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Nobody knows how long there have been people living in the southern part of the African mainland. Experts dates foundings of iron tools in the Swaziland to the 4 th century. Sailors who were shipwrecked outside the coast of South-Africa had contact with people who earned their living by farming and cattle breeding. Later on when the Europeans arrived to South-Africa, they found a people on the east coast of Natal who called themselves" A ma zulu." These people were tall and very atletico build, they could take great effort in both hunting and war and their knowledge to the nature was incredible. The Zulu tribe was once one of South-Africa's biggest and most powerful tribes and they managed to stand up against the British until they lost the Zulu war in 1897. The tribes defence system was were similar to the system we have in Norway today.
The troops were decided into regiments according to their age. And they got military training in diffrent parts of the country, just as we do in Norway today. The Zulues want to keep their tradition and identity alive, but they have a lot to struggle against. The lack of land and the demands from the whites way of life has disturbed their old way of living based on cattle breeding and farming. The majority of the Zulues today live in the villages near by the mines and the cities where they have their work, others work on farms owned by whites. The zulu society has lost a lot of its stability.
But one thing they havent lost is the solidarity to their fellow tribe members, and they are all very keen on maintaining their old culture, inherited threw generations. The Zulues are traditionally polygamy. They live on farms in huts made of grass and each and every wife has one or two of the huts, one to sleep in an the other one for daily doings. But the women havent only got their own cabins, they " ve got their own corn storage and their own fields too. But site there are not to much land available, and the women has to grow the land themselves to back up their husbands salary, these kind of farms becomes reader and reader.
The majority of the marriages nowadays are monogamy anyway. The farms are split up in smaller units, and the men leave the farms to seek work in the cities. Sharing of the gods The principle about sharing the gods between each other is a very important issue in the Zulu society. The main meal of the day are served by the women around two o'clock. All the wives makes three dishes, one for the men, one for the women and one for the children, the dishes are carried to the olde's ladys cabin where dinner is served. Inside the cabin the men eat on the right hand side and the women eat on the left handsome of the room.
If there are six married women and each of them have done their part of the job, there will be six diffrent dishes for all of the three groups of men, women and children. Every group eat from one plate of the time. They take their share and passes the plate on to the next one (Like we did here in Norway a long time ago). This meal doesn't only give all the family members more than enough food. It is also a social occasion where people relax and talk to each other, and the grown ups teach the young ones good makes. They watch how the child!
ren eat from the plate, because eating from a plate states the meaning of sharing, and its important that the younger ones learn this as soon as possible. because sharing is a very important issue in the Zulu society. The idea of shearing isn't only expressed during dinner. The Zulues sets a lot of their pride in owning cable, but the demand to share is much stronger than the urge to own cable.
Each and every member of workers can take milk from a cow when ever he wants. Its also a custom to share the milk outside the farm. The custom called ukusisa, is that a man gives away his cow to a neighbour who doesn't have a cow, and he borrows it until he can manage to feed his own family whith milk from his own cows. Kings and chiefs have allways used this system to their own advantage.
By borrowing people their animals, he made them even more dependent to him, at the same time as he gave them milk and meat. If he wanted to make difficulties he could retire all the animals, and the lenders would have neither food or milk. This custom is very important in the zulu society even today. In times of need they also share their own grow among each other, because letting a neighbour start is a shame in! this society. " This is the way animals behave, not humans. " In the spring when the growth come sto an end, everything depends on the husbands salary, but in the summer when everything is fresh and green, they use the money to rebuild their houses and buy clothes and tools. The chief of the tribe is the mediator if there is a disagreement over a piece of land.
The land is owned by everyone, and single persons can't own it, but they are in charge of the land and can use it however they want as members of the tribe. All the members of the tribe can pick herbs and firewood's in the forrest, but they can not cut down trees without the chiefs permission. In general the natur is everybody's, but nothing happend's without the chiefs permission. PICKTURE Daily life and religion Newcomers can settle inside the tribes territory if one of the tribe members goes good for them. The new family lives together with their friend until the other tribe members has decided if the newcomers are accepted or not. In the present of the chief or his representative, the newcomers friend points out a piece of land for his friend.
As soon as the new settlers have marked where their land is and payed a little tax to the chief, they are no longer just paying visiter's. They are just as much members of the tribe as the others, and all the tribe members accepts this. Maybe we norwegians have something to learn from this? The overheads and the subjects of the farms prefer to speak about themselves and their fellow tribe members as a big family, so they can turn to eachother in times of needs. Members of one family has great religious and social obligations to one another. They have religious sermonizes together and makes sacrifices together and must not practice magic against eachother or fight.
If they do this anyhow, they " ll have to make a ritual to soften their ancestors and clear misunderstandings of the way. The oldest man in the family is the leader, and he manages the area for his relatives and he can not do anything without their agreement. He also leads a kind of court where disagreements in the family are solved. The ancestors watch the family's behaviour and have much more influence in the daily life than the higher beings - The first being and the Princess of heaven.
In the beginning was only the first being. He was followed by the Princess of heaven, and later grew a reed on the river bank and this created the human. The human formated and the first being send a cameron to tell the humans that they should not die. Then he send a lizard which told them the opposite. This legend ends with the Princess of heaven saving the humans from destruction by making them fertile, that is why this legend has made the foundation of the Zulu religion. Their god is "the Princess from heaven. " Every spring since that time have girls and married women performed a ritual to make sure they would get a good growth, more cattle and healthy children...
The Zulues turns to the " First Beeing" only when a catastrophe or something bad is near. Normal " The first being" and the " Princess of heaven" live above the world, and they don't interfere in the Zulues daily life. The ancestors, the spirits of the dead, who live "under" are allways standing by their people. N! ow that everything goes the right way, the Zulues say: "The ancestors are behind us. " But on the other hand, when something bad happend's, they say: "The ancestors have turned their back on us. " After the right rituals have been performed, the spirits of the dead returns to this world and becomes invisible members of the society.
When a man gets married, the Zulues say that he "takes a wife. " When a woman gets married, they say she goes for a long journey, not just because she fysicaly moves into the mans home. But because she also becomes both wife and mother in his family. Her own ancestors protects her like a daughter, while her husbands forefathers protects her like a wife and mother. Gradually she becomes accepted in his family until she stops doing her original family's rituals and taboos after her menstruation ceases. When she dies she becomes the spirit of a mother not a daughter, and she lives among the spirits of her husbands family, and she returns to the word threw the sacrifices her husbands group brings. The children belong to the fathers family.
The child belongs to the man, the farmer who sawed the first seed. If the marriage is broken, he will keep the children. The women is compare to the earth, which brings life to the world. If the man dies, she will still be a member of his family, ! and if she is still capable of giving birth she will continue doing this with her husbands younger brothers help. These children will not belong to the brother, but to the dead husband.
The Zulues device illness into to categories. According to their opinion bad health, colds and epidemics are not a included by evil powers and are possible to heal with medications. The other kind of disease is chronic. Chronic suffering are looked at as a result of magic, mad ancestors or a dirty soul.
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