Lecture 4 SOC 154.pptx

Lecture 4 THE SOCIAL ORGANISATION OF THE ZULU  Introduction In every continent and particularly every society, ethnicity has reappeared as a vital social and political force. The political composition of most states, their policies of cultural integration, the...

Lecture 4 THE SOCIAL ORGANISATION OF THE ZULU  Introduction In every continent and particularly every society, ethnicity has reappeared as a vital social and political force. The political composition of most states, their policies of cultural integration, the increasing and intensity of ethnic rivalries, conflict and the proliferation of ethnic movements, have been the main trends and phenomena which testifies to the growing role of ethnicity in the modern world, (Smith, 1981). It is in the light of this that the Zulus have become indispensable elements in the analysis of Apartheid system in South Africa.  Who are the Zulu? Zulu is an African tribe numbering approximately six million (Cambridge Encyclopedia, 1990). Their main home is at Northern part of Natal in South Africa, in the territory now known as the Zululand. They are believed to have migrated from the vicinity of the great Central African lakes about the 15th century (Encyclopedia of Southern Africa, 1964). ‘’The great man’’ history of Zulu oral traditions , praise poetry as well as the work of a number of scholars from the Western tradition, concentrate on Shaka as the founder of the Zulu Kingdom.  Who are the Zulu? Cont’d In many ways Shaka is seen as the founder of the Zulu Kingdom. Shaka personifies the right of the Zulu ethnic origin. According to those myths, it was Shaka’s military innovations which allowed the Zulu Kingdom to rise and dominate neighbouring black societies. The Zulus are Nguni speaking people. They have a handsome appearance and natural dignity. Some Zulu’s wear Western clothing’s but others, mostly women wear tribal clothes. They are fond of coloured clothes; sometimes the hair of a married woman is reddish clay presenting a striking sight.  Who are the Zulu? Cont’d Girls and women of all ages frequently wear nothing above their waist but equally frequently, they wear white vest. Beads play a great part in their tribal dressing in the shape of necklaces, head circlet, bangles around legs and arms and even around their waist. These beads have meaning as clear as conveyed by words.  Social structure of the Zulu Politics The Zulu’s are regarded as aristocrats. This is because the Zulu army concentrated its efforts on dominating neighbouring societies which were even recognized by writers known as Mfecane Who have even perpetuated myths of Zulu military superiority and glorified images of Zulu military kraals (which is a single homestead). In any one clan, situated in a single, easily demarcated neighbourhood were grouped as ward and placed under the supervision of a local headman.  Politics Cont’d Umunumzana, who functioned as a petty magistrate and a member of parliament possessing authority and to adjudicate all minor disputes and acted as a voice and ears of his people in the lower rank in the parliament of clans. The leader or chief is vested with power which is based on his genealogy of the Zulu homeland and also acts as a voice for his people on an international level. Although, the Zulu are officially ruled by the government of South Africa, they often act as a dissenting voice on the national scene.  Religion Like any African religion the Zulu’s fear and honour those spirits who during their lifetime held positions of authority. Normally, women and children do not fall into this category. The father, the grandfather who during their lifetime were responsible for the welfare of the family groups and whose personal characteristics are remembered fall into this category. The tribe as a whole acknowledge; the chief’s and ancestors as a source of communal well being and prosperity.  Religion Cont’d It is their belief that ancestors live in the forests surrounding their early home and that they wonder about in the guise of animals, particularly snakes. To the Zulu, fortune and misfortune in life were regarded as the outcome of the relationship with the unseen. Suffering was the punishment for committing some offence against the unseen. Disease was seen as the visitation of a Great spirit, manifestation of displeasure of ancestral spirits, or the manifestation of evil spirits. The Zulu’s believed that all human activities and especially war were influenced by magic.  Religion Cont’d To them, the magician for example, the witchdoctor was a spiritual leader, a priest of the people who exercised powers that did not belong to him. In times of war, the Zulu war doctor would administer medicine derived from the bodies of fierce animals such as snakes and bulls by rubbing them.  Descent and Marriage A single homestead popularly called Kraal was the basic unit of old Zulu state, a microcosm of the whole clan system. The Zulu clan was a multiplication of minor families descended from an ancestral source represented in the person of a reigning chief. In terms of inheritance and succession, the Zulus are a patrilineal society. Among the Zulus, marriage is traditionally polygamous.  Descent and Marriage Cont’d Marriage is the only acknowledged means by which adulthood is conferred upon the individual. The father is under the obligation to arrange marriage for his son while he later may exercise free choice, subject to parental approval with a circle of close kin. The Zulu practice exogamous marriage. As such each man is dependent on another unrelated to himself for a bride for his son. Such a girl replaces the boy’s sister as a member of the household because the sister is unqualified to extend her parents Lineage (Official Year Book of the Republic of South Africa, 15th Ed.1989/90).  