulu population

Zulu mother and child

The modern Zulu population is fairly evenly distributed in both urban and rural areas. Although KwaZulu-Natal is still their heartland, large numbers have been attracted to the relative economic prosperity of Gauteng province. Indeed, Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in the province, followed by Sotho.

Language

Map of South Africa showing the primary Zulu language speech area in green

Main article: Zulu language

The language of the Zulu people is "isiZulu", a Bantu language; more specifically, part of the Nguni subgroup. Zulu is the most widely spoken language in South Africa, where it is an official language. More than half of the South African population are able to understand it, with over 9 million first-language and over 15 million second-language speakers.^[4] Many Zulu people also speak Afrikaans, English, Portuguese, Xitsonga, Sesotho and others from among South Africa's 11 official languages.

Clothing

See also: Swenkas

Zulu village women in traditional clothing.

Interior space of a traditional beehive hut, or iQhugwane

Zulus wear a variety of attire, both traditional for ceremonial or culturally celebratory occasions, and modern westernized clothing for everyday use.The women dress differently depending on whether they are single, engaged, or married. The men wore a leather belt with two strips of hide hanging down front and back

Religion and beliefs

See also: Zulu mythology

Zulu worshippers at a United African Apostolic Church, near Oribi Gorge

Most Zulu people state their beliefs to be Christian. Some of the most common churches to which they belong are African Initiated Churches, especially the Zion Christian Church and United African Apostolic Church, although membership of major European Churches, such as the Dutch Reformed, Anglican and Catholic Churches are also common. Nevertheless, many Zulus retain their traditional pre-Christian belief system of ancestor worship in parallel with their Christianity.
Zulu religion includes belief in a creator God (Unkulunkulu) who is above interacting in day-to-day human affairs, although this belief appears to have originated from efforts by early Christian missionaries to frame the idea of the Christian God in Zulu terms.^[5] Traditionally, the more strongly held Zulu belief was in ancestor spirits (Amatongo or Amadhlozi), who had the power to intervene in people's lives, for good or ill.^[6] This belief continues to be widespread among the modern Zulu population.^[7]
Traditionally, the Zulu recognize several elements to be present in a human being: the physical body (inyamalumzimba or umzimba); the breath or life force (umoyalumphefumulo or umoya); and the "shadow," prestige, or personality (isithunzi). Once the umoya leaves the body, the isithunzi may live on as an ancestral spirit (idlozi) only if certain conditions were met in life.^[8][9] Behaving with ubuntu, or showing respect and generosity towards others, enhances one's moral standing or prestige in the community, one's isithunzi.^[10] By contrast, acting in a negative way towards others can reduce the isithunzi, and it is possible for the isithunzi to fade away completely.^[11]

Zulu sangomas (diviners)

In order to appeal to the spirit world, a diviner (sangoma) must invoke the ancestors through divination processes to determine the problem. Then, a herbalist (inyanga) prepares a mixture (muthi) to be consumed in order to influence the ancestors. As such, diviners and herbalists play an important part in the daily lives of the Zulu people. However, a distinction is made between white muthi (umuthi omhlope), which has positive effects, such as healing or the prevention or reversal of misfortune, and black muthi (umuthi omnyama), which can bring illness or death to others, or ill-gotten wealth to the user.^[7] Users of black muthi are considered witches, and shunned by society.
Christianity had difficulty gaining a foothold among the Zulu people, and when it did it was in a syncretic fashion. Isaiah Shembe, considered the Zulu Messiah, presented a form of Christianity (the Nazareth Baptist Church) which incorporated traditional customs.^[12]

From our blog

Jesus Prayer in Zulu (here)

Nkosi Jesu Kristu, Ndodana kaNkulunkulu ophilayo, ngihawukele mina isoni. 

Orthodox Zulu (from here)

Notable Zulus
 
Politicians and activists

Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini-Zuma - Chairperson, African Union Commission
Credo Mutwa - Spiritual leader of the Zulu people.
Pixley ka Isaka Seme - Founder of African National Congress and the first black lawyer in South Africa.
Jacob Zuma - President of the Republic of South Africa.
Chief Albert Luthuli - President of the African National Congress and first South African Nobel Peace laureate.
King Shaka ka Senzangakhona - Founder of the Zulu Nation
Princess Constance Magogo Sibilile Mantithi Ngangezinye kaDinuzulu - Artist and Zulu Princess
John Langalibalele Dube - first President of the African National Congress, founder of Ohlange Institute, Educator.
Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Inkatha Freedom Party Founder and President
Ben Ngubane, Former SABC Chairperson & Former Premier of Kwa Zulu Natal
Jeff Radebe, Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Performance, Monitoring, Evaluation and Administration
Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education
Malusi Gigaba, Minister of Home Affairs
Nathi Mthethwa, Minister of Arts and Culture
Sibusiso Ndebele, Former Minister of Correctional services & Former Premier of Kwa Zulu Natal
Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, Founder of National Freedom Party (splinter group from Inkatha Freedom Party)
Business and professional figures
Phuthuma Nhleko, Former MTN CEO 

Academics 

Professor Njabulo Ndebele, Former University of Cape Town Vice Chancellor & Writer.
 
Sport figures
 
Doctor Khumalo, Soccer player
Lucas Radebe, Soccer player
Samkelo Radebe, Paralympic runner and gold medal winner
Siphiwe Tshabalala, Soccer player
 
See also
 
Gumboot dance
Inkatha Freedom Party
List of Zulu kings
List of Zulus
Nguni
Shaka Zulu
Zulu language

References

"The Zulu people group are reported in 7 countries". Retrieved 21 August 2015.

International Marketing Council of South Africa (9 July 2003). "South Africa grows to 44.8 million". southafrica.info. Retrieved 4 March 2005.

Bulliet (2008). The Earth and Its Peoples. USA: Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 708. ISBN 978-0-618-77148-6. "Ethnologue report for language code ZUL". Ethnologue.

Irving Hexham (1979). "Lord of the Sky-King of the Earth: Zulu traditional religion and belief in the sky god". Studies in Religion (University of Waterloo). Retrieved 26 October 2008.

Henry Callaway (1870). "Part I:Unkulunkulu". The Religious System of the Amazulu. Springvale.

Adam Ashforth (2005). "Muthi, Medicine and Witchcraft: Regulating ‘African Science’ in Post-Apartheid South Africa?". Social Dynamics 31:2. External link in |work= (help)

Molefi K. Asante, Ama Mazama (2009). Encyclopedia of African religion, Volume 1. Sage.

Axel-Ivar Berglund (1976). Zulu thought-patterns and symbolism. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers.

Abraham Modisa Mkhondo Mzondi (2009). Two Souls Leadership: Dynamic Interplay of Ubuntu, Western and New Testament Leadership Values (PDF) (Thesis). submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctorate in Theology, University of Johannesburg.

Nwamilorho Joseph Tshawane (2009). The Rainbow Nation: A Critical Analysis of the Notions of Community in the Thinking of Desmond Tutu (PDF) (Thesis). submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctorate in Theology, University of South Africa. "Art & Life in Africa Online - Zulu". University of Iowa. Retrieved 6 June 2007. 

External links

• History section of the official page for the Zululand region, Zululand.kzn.org
• Izithakazelo, wakahina.co.za

From our blog

Orthodox texts into Afrikaans & Zulu

Native ethnic groups of Africa  
 

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