Zulu Culture from the heart of Kwa Zulu -People from Heaven

Zululand s a place of unspoilt beauty, a pristine coastline, abundant forest brown muddy African Rivers and streams. Alongside a modern infrastructure off the highway nestled in the green hills can be found, rondavaals with thatched roofs set in the remnants of tradition- a ragged circle which symbolized the Zulu Tradition. Zulu people still alive and well living in these traditional huts. I have not yet seen a “township” here. The living being more brightly colored one storey structures maybe only two or three rooms tucked into the hillside.

The chief lived in the main hut, there was a hut for cooking and making the traditional sour beer. The other huts were for the wives and the children. A sub tropical climate with vivid thunder storms and heavy rains -a message from the Gods and the Ancestors reminding us they are still here! Yesterday I visited Valley of a Thousand Hills. I had lunch overlooking the hills. It has drawn me since I first visited South Africa.

I am drawn to the Zulu Beadwork, pots and incredible baskets. I feel called to Kwa Zulu each time I am in South Africa. My adopted grandmother lives close to a place called Mtunizi so I always have a reason to visit here when I come.

After leaving Durban we drove in a misty rainy morning, our destination Eshowe, the heart of Zulu land. The landscape became noticibly greener and more lush with and abundance of banana palms, indigenous trees and grasses. Rolling hills cascade into endless forests for timber production.

Here we found the Old George hotel, homemade chicken curry, Zulu Tea called Ntingwe one of the five top teas in the world (sold in Harrods we were told with pride!) and a forest lodge B and B.

We drove to the site of Shaka Zulu (Where the movie was made ) Not my normal scene, but was told it was run by Zulus and it was a traditional Zulu Village where people actually live. Geared for tourists overlooking a stunning lake, it created an Idylliic serene picture. Of course it is a tourist attraction, however it is run by Zulu people and carries with it more of an authenticity as they take great pride in their culture. It was informative and we did learn about Traditional Zulu culture and saw some beautiful, unusual beadwork, baskets, pots and woodcarvings. These objects were used in daily life, and also linked to rituals which called the ancestors (amadlozi) honoring them.

The work is still an integral part of the continuing cycle of life. Their use transmitted and still do cultural traditions carried through the centuries of Zulu culture. Until very recently indigenous southern African cultural expression was excluded from curricula in South African schools. In the contemporary free market system many crafters there are intrepreneurs, selling their own work as well as that of their community. Now the Zulu cultural tradition evolves, according to what needs are identified by those who make a living from it.

Beadwork has featured highly in courtship rituals for marriage and love letters are made from beads.

Cultural expression is very dynamic! Song, artwork, beadwork, and metal work is vibrant colorful, and soulful. With a constant assimilation of a variety of styles the Zulu’s are able to express their daily experience.

The scenery here is spectacular. It is lush, with banana Palms, grasses and indigenous trees. There was a real sense of “warrior “ energy reminiscent of the days of King Shaka Zulu who is buried in Stanger close to Shakazululand.

King Shaka changed the entire community of Zulu Land uniting it in their tradition and culture.

The women sit on grass mats on the ground to make the jewelry. Mostly they are made of glass but few are made of seeds. The work is colorful. Time is taken to thread together tiny beads in intricate mathematical patterns.

Traditionally it was the men who did the wood carving and metal work and women did beadwork and pottery, the grass weaving being shared by both genders.

Zulu women have been making clay pots for hundreds of years. They are used to store beer food and sour milk. I love them, simple designs, black and brown that come in mostly two shapes. Like the beadwork the pots serve in symbolic rites and social customs. The pots are fired in a shallow pit, using aloe and ash, their hues are earthy and when shone with fat they glisten. The smooth blackened surface of the pot is said to attract the “shades” the ancestors.

Baskets were woven with grass and strands of llala (palm leaves) In the past baskets were buried with the dead and also were included in a brides dowry. Now they are used to store food, medicine and beer. The baskets are exquisite, in design and color.

I saw plastic bottles fashioned into boxes exquisitely painted. We have much to learn from these peoples about recycling!

The history of telephone wire weaving, comes out of the migration of male workforce who moved from rural Kwa Zulu Natal to large cities. whilst living away from their families they wiled away the time as nightwatchmen by weaving off cuts of colored wire from electrical security systems.