Descent and Marriage Cont’d The Zulu are organized in a very well-structured descent groups that is, patriclans and patrilineage. These well-organised groups give certain rights to their members. It is only through the membership of these descent groups that an individual acquires his citizenship. Among the Zulu, a child is only recognized as a child of the father when all the done ceremonies, the rules governing marriage are obeyed and because of this a child born outside marriage that is children born before their mothers are married do not have any standing in the Zulu society.  Descent and Marriage Cont’d So it is important in Zulu society that you do not only have a father but also the mother is properly married. According to Gluckman, the inheritance system is determined by the position of the mother in the ranking system. To recruit children into their descent groups, Zulus, after marriage all the reproductive services of the woman are transferred to the man and his descent group. There is also a number of tension reducing mechanisms in Zulu marriage.  Descent and Marriage Cont’d For example, Sororal Polygyny which is the marriage of a man to two sisters or more sisters at the same time. This is considered as such because to them it is better for wives to be sisters to overcome the wrath of jealousy hence their proverb ’’the love of sisters will overcome the jealousies of co-wives.’ Another thing related to this is the Sororate. This is where the widower marries the sister of a deceased wife. Another thing he found among the Zulu is that bride wealth is very high and about 8-10 cows are transferred.  Descent and Marriage Cont’d In addition, their marriages are elaborate. It is a big event in which friends, relatives and well-wishers among others are invited and the elaborate nature brings the seriousness to the couple of the undertaking. On moral codes in marriage, the Zulu have very strict moral codes and have strict sanctions to adultery and fornication which lead to marriage instability, example, they punish women by putting salt into their genital organs.  Economy The Zulu are predominantly primary agriculturalist and herdsmen working on their own account, but a very large proportion of them have now become wage earners. It is a common practice for able-bodied men to leave their homes from time to time to enter the service of white employers. As a rule, they did not remain employed for more than six months. In this time they can often without much difficulty save about 10 n pounds or 12 pounds out of their earnings and with this they can return to their Kraal and resume their normal occupation.  Economy Cont’d The Zulus also do basketwork and produce articles that in terms of technique, durability and artistic form would equal any other. Some of their artifacts include mat making. The men did the most difficult work in the agricultural and raw material production center while the women engaged in pottery. The Zulus were war-like and as such they contributed to the fight against the apartheid.  The Apartheid System-What is Apartheid? Apartheid according to the encyclopedia of South Africa literally means ‘’separateness’’ The doctrine was enunciated and supported by the National Party of South Africa and first prominently put before the public in 1949. Although derived from an earlier principle encountered almost throughout South African history and previously referred to as segregation, the idea involves separate development, settlement, economic existence, and government of white and non-white races in South Africa.  The Apartheid System Cont’d Apartheid is variously distinguished as territorial apartheid, social apartheid and economic apartheid. With territorial apartheid each tribal group should own territorial area within which to develop its unique cultural personality. The areas envisaged for the African people who were overwhelming majority, however, were the poverty stricken native reserves comprising little more than 13% of the national territory. Urban segregation was intensified by Group Area Act, which provided for the designation of particular residential areas for specific races.  The Apartheid System Cont’d Indians who often had businesses in the city were often victimized. Coloured people in Cape town were even more drastically affected. The main city centers of the coloured people was declared white and its people settled in distant areas. With social apartheid inter-racial marriages were forbidden. The Immorality Act, banning sexual relation between whites and blacks were extended to include relations between  The Apartheid System Cont’d Racial segregation in public places, trains and buses, as well as post offices and hospitals were introduced wherever it has not been previously practiced. Beaches were fenced off into separate areas for different races the Bantu Education Act removed the right of non-white students to attend the previously opened University of Cape town and Witwatersrand. There were also separate Nursing Councils and Associations in the Bantustans (African South of the Sahara, 1993:768). The blacks were deprived of their fundamental political rights such as voting, serving in parliament etc.  The Apartheid System Cont’d Apartheid, its proponents argue was supposed to prevent exploitation of blacks and thereby lessen inter-racial conflicts. It was also argued that there were many differences between blacks and whites in terms of their culture hence it was dangerous and paradoxical to keep them together. This notwithstanding, Verowoerd (1958-1966) stated without apology in 1963 ‘’We want to make South Africa white…….., keeping it white can mean one things namely white domination, white supremacy, black exploitation as well as political and social repression.  