The Zulu are a Bantu group from Southern Africa. They are also called the Amazulu.

There are about 10–12 million Zulu people living in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, making them the biggest ethnic group in South Africa.

The Zulu people came from Nguni groups that moved with the Bantu people. As the clans came together, Shaka’s great military strategies made the Zulu country successful while he was in charge.

They are proud of their rituals, such as the Umhlanga or Reed Dance, and the different kinds of beadwork they do. Beadwork is an art and skill that helps Zulu people become known, as well as a way for them to talk to each other.

Guys and gals play different roles in society so that everything works together. These days, the Zulu mostly believe in Christianity, but they have also formed their own faith that combines their old beliefs with Christianity.

Zulu Passages and Rites

Ukwemula/ umemulo Ceremony

When a girl wants her father to officially recognize that she is ready for marriage, she holds the Ukwemula event. The event shows that the girl’s father agrees with her plans to get married. When a girl requests confirmation of her maturity level for marriage, her mother informs her father via the amaqhikiza, thereby initiating the event. This ceremony is only for older girls who decided not to have sex before getting married, but now want to ask their dads for permission to start serious relationships with the goal of getting married.

It could only happen if the girl followed the rules and did not have sex. Zulu girls typically exhibit good behavior to win their dads’ approval, as they strive for their approval. As a sign of respect for tradition and her parents, the event shows that the girl, who is now old enough to get married, has asked for permission to date. Her parents and other family members approve of the event as a public sign that she is ready for courtship and marriage.

In this ceremony, the main purpose is to mark a turning point from childhood to adulthood and to show that the father knows what is going on with his daughter. For the girl, this is a special time because it marks the transition from being a girl to an adult, dating, and eventually becoming a mother. During this time, her parents and community will bless her.

Most Zulu teens and young adults would have avoided many of the issues that teenage girls face today if they still adhered to this tradition. In the past, this was the first thing a girl did when she thought she was ready to get married.

The Umemulo event, which means “coming of age,” is a time for celebration for the girl who has met the man she wants to marry. It’s also a good time to celebrate her good behavior by not having sex before marriage and asking her parents for permission to get married. In Zulu society, this ceremony is very important because it helps people avoid getting pregnant when they don’t want to.

Any young girl who is “coming of age” must go through the “umemulo rite.” It is an important step that marks her transition from a child to a woman. Umemulo is like a 21st birthday in the West. It’s a way for parents to show their love for their daughter and thank her for being good. According to custom, the girl must stay inside for at least a week before the ceremony.

They even forbid her parents or mother from seeing her. Girls from nearby towns will typically come to dance with her at night while she is alone, and they will do this until the last day, when they dance all night until dawn. Around 4 a.m., they go to the river to wash themselves clean.

After that, the girl’s father and other people in the area can see her. Guests begin dancing and join in on the festivities. Guests join the ceremony. The girl, the focal point of the ceremony, brandishes a dagger (umkhonto) at them, and they attach monetary gifts to the cloth covering her head.

Girls also wear hair coverings made of paper money during the ukwemula or umemulo events, which are gifts from their parents, family, friends, and community members. The first reason is that it helps her out financially and gets her career started. The second reason is that it shows that her community wants her to be wealthy and healthy when she gets married.

Only during the planned period of a specific girl’s ceremony is this event visible or audible. This implies that individuals cannot visit museums or other locations to witness the performance. People from outside the neighborhood don’t often see this ceremony.

Umhlanga (The Reed Ceremony)

The reed ceremony also has young teenage women, just like the ukwemula and umemulo rituals.  The event only happens once a year, on the second Saturday of September, at the King’s castles in Nyokeni and Nongoma.

The name of the event comes from the riverbed reeds that the maidens carry in a long parade that goes through the Royal Enclosures and then gives to the king. The Reed Dance is a serious event for the teens, but it’s also a chance to show off their singing, dancing, and beadwork, which they have been working on for months.

The maidens often wear nothing but beads as a symbol of their purity. The purpose of the ceremony is to encourage single girls to behave well, so they undergo a virginity test to ensure their purity.

