Sawubona from KwaZulu Natal the province of St Lucia and the heartland of the Zulu people. I thought I should share with you the little bits I have picked up about the Zulu culture and way of life. We get an opportunity to spend time in the local village and attend a cultural evening mid week. It also happens to be the birthday of one of our newest volunteers, Lisa. She has just arrived from the Netherlands and she is turning 18. Wow! I wonder if she realises how lucky she is to be turning 18 in Africa.
The Zulu and Xhosa are two of the most important ethnic groups here. The word Zulu means heaven and has come down from the name of an ancient chief.
We have been invited to a reconstructed Zulu village to partake of a traditional meal and to witness some of their dancing. One of the guys greets us and shows us around. He is obviously out to impress us with a few tall tales and tells us stories about his 10 wives including the one Australian wife he has back in town. We realise right away this is a very male dominated culture when he instructs us that the men must always enter the huts in the village first and the women follow after. 
The reconstructed village comprises of a number of spherical huts built of tightly woven grasses. There are special huts for the men, women and ancestors. Men and women do live together after marriage but there are strict rules about their association prior to tying the knot.
The ancestors hut is decorated with numerous spears, animal skins, various belts and other accessories made of brightly coloured beads. The women will weave different colours into their belts to send out certain messages as the colours of the beads all have symbolic meaning. White for virginity, Red for an unmarried lady who was ready and available (I think) and yellow if you were jealous of a rival vying for the attention of your man :)! On the ground spread out before us is a variety of Zulu outfits for us to try on.
The types of clothes you wear reflects your status. The Zulu chief gets to wear a majestic leopard skin around his shoulders while the the women wear rather unattractive skirts made of thick animal hide. The skirts are prettied up with the beaded belts and interesting head gear. The women are usually expected to be topless and show off their bodies until they get married at which stage they are expected to cover up – cover up the property of their man so to speak! Our guide keeps saying,”I love this culture”! Well, I can see why.
We are invited to try on the skirts and other accessories. This is definitely not my best look….
Explaining the customs takes rather a long time so we are happy when they finally invite us to dinner. They have cooked us quite a feast. Pap, a chicken curry, spinach, beetroot, mashed pumpkin and other side dishes. The food is tasty and we are hungry, so we tuck in.
After dinner we are invited to watch them dance. Only the men folk are here and they are dressed in traditional gear. (Sorry, the light was appalling so the pictures are not very good, even at my highest ISO setting)
The dancing is quite energetic and they stomp around the fire doing a few acrobatic moves. We are then all invited to join them and we each take a turn in trying to emulate what we have just seen. It is quite hilarious and a fitting end to a fun night.
“I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.” Mahatma Gandhi
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