Download Zulu Ancestors Around the Great Lake regions of Central and East

Zulu Ancestors
Around the Great Lake regions of Central and East Africa lived the Bantu,
which in the language of the Zulus is a collective noun for ‘people’. The
Ngumi people also lived in this region and they were the direct ancestors of
the Zulu people. They were called Zulu after the individual who headed a
migration from Egypt to the Great Lakes via the corridor of the Red Sea. In
Zulu folklore links are said to exist between the Zulu people, Egypt, the Old
Testament and Israel. The new home land of the Ngumi people was called
Embo. Contemporary Zulu story tellers still refer to this mystical land of
Embo. The Ngumi people existed as pastoralists and subsistence farmers.
Wealth was measured in cattle. A practice still kept up to this present day
and a custom which still exists in many regions of Africa.
During the Iron Age there was a large increase in the population and in
cattle. This led to a mass migration of the Ngumi people. Their chiefs
started to move their people east and south east to the rich arable areas
which existed along the Indian Ocean coastline. The Karanga people went
south to what is now Zambia and Zimbabwe. Because of internal strife and
tension amongst the Karanga people they migrated even further south.
Approximately 700 years ago the Lala people met up with the stone age
bushmen. Initially the Lala people and the Bushmen benefited from their
shared existence and knowledge. For instance the Bushman began to use
arrow heads when they went out hunting and specific tools when out
foraging and harvesting crops. The Lala people started to form static
communities in what was once Bushmen territory. Crops were grown and
their animals had fixed grazing areas. Trade relationships developed
between the two groups and for two centuries they lived in peaceful
coexistence before tensions developed and the Bushmen were forced to go to
land further south in order to maintain their sense of identity and lifestyle.
The San or Bushmen who live a hunter and gather existence are said to be
the oldest inhabitants of Southern Africa. These were the people responsible
for the cave paintings and rock engravings found in this region of Africa and
bear similarities to the rock paintings found in the Sahara and from Ethiopia
down all the way to the Cape of Good Hope. The language of the San
people has a distinctive click, a manner of speech which has survived in
some Bantu languages. The San people are small in stature and live close to
nature. They used stone age tools and weapons. Their tools consisted of
items such as flint scrapers with wooden handles, bows and arrows with
wooden or bone arrow heads and quite often were often dipped in poison.
The Khoikhoi or Hottenots have ancestral links to the San people. They are
the offspring of Bantu farmers and pastoralists and San women. Within their
culture they had many stories which were similar to that of Aesop fables.
They are also said to have worshipped Pleides. The women are said to have
climbed hills with their children to praise the ‘6 Sisters’ as they rose in the
night sky.
During the 16th Century there was a continuation of the exodus from the
Great Lakes of Central and East Africa. Large masses of Ngumi people
headed towards the sea from the Lebombo Mountains. Women carried their
possessions on their heads. Young boys urged the stock forward with small
sticks in their hand. Many of the migrating clans settled on this fertile
coastal strip and they called the region Maputaland after their king. Later on
there was a further migration southwards to more fertile land in a landscape
which had powerful flowing rivers. These new arrivals put more pressure on
the Bushmen communities and the Lala people were faced with the stark
choice of either integrating or moving on.
Maladela or The Follower was the chief of one group. He had discovered an
idyllic fertile valley which he occupied with his numerous wives and the rest
of his clan. No form of central authority existed. Clans consisted of
patriarchal social units and the chiefdoms were rulled over by the most
powerful clan. These cohesive groups varied in size from around a thousand
people to much greater numbers where groups of chiefs were governed by
an Overlord. Spheres of influence and alliances were in a constant state of
flux.
Malendala’s son was called Zulu which means Heaven. Zulu’s wives
travelled with him to a fresh area south of the Mkhumbane river basin where
very tall euphorbia trees grew. These trees became the symbol of Zulu
chiefs. This became known as the first Kwazulu or Place of Heaven. Zulu
built his new home based upon traditional designs. This consisted of a
central and circular cattle fold. A pole and thatched bee hive huts for family
members arranged in a crescent at the high sloping area of land. The floors
of the huts were made up of a mix of anthill sand and cattle dung and
polished to look like green marble. The round houses which were formed
around the cattle units were placed in a strict hierarchal order. Each house to
the left was allocated for the men folk while the houses on the right were for
the women folk. The fronts of each dwelling place represented the public
arena. A public space where the whole community could meet while at the
back of each house private religious ceremonies took place.
Similar layouts of communities occur in Zimbabwe, the Transvaal and
Botswana. In eastern Botswana, hill side sites which date back to 700 years
AD have been found to have adapted similar structures. In the Toutswe
culture they were seen as an elite group, they lived on the top of hillsides,
kept herds of cattle and cultivated millet and sorghum.
Small irregular shaped fields were cultivated for the production of grains
and vegetables. Thorn hedges were grown to prevent the cattle from
wandering into the arable fields. These communities were self-sufficient.
Cattle pens played a crucial role within the community. They played a ritual
role and only through certain sacrificial rituals could the spirits of the
ancestors be pacified. Also ones status within the community was based
upon the amount of cattle one owned. Through the dowry system the
number of cattle was equated with the number of wife’s one had. Having a
large number of wives meant that one would have more children to act as
labourers and when daughters were married off the size of the herd increased
even further. Cattle also provided staples such as food and milk and hide for
clothes and for battle shields. Many rituals and ceremonies took place in the
cattle fold. Grain pits for the storage of winter fodder were dug in the area
of the cattle folds.
Southern Africa has some very old established communities. For example
from St Helena Bay in the west to Kosi Bay in the east which is a distance of
1000 miles boulders have been used to catch fish during the movement
between high and low tide. Rock pool traps which date back to between
5000 years and 3000 years are found along this piece of coast. At high tide
fish would enter these constructed rock pools but as the tide went out a rock
would be placed into the pool to prevent the fish or water from rushing out.
These pools were either single pools or a network of pools and were possibly
owned by a small group who would manage them on a seasonal basis. The
pools were capable of catching a large amount of fish.
Southern Africa also possesses an ancient history of mining. There is a story
about a group of miners whoa re said to have arrived from the east and form
the south and could have been the ancestors of the first miners of Swaziland.
They opened up mines at Phalabowa and found rich seams of copper and
iron ore. And named the mines M’sina or The Spoiler. Later they migrated
further north to the banks of the Limpopo River. They were not circumcised
and ate their food with a spoon. It is thought that they might have had
connections with India, Indonesia or Portugal. The M’sina miners were still
mining for copper when the first Europeans arrived who proceeded to take
over the mines, naming the new town Messina. The last of the M’sina
copper miners, Makushu Dau was photographed in 1920.
The landscape of Southern Africa has changed. The end of the last Ice Age,
10,000 Years ago caused water temperatures to increase off the coast by 5
degrees. On a number of occasions between 80,000 and 18,000 Years ago
there were much higher rainfall levels then today. A large lake existed at
Alexanderfontein near Kimberley 16,000Years ago. This is proof of much
higher levels of rainfall during this period.
Climate wise where the winter in the southern hemisphere is between June
and august there are cyclones which move in an easterly direction in the
southwest corner of Africa. The interior is cold and dry but during Summer,
the region warms up and an area of low pressure is created. This brings in
Summer rains from the Indian Ocean while the Southwest Cape experiences
dry weather.
Classroom Activities for Zulu Ancestors
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Map out the migrations of the Zulu ancestors.
Draw and describe the outline of a typical Zulu village.
Create your own Hottenot myth based upon a story from Aesop’s
fables.
Look at examples of Zulu art and craft. Design your own piece of art
based upon Zulu type designs.