During the ritual, girls should gather reeds by hand without using any tools to cut them. If the reed breaks when disconnected, it indicates that the girl has previously engaged in sexual activity with a guy. The whole point of the ritual is to stress how important it is for girls to be pure before they get married. The girls refrain from having sex before marriage due to their fear of public scrutiny and their desire to conform to their peers, who demonstrate their chasteness by attending the wedding.

Princesses from the Royal Family lead a full regiment of Zulu traditional leaders on either side of the king, who is the first to receive their reeds. With fancy headdresses and leather skirts, the older matrons, who watch over the event and teach the young girls how to become women, are just as colorfully dressed.

During this ritual, the girls should also not cover their breasts and buttocks. However, the vagina remains covered by the beaded isigege. There are a lot of people at the ceremony, including family members, people from the neighborhood, and anyone else who wants to be there.

Women who are thought to have had sex are made to look bad in front of their parents if they go to the event, where many men who want to get married choose their partners in public. This service is critical because it allows you to choose a partner with the goal of getting married.

Not long ago, the Zulu King used the Reed Dance as a way to talk about problems that mostly affect South African youth, like HIV/AIDS and teen pregnancy. Anyone who wants to witness this ritual must go to Enyokeni on the second Saturday of September. No one else performs this unique ritual.

The Feast of the First Fruits Ceremony (umkhosi omncane)

This ritual is very important for boys’ growth. During the holiday, we give thanks to the Ancestral Spirits and ask them to continue protecting and helping the boys through prayer and sacrifice.

It’s also a prayer to Unkulunkulu to protect and help the boys, as well as a thank-you to God for them. If a boy starts having sexual thoughts and ejaculating, he should tell his friends, who will then tell family members.  After that, his family makes plans for him to take part in the next First Fruits Ceremony.The ritual is a sign that the boys are ready to get married.

In all royal kraals from November to January, for three days and three nights, the chiefs and their people dance, sing traditional songs, and praise the ancestral spirits. They also ask the Great, Great One to keep storms, droughts, bugs, and diseases away from the crops.

The worshipers at the royal cattlefold witness the ceremony’s highlight, a fight between a fierce bull and a group of unarmed fighters, on the last day of Umkhosi. At the end of the fight, clenched fists hit the bull over the head, causing it to fall down. The chief’s witch doctors then stabbed it to death. After this, there is a big feast.

There is an understanding that this ceremony might not go over well with visitors, especially those who care a lot about animal rights. Bullfights in Spain aren’t as interesting to tourists as they used to be. A few months ago, the South African High Court questioned the Zulu king about this rite. The Court said that the cultural rights of people were more important than the rights of animals.

The Traditional Zulu Wedding (udwendwe)

Preparations for the Wedding

Before the wedding could take place, the man must have paid the bride’s father the dowry. This is the first and most important requirement. If the man hasn’t paid his lobola in full, the wedding can’t happen. The event known as Lobola involves the transfer of cattle from the prospective groom’s group to the bride-to-be’s group. The main goal of the exchange is to strengthen the friendship between the two families.

In addition, Lobola compensates for the girl’s loss by giving the father ten heads of cattle in exchange—something very valuable. The bride’s mother buys the eleventh cow for her own use. So, lobola serves two purposes: first, it strengthens the friendship between two families; second, it makes up for the loss of a daughter and the work she does around the house.

A beast known as ukuncamisa or inkomo yokucola pours its gall over the girl’s face, arms, and legs as she prepares to leave her home for marriage, symbolizing the changes she will undergo. The slaughtered animal, a lobola cow, signifies to her ancestors her departure from her family and her impending marriage, resulting in a new surname, Isibongo. During this time, the girl also realizes that she has to leave her home.

Before she gets married, the girl leaves her umuzi (kraal) and tells her family, friends, and neighbors that she is getting married and wants gifts. This process, known as ukucimela, helps the girl say goodbye to her family and friends and start a new life.

The gifts she gets show that they are happy for her. She should talk to everyone to show how much she appreciates them. The cimela makes it easier for people who don’t have enough for themselves, as well as for family and friends to give expensive gifts to each other.

