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.
Also Read: The Incredible History Of Cetshwayo From The Zulu Kingdom