The Apartheid System Cont’d In matters of power, status and wealth, the accident of birth is everything. As a result of those segregationist policies, Grundy indicated that Apartheid was indeed the chief cause of South Africa’s problems; it is the evil that must be rooted out since it has compounded the pervasive poverty. This has resulted in a lot of struggles by different groups including the Zulus against apartheid.  The Zulu and the Apartheid System Under apartheid, the homeland of KwaZulu 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’’.  The Zulu and the Apartheid System Cont’d 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.  Contributions of the Zulus against Apartheid. Indeed, the Zulus have been known for their war-like nature and as a matter of fact they can best be likened to the ancient war- like state of Denkyira and Ashanti of modern day Ghana. Being the most dominant and aristocratic group in South Africa, they felt most repressed by the apartheid and racist policies of the British since they could no longer have the liberty to dominate other smaller units such as the Xhosas, nor occupy their aristocratic position.  Contributions of the Zulus against Apartheid. Cont’d This has been described by Washbrook and Wallestein as the ideology of ‘’Hegemonic Universalism’’ which is pretty close to the ideology of ‘’Occidentalism’’ of Philip Corrigan. As a result Shula Marks argues that no group in South Africa been locked into past colonial state of Apartheid than the Zulus and hence their outstanding resistance. Even before the formal introduction of apartheid Zulu under Cetwayo violently resisted segregationist tendencies exhibited by the British during the battle of Isandhlwna in January 1879 between the British and the Zulus.  Contributions of the Zulus against Apartheid. Cont’d The Zulus destroyed a cracked British Column. Great Britain lost 1600 men in one of the greatest military disasters of the British (Hull, 1981:72). As a result of the residential apartheid effort, there was the introduction of t Bantu Homeland policy where by a form of local ‘’independence’’ was granted to politically manageable and ethically defined homelands under a Chief’s control. Those within the ‘’independent’’ homelands had access to be employed in local police  Contributions of the Zulus against Apartheid. Cont’d Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the Chief Minister of KwaZulu consistently opposed the ‘’Homelands’’ policy and advocated for the introduction of majority rule in South Africa. In 1983 he and some other homeland leaders rejected the constitutional reform which had been adopted by the South African government as they continued to exclude blacks from participating in central government. Contributions of the Zulus against Apartheid. Cont’d Chief Buthelezi and the chief ministers of Lebowa and Kangwane stated they will never accept full independence from South Africa for their territories. Buthelezi also used his political immunity conferred on him by his position to attack apartheid. He attempted to transform Inkatha, the Zulu cultural movement that he revived into a national political force to consolidate an alliance with coloured and Indian political movement to resist apartheid (Africa South  Contributions of the Zulus against Apartheid. Cont’d Having been founded in 1928 by the Zulu King, Solomon Kadinizulu, as a national Liberation Movement, Inkatha used peaceful and non-racial procedures in its fight against apartheid. Inkatha helped in uniting the Zulus and launched a wave of strikes, which paralysed mines and industries in many parts of South Africa. This was because of the prevalence of poor conditions of service for the blacks. For example, in the gold mines it was only the blacks who went underground with little or no protective clothing resulting in high death occurrences from diseases such as tuberculosis. Contributions of the Zulus against Apartheid. Cont’d A Zulu based movement ensured that there was massive expansion of the Trade Unions, this was perhaps to fight against the injustices in employment. Zulu students also contributed tremendously to the fight against apartheid. Example, the University of Zululand students union carried out a lot of demonstrations against the introduction of Bantu Education Act which discriminated against non-whites.  Contributions of the Zulus against Apartheid. Cont’d Discontent erupted violently in June 1976, when school children in Soweto, the gigantic township outside of Johannesburg some of whom were perhaps Zulus protested against Arithmetic and Social science instructions in Afrikaans, which they regarded as the language of the oppressors. The Soweto uprising as it came to be called, spread throughout South Africa and lasted more than a month, at least 600 were killed and 2400 were wounded according to official estimates (Grundy 1991:15)  Conclusion From the above, we could ascertain that the Zulu immensely contributed to the fight against apartheid. It is worthy of note, however, that apart from the Zulu, some individuals, organisations and countries also played critical roles in the abolishing of apartheid in South Africa. Such individuals include musicians(Lucky Dube who voice out against apartheid through songs like Prisoner, House of exile etc). Nationalists such as Nelson Mandela of ANC fame, Steve Biko, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and other freedom fighters had consistently lambasted the British authorities until its final demise.  Conclusion Cont’d As well as Organisations such as O.A.U, the UN and other inter-governmental and non- governmental organisations. As has already been outlined, no single cultural or ethnic group had vehemently resisted apartheid than the Zulus. Their role in its final demise can therefore not be underestimated. It is however important to note that despite the abolishing of apartheid a lot of racial and discriminatory tendencies still about in South Africa today.