Now these amazing baskets have become sought after and female weavers are emerging supported by such projects as the Siyanda Project, spoken about in the last post out of the African Arts Center in Durban where the women are being taught and coached to bring their flair individuality and genius to the work and not just turn out the same work that you can see along the golden mile waterfront in Durban, where many stalls are set up to sell brightly colored beaded jewelry and simple wooden carvings.

All of these beautiful cultural expressions has provided opportunities for the Zulu people to make a living.

More people are working with the communities to support the local people, by going into the villages and township and buying directly from the artists.

Eshowe is a sleepy town elevated to the top of a hillside, it is serene. It organically blends tradition and modern and it works in its own way. It boasts a mall the pride of the New South Africa -THE MALL and DENIM. It is said that four Zulu Kings have at some stage lived here.

It has a 250 hectare forest and a refreshing climate. A walk on the ariel boardwalk in the Dlinza Forest takes you close to the trees. This forest contains many rare birds such as the Spotted Thrush, their noise and chirping loud and vocal. But always in unison it seems.

To look down from the boardwalk into this beautiful vegetation calls the imagination to goblins and fairies and magic! On the ground we found species of trees with many medicinal purpose. Bush buck, tiny antelopes about 2 feet high peeked at us through the trees. Our own personal guide appeared from nowhere to track us to make sure we did not get lost or attacked by wild pigs. He gently wound spiders webs around his fingers to clear the way, so we would not get bitten. It was almost like watching a dance, as he bent and twined the web and laid it tenderly on a tree. The trees were wrapped in thick vines that twisted up to the sky and hung down to the ground only to re root and shoot up again. These our guide said were predator trees the vine eventually killing the tree they wrap around. The base of the tree are in segments, roots exposed, reminded me of a time many many years ago. Definately an Avatar forest, where one would not walk at night.

Humanity to Others -Ubuntu

Greetings from South Africa, where I have traversed many terrains in just over a week. After a long flight and a small plane that broncoed its way across the sky through thunder storms we landed in Kimberley after some 32 hours of traveling.

Kimberley is capital of the Northern Cape, it has historical significance due to its diamond mining past and seige during the second Boer war. At Kimberley we were met by the grandaughter and driver and hosts Virgina and Credo Mutwa.
Baba (grandfather) Mutwa is one of the greatest healers on the planet. Although his health is poor he and his wife Virginia continue to work tirelessly to do the healing work necessary for passing on of transmissions to the Western World. They also care for the HIV and AIDS population in their village, as well as the orphans of their community. He is a diviner, Sangoma and an extra ordinary man. It is my second visit to this powerful man.

We drove three more hours to Kuruman a lively town, that seems to have stayed still in many ways. Men and women line the streets waiting for taxies and it still sports old stores probabaly from the fifties with a lick of paint and not much else.

It is named after the San Chief Khudamane who lived in the area in the 1700s. It is known as the Oasis of the Kalahari. The Kuruman Eye which we visited and collected water to bring back for healing, is a fountain flowing from an underground dolomite cave that delivers about million liters of water per day. The water gushes into a pool that supplies the town with water. This fountain a mere trickle of water and is likely the biggest natural fountan in the Southern Hemisphere. Baba Mutwa says that many men have dived into the water to find treasure they believed buried and were never seen again. He says the Eye has no bottom.

Robert Moffat (1795-1883) was a Scot who arrived in SA in 1816 to work for the London Missionary Society. He translated the bible into the Setswana language.

After a night recovering we were taken to meet with Baba. It is always a deep honor and a privilege, but one tends to be tongue tied in the great man's presence. "It is customary, honorable ladies, that when you sit in front of an elder that you ask questions" he invited in his deeply gentle lilt. He was dressed in a shawl that covered his head, and a couple more red and blue wraps around his shoulders and of course one of the famous necklaces that hold the oral tradition of Africa in its bones and stones. I am always mesmerized by the large metal crosses or symbols that adorn his neck and seem to weigh so heavy on him, literally and metaphorically, as he adjusts the weight while he speaks.
He sat holding an engraved staff, and on his feet were black rubber gumboots.

The next day we met the orphans and the caregivers, women who dedicate their spare time to walking on foot around the village to find people who have this disease. The families due to shame, fear and stigma often keep the sick person hidden from the outside world, so by the time help comes it is too late. Baba speaks often and with great sadness about the fact that Africa is disappearing and that the urgency to move quickly as healers and all people to do their work in the world.

Virginia teaches the caregivers to cook so they can cook for the sick. As we know when you have a low immune system and you live in poverty where there is no healthy food, chances of survival are poor.