The young bride goes on a walk with her father through the cow byre the day before she leaves for her wedding. They say goodbye to their ancestors, who are very important to the Zulus. The daughter’s father is responsible for her meeting with the ancestors the day before she leaves.

To show the groom and his family that she is leaving her old life behind and starting a new one, the new bride leaves her home with her friends one day before the wedding. She is only wearing a blanket. Keep in mind that every Zulu custom has a deeper message behind it. The bride’s lack of clothing (except for the blanket) shows that she is leaving her childhood behind to get ready for the wedding and the life that will follow as a married family.

The Attire for the Wedding

When the wedding happens, the bride stays in the middle of the party, out of sight, and wears her new isidwaba. Amashoba, headpieces adorned with white oxtails, adorn her arms, while the imvakazi, a beaded cloth cover that allows her to see, covers her face.

The veil, which is part of the hlonipha tradition, makes the bride stand out from the other people in the ceremony.

It is customary for the bride to wear bands made of twisted calfskin and beads wound into a coil around her shoulders and under her arms. The bride wears white cow-tail fringes around her legs and on both arms. She adorns her right wrist with the swollen gall bladder of the goat she killed before leaving her father’s kraal.

The gall bladder on her wrist also makes her stand out from the other guests at the wedding. Different designs of beads decorate the bride’s breasts, while a plume of black fink tail feathers adorns her head. As she dances, she holds a short assegai, or knife, in her right hand and aims it at her future husband, symbolizing her unmarried status.

In her left hand, the woman holds the ihawu. It’s important to note that the assegai and the ihawu, a Zulu shield made from cowhide, are always held together. Men use shields as a way to protect themselves in battle. Both men and women use it when they dance Zulu.

Thinking of a warrior carrying both of these defenses reminds me of the bride. It means that she has been through a lot to get married and is ready to face even more challenges after she gets married. The ihawu and assegai are believed to have solved problems that could have prevented her from getting married, and she celebrates this victory by dancing at the wedding.

The groom is wearing the robes of his ancestors, which is a cheetah-skin head ring that only married men wear, and that shows their position as the leader of a village. In his left hand, the groom will hold an ihawu, and in his right hand, he will hold an oxtail, such as the bride. He has brightly colored beads strung around his neck and waist to make him look nice. It is easy to spot the groom because he is the only one at the wedding wearing this outfit. The Zulu traditional wedding is the best time for tourists to see the colorful Zulu traditional clothing.

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The Tutsi, also known as the Abatutsi, are an ethnic or social group from the area around the African Great Lakes. They were sometimes called the Watusi, Watusi, Wahuma, Wahima, or Wahinda in the past.

The Tutsi are a branch of the Banyarwanda and Barundi people. Most of them live in Rwanda and Burundi, but there are also large groups in the DR Congo, Tanzania, and Uganda.

The Hutu are the biggest group of people in Rwanda and Burundi, and the Twa are the smallest. The Tutsis are the second largest group of people in those countries.

There are also a few Hema and Kiga people living near the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The Banyamulenge doesn’t have a region. The northern Tutsi who live in Rwanda are called Ruguru (Banyaruguru), and the southern Tutsi who live in Burundi are called Hima.

Origins And Classification

People may have had different ideas about what it means to be “Hutu” or “Tutsi,” depending on the time and place. In Rwanda, social systems were not stable, even when the country was a colony and Belgium was in charge. Tutsi commoners were different from Tutsi aristocracy or elite, and rich Hutu people were often hard to tell apart from upper-class Tutsi.

When the Belgian colonists did surveys, they wanted to use a simple classification system to find out who lived in Rwanda and Burundi. They called someone a “Tutsi” if they had more than ten cows, which is a sign of wealth, or if they had a longer nose or neck, which is a physical trait often associated with Tutsis.

People used to say that Tutsis came to the Great Lakes area from the Horn of Africa.

Some researchers think that Tutsis are of Cushitic descent, even though they don’t speak a Cushitic language. They have lived in the places they are now for at least 400 years, which has caused a lot of marriages between them and Hutu people in the area. Ethnographers and scholars have recently agreed that Hutus and Tutsis, having mixed and married each other over the years, cannot truly be considered two separate ethnic groups.

