Reevaluating Zulu Religion: An Afrocentric Analysis - World Afropedia

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REEVALUATINGZ ULU RELIGION
An Afrocentric
Analysis
ANA MARIA MONTEIRO-FERREIRA
TempleU niversity
Througha brief overview of Zulu history and traditions,t his article,c om-
mittedt o reevaluatingt raditionalZ ulu social patterns,q uestionst he Euro-
pean interpretationso f Zulu people's system of beliefs and religious and
spiritualc oncepts. Froma n Afrocentricc riticalr eadingo f majorw orksb y
threeE uropeana uthors( Callaway,H exham,a ndB erglund),t his studyi s an
attempt to trace the spiritual African heritage of the Zulus back to the
ancientK emeticc oncepts.R athert hani nsistingo n the attributiono f Chris-
tian andM uslin traditionst o the SouthernA fricani ndigenousp eoples, this
articlea ims at showing the inconsistