Zululand
1051
under the immediate rule of its headman, who is a patriarch responsible for the good behaviour of all its members. Over the headman, whose authority may extend to more than one kraal, is the tribal chief, and above the tribal chief was the king, whose authority is now exercised by a British commissioner. By the custom of hlompa a woman carefully avoids meeting her husband’s parents or the utterance of any word which occurs in the names of the principal members of her husband’s family, e.g. if she have a brother-in-law named U’Nkomo, she would not use the Zulu for “cow,” inkomo, but would invent some other word for it. The husband observes the same custom with regard to his mother-in-law. The employment of “witch doctors” for “smelling out” criminals or abatagati (usually translated “wizards,” but meaning evildoers of any kind, such as poisoners) once common in Zululand as in neighbouring countries, was discouraged by Cetywayo, who established “kraals of refuge” for the reception of persons rescued by him from condemnation as abatagati. “Smelling out” was finally suppressed by the British in the early years of the 20th century. (For the Zulu speech see Bantu Languages.)
Towns.—The Zulus live in kraals, circular enclosures with, generally, a ring fence inside forming a cattle pen. Between this fence and the outer fencing are the huts of the inhabitants. The royal kraal for a considerable period was at Ulundi, in the valley of the White Umfolosi. The last king to occupy it was Cetywayo. Dinizulu’s kraal was farther north near the Ndwandwe magistracy. The chief white settlements are Eshowe and Melmoth. Eshowe (pop. 1904, 1855 of whom 570 were whites) is about 95 m. N.E. of Durban, lies 15 m. inland and some 1800 ft. above the sea. Eshowe is 2 m. W. of the mission station of the same name in which Col. Pearson was besieged by the Zulus in 1879, and was laid out in 1883. It is picturesquely situated on a well-wooded plateau and has a bracing climate. Two hundred acres of forest land in the centre of the town have been reserved as a natural park. Melmoth, 25 m. N.N.E. of Eshowe, lies in the centre of a district farmed by Boers. Somkele is the headquarters of the St Lucia coal fields district. Nkandhla is a small settlement in the south-west of the country.
Communications.—Notwithstanding its 210 m. of coast-line Zululand possesses no harbours. Thirty-six miles N.E. of the mouth of the Tugela there is, however, fairly safe anchorage, except in S.S.W. or W. winds, about 1500 yds. from the shore. The landing-place is on the open sandy beach, where a small stream enters the sea. This landing-place is dignified with the name of Port Durnford. It was used to land stores in the war of 1879. Well-made roads connect all the magistracies. The Tugela is crossed by well-known drifts, to which roads from Natal and Zululand converge. Two, the Lower Tugela and Bond’s Drift, are both near the mouth of the river. The Middle Drift is 36 m. in a direct line above the mouth of the Tugela. Rorke’s Drift, 48 m., also in a direct line above the Middle Drift, is a crossing of the Buffalo river a little above the Tugela confluence. A railway, completed in 1904, which begins at Durban and crosses into Zululand by a bridge over the Tugela near the Lower Drift, runs along the coast belt over nearly level country to the St Lucia coal-fields in Hlabisa magistracy—167 m. from Durban of which 98 are in Zululand. There is telegraphic communication between the magistracies and townships and with Natal.
Industries.—The Zulu gives little attention to the cultivation of the soil. Their main wealth consists in their herds of cattle and flocks of sheep. They raise, however, crops of maize, millet, sweet potatoes and tobacco. Sugar, tea and coffee are grown in the coast belt by whites. Anthracite is mined in the St Lucia Bay district, and bituminous coal is found in the Nqutu and Kyudeni hills. Gold, iron, copper and other minerals have also been found, but the mineral wealth of the country is undeveloped. There is a considerable trade with the natives in cotton goods &c. and numbers of Zulu seek service in Natal. (Trade statistics are included in those of Natal.)