When I take people to meet him from USA as I did this trip, they bring a fee for the teachings. We also took suitcases of clothes and we were kindly given prescription glasses. Seeing the women and children's delight when they received the goodies was worth every penny of fees charged for the over weight!!!!!

Money given to Baba Mutwa and Virginia is immediately turned into either supplies for the caregivers, food and clothes for the orphans. NOW they are building a hospital with just 30 beds. It takes $17, 000 rand to build a 4 bed structure . They need R34, 000 to finish. About $5000 YES that's all.
SO as I walked away from them a few days ago my mind raced with ways to continue this Ubuntu to help them finish their hospital in Kuruman on the edge of the Kalahari desert.

Everywhere I go I am seeing the power of giving, how it creates flow and how the gift that we have is not ours (mark Nepo)As soon as it leaves our hands it becomes someone else's gift to give to another.
Ubuntu means Humanity to others and again here I am reminded that those who have little still find ways to welcome us and give to us before they give to themselves.

Our time there was deep and moving, with much food for thought. On the way back to Kimberly some three days later we stopped at the Wonderwerk Caves, where bushman paintings in red and yellow ochre rock paintings can still be seen and where the caves are still being excavated for archeological artifacts. There is archeological evidence of the use of fire and of extinct species. It is a cave used by the bushmen thousands of years ago.

After Kuruman one of the group departed for initiation in Zimbabwe and myself and another woman continued our journey to a place called Hogsback. Where Tolkein wrote Lord of the Rings. The journey seemed endless. We were driving hard to avoid the well cautioned rules in South Africa of do not drive in the dark. When we asked for directions we are told, its not far and yet the roads were long. Along the way the landscape moved from Ochre and gold grassland to green rolling hills and plains with indigenous plants and trees. We passed through very Afrikaaner towns still very steeped in apartheid where some people only spoke Afrikaans and towns that seemed to have never changed, the Africans hustling and bustling in the road crossing as though cars simply did not exist. The buildings were run down and seedy, the roads dirty. One man warned us three times in one sentence to be careful of the animals and the combie taxes, that own the road, pulling out and changing lanes whenever they chose.

We passed townships in the middle of nowhere, corrugated iron walls for houses , old tyres for swings, hungry dogs and barefoot children in ragged clothes wandered the dusty roads. Men and women still walked and waited for rides along the way. You are reminded constantly as you cast your eyes on the townships out on the hillsides, that the Africans's Land was taken away and they were cast to barren land.

Finally we reached our destination having climbed up the mountain just before dusk. It will be thundering and lightening as we arrive I said. And it was. The names of the houses and B and Bs were ...Old Granny Mouse House, and The Edge, until we reached ours "Away with the fairies" Driving into the drive the air held a a light but magical energy, we approached with anticipation. Only to be met by a bunch of somewhat stoned hippies. Our room overlooked an archway ...a portal and because the mist was so heavy and shrouded our surroundings we were unable to see more than a couple of feet.
The night was stormy and rainy. Neither of us could sleep. It was a New Moon and the eclipse.
The following morning we woke to a clear day and saw that when we went through the portal it overlooked a stunningly beautiful lush green valley. The energy in that portal was not only ancient but it also held a vibrant energy of the spirits who lived there.

Later that day we left the hippies in their Tolkein magic with the fairies and found a beautiful log cabin in the woods, where we stayed for a couple more days. We walked one of the largest Labrynths in the world in the fine rain till the water ran from our bodies and soaked our clothes.
We asked questions of the Labyrynth
We hiked down into a ravine to see the Madonna and Child waterfall suggested by Baba Mutwa, layed on rocks in the sun and made offerings to the water.

A small community very interested in these out of towners made us welcome, within a an hour we were invited to visit total strangers houses, use their internet and connect. Ubuntu so steeped most places we go.

We made our way to Durban ...another very long drive. This part of the road very tuned to Africans. Rare stops with decent food or garages. The part of the freeway where white people reside, lots of pit stops resteraunts and gift stores.

I am now in Durban where I met a woman who walks into the townships where the houses are like corrugated iron playing cards, stacked up to give shelter with no running water. She goes and finds the women artists who make the most amazing crafts with scraps of metal, telephone wire and bottle caps and beads. They have become so resourceful, making money to feed their children. She is coaching them to better them selves, creating beautiful crafts to sell to wealthy buyers, making sure the community and women receive a fair price for their artwork.

It is all eye opening and humbling.

Go Well and watch this space