A lot of experts and people who live in the Great Lakes Region think that the Tutsi are “Cushitics,” who are against Bantu groups like the Hutu and other groups in Uganda and the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It does, however, refer to a group of languages. For example, the Bantu lemma and the lemma on “Bantu people” both say that Bantu people speak Bantu languages. The Tutsi and the Hutu both speak the same Bantu language, so they are both Bantu people.

Tutsi Clans

According to Sebagabo Simon (2004:21), one of the main reasons for the start of the genocide was the changing of the meanings of Rwandan and Burundi words to create an ethnic idea in Rwanda. At different times, these words have had different meanings. Before European settlement, “Ubwoko” meant clannish identity, which is a group of families who share a common ancestor and come from the same family.

Abanyiginya, Abagesera, Abega, Ababanda, Abacyaba, Abasinga, Abashambo, Abahinda, Abazigaba, Abungura, Abashingwe, Abenengwe, Abasita, Abatsobe, Abakono, Abanyakarama, Abarihira, Abahondogo, Abashambo, and Abongera are the 20 groups that make up Rwanda. In Kinyarwanda, they are referred to as ubwoko. These groups were a big part of how Rwandans and Burundians saw themselves. When you ask an old person in Kinyarwanda what their name is, they will name the different clans, like Umugesera, Umunyiginya, Umushambo, and so on. The West frequently uses the words “Umutwa,” “Umuthutu,” and “Umututsi” to refer to the same ethnic group.

Colonialists learned about Rwandan society from a political, social, and religious point of view as soon as they got there. In terms of religion, they chose to bring Christianity, which is a new religion. The colonists didn’t understand some cultural ideas, though, because they didn’t know enough Kinyarwanda, the local language.

When it comes to racial strife, colonization changed the meanings of the words “Ubwoko,” “Umuhutu,” “Umututsi,” and “Umutwa.” According to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), those terms have nothing to do with the idea of “race or ethnicity”: “Ethnic group” means a group of people who share a language and culture (see Akayezu, TC, para. 513).

Three groups: the Abanyiginya, the Abasindi, and the Abatsobe, all share the crested crane, for example. Both Abega and Abakono use the frog as a totem. The hyena is both Abacyaba and Ababanda’s totem animal, and the leopard is both Abazigaba and Abenengwe’s totem animal. The sole explanation for these distinct clans sharing the same totem is their intentional or accidental split from the main clan.

Social groups consciously and willingly split apart to create a new sense of who they are as a whole. For example, the Christian Church and the Muslims split into different groups but kept the same traditions and symbols. When people move or lose their memories, social groups can also change their collective identity. However, they will always cling to their collective sign, as it remains the only aspect of their collective memory that has not faded.

For Abega and Abakono, the frog is their totem animal. For Abacyaba and Ababanda, the hyena is the totem animal. For Abazigaba and Abenengwe, the leopard is their totem animal. These people are likely moieties, which are groups that had a shared ancestor but split up. Abanyiginya, Abasindi, and Abatsobe constitute a phyratry, a social group consisting of three distinct clans.

Abahinda, whose totem animal is the inkende “squirrel” and who ruled Karagwe, Tanzania, for a long time before moving to Rwanda for unknown reasons, may also have ties to Abazirankende, a subclan of Abagesera, whose totem animal is the wagtail. Abazirankende means “those for whom the squirrel is a taboo.”

The only groups whose totems are unknown are Abanyakarama, who are believed to have originated in Burundi, and Abashingwe.

Clans As A Social Construction

For a long time, people have thought that biologically linked individuals naturally form social groups called clans. The Rwandan story serves as evidence that this is not true. Two things show this: first, people can marry within their own group, and second, the same clans and totems can marry people of different ethnicities.

Rwanda also has bloodlines, known as imiryango in Kinyarwanda and umuryango when used independently. Igisekuru: A lineage refers to a group of people who share a common ancestor. Examples of such lineages include Abahidiro from Gahindiro, Abajiji from Bajiji, Abenebwimba from Bwimba, and Abaganzu from Ruganzu, among others.