Administration.—Zululand for provincial purposes is governed by the provnncial council of Natal, otherwise it is subject to the Union parliament, to which it returns one member of the House of Assembly. It was formerly represented in the Natal legislature by three members, one member sitting in the Legislative Council and two being elected to the Legislative Assembly, one each for the districts of Eshowe and Melmoth. Their selection and election were governed by the same laws as in Natal proper, and on the establishment of the Union the franchise qualifications—which practically exclude natives—remained unaltered. The parliamentary voters in 1910 numbered 1442. The executive power is in the hands of a civil commissioner whose residence is at Eshowe. Zululand is divided into eleven magistracies and the district of Tongaland (also called Mputa or Amaputaland). In the magistracies the authority of the chiefs and indumas (headmen) is exercised under the control of resident magistrates. The Ama-Tonga enjoy a larger measure of home rule, but are under the general supervision of the civil commissioner. The Ingwavuma magistracy, like Tongaland, formed no part of the dominions of the Zulu kings, but was ruled by independent chiefs until its annexation by Great Britain in 1895.
With the exception of the townships and a district of Emtonjaneni magistracy known as “Proviso B,”[1] mainly occupied by Boer farmers, all the land was vested in the crown and very little has been parted with to Europeans. The crown lands are, in effect, native reserves. A hut tax of 14s. per annum is levied on all natives. The tax has to be paid for each wife a Zulu may possess, whether or not each wife has a separate hut. Since 1906 a poll tax of £1 a head is also levied on all males over eighteen, European or native.
History.—At what period the Zulu (one of a number of closely allied septs) first reached the country to which they have given their name is uncertain, they were probably settled in the valley of the White Umfolosi river at the beginning of the 17th century, and they take their name from a chief who flourished about that time. The earliest record of contact between Europeans and the Zulu race is believed to be the account of the wreck of the “Doddington” in 1756. The survivors met with hospitable treatment at the hands of the natives of Natal, and afterwards proceeded up the coast to St Lucia Bay. They describe the natives as “very proud and haughty, and not so accommodating as those lately left.” They differed from the other natives in the superior neatness of their method of preparing their food, and were more cleanly in their persons, bathing every morning, apparently as an act of devotion. Their chief pride seemed to be to keep their hair in order. It is added that they watched strictly over their women.
At the close of the 18th century the Zulu were an unimportant tribe numbering a few thousands only. At that time the most powerful of the neighbouring tribes was the Umtetwe (mTetwa or Aba-Tetwa) which dwelt in the country north-east of the Tugela. The ruler of the Umtetwa was a chief who had had in early life an adventurous career and was known as Dingiswayo (the Wanderer). Rise of the Zulu nation.He had lived in Cape Colony, and there, as is supposed, had observed the manner in which the whites formed their soldiers into disciplined regiments. He too divided the young men of his tribe into impis (regiments), and the Umtetwa became a formidable military power. Dingiswayo also encouraged trade and opened relations with the Portuguese at Delagoa Bay, bartering ivory and oxen for brass and beads. In 1805 he was joined by Chaka, otherwise Tshaka (born c. 1783), the son of the Zulu chief Senzangakona, on the latter’s death in 1810 Chaka, through the influence of Dingiswayo, was chosen as ruler of the Ama-Zulu, though not the rightful heir. Chaka joined in his patron’s raids, and in 1812 the Umtetwa and Zulu drove the Amangwana across the Buffalo river. About this time Dingiswayo was captured and put to death by Zwide, chief of the Undwandwe clan, with whom he had waged constant war. The Umtetwa army then placed themselves under Chaka, who not long afterwards conquered the Undwandwe. By the incorporation of these tribes Chaka made of the Zulu a powerful nation. Chaka.He strengthened the regimental system adopted by Dingiswayo and perfected the discipline of his army. A new order of battle was adopted—the troops being massed in crescent formation, with a reserve in the shape of a parallelogram ready to strengthen the weakest point.[2] Probably Chaka’s greatest innovation was the introduction of the stabbing assegai. The breaking short of the shaft of the assegai when the weapon was used at close quarters was already a common practice among the Ama-Zulu, but Chaka had the shaft of the assegais made short, and their blades longer and heavier, so that they could be used for cutting or piercing. At the same time the size of the shield was increased, the more completely to cover the body of the warrior. Military kraals were formed in which the warriors
- ↑ The Boers obtained the right to settle in this district in virtue of Proviso B of an agreement made, on the 22nd of October 1886, between the settlers in the “New Republic” and Sir A. E. Havelock, governor of Natal.
- ↑ Dr G. McCall Theal states that the ancestors of the tribes living in what is now Natal and Zululand were acquainted with the regimental system and the method of attack in crescent shape formation in the 17th century. Memories of these customs lingered even if the practice had died out. Among the Ama Xosa section of Kaffirs they appear to have been quite unknown.