The lineage’s name is derived from the name of the shared ancestor. Exogamy needs to happen. No matter how far away they are, marrying someone from the same family is known as incest. Rwanda’s culture is based on men and their families. Children adopt the race and clan of their dads. Endogamy is very common within groups, but not within families.

Another thing that shows clans are not genetically linked social groups is that even though Rwanda has three different ethnic groups (Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa), all three of them share the same clans and totems.

Clans And Castes

People are born into both clans and castes, which are social groups. People’s social standing is often based on what clan or group they are from. It looks like they were made to meet a need in society, especially when it comes to getting better at your job and sharing your social duties. The Abanyiginya clan had kings. The Abatsobe clan supplied royal ritualists called abiru. These people learned all of the rituals used to crown the new monarch and kept all of the royal secrets. The Abega and Abakono clans produced queens.

Abagesera, Abasinga, and Abazigaba were abasangwabutaka, which means “primordial clans” or “the ones found on the land.” They were abases, or ritualists, for other clans.

In case the head of the family of someone from another clan wasn’t there, they could do all of his rites. They could also do these rituals for people from other clans because they weren’t allowed to do them themselves. Gooderana ubuse is another thing that clans could do. This is when they insult each other for fun. In some ways, they are very similar to the West African caste structure. For instance, the Fulani, residing in numerous West African countries, have clans connected to castes.

There are 12 castes, but they are not based on social rank like India’s low and high castes or Japan’s Burachumins. Instead, each caste is based on a specific type of work. For example, there is a caste for griots, a caste for wood carvers, a caste for blacksmiths, a caste for grave diggers, a caste for hunters, a caste for farmers, a caste for cattle herders, a caste for circumcisers, and so on.

In some cultures, headwear, chestwear, armwear, tattoos, and other totemic traits help clans stand out from other clans. Pacific Northwest Indian groups, like the Chinook, Haida, Nookta, Tlinkit, and Hawaiians, have totem poles that represent their clans. The Haida, for example, have two groups, each with its own totem animal: the raven and the eagle. These two totems are visible on their totem poles.

In Rwanda, there is no physical sign that shows who is in a clan. People learn about their clan and spirit by hearing stories.

Culture And Tradition

The male line passes down the family name in Tutsi and Hutu families. People from Rwanda and Burundi used to marry based on how well their families knew each other. Most Tutsis today pick out the person they want to marry.

Rites of passage for Tutsis and Hutus are a lot alike. The first one, the naming event, happens seven days after a baby is born.
Paying the bride a lot of money makes the marriage official. The groom’s family pays the bride’s clan this because they are losing her work. No ceremony other than marriage marks becoming an adult.

Royal music and dance groups put on shows for the kings of Burundi and Rwanda. For the prayers, they arranged twenty-two tall drums around a central drum. They played the drums in a circle around them. They all took turns hitting the drum in the middle. People continue to perform this type of drumming, and recordings of it exist.

In the country, singing, dancing, and drumming are big parts of life. People write a lot of different types of songs, like lullabies, hunting songs, and ibicuba (songs that praise cattle).

Igisoro is a game that both kids and adults like to play. A wooden board with holes for stones or beads serves as the playing surface. Set up rows of pieces, and try to take as many of your opponent’s pieces as you can. Some parts of Africa refer to the game as mancala.

When someone passes away, there are prayers, discussions, and restrictions on various activities. After a death, close family members should not do hard work or have sex. The family has a traditional feast when the time of mourning is over.

Congolese Tutsi

In the Congo (DRC), there are two main groups of Tutsi. They live at the very end. Their ancestors were pastoralists from Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania who moved to the area. There are also Tutsi in North Kivu and Kalehe in South Kivu. Hutu and Tutsi form the Banyarwanda society, which includes both groups.

These are not chameleons. Before colonization, some Banyarwanda lived in Rutshuru, now in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Belgian colonists “tranplanted” others from Rutshuru or Rwanda. Most of them moved to Masisi in North Kivu and Kalehe in South Kivu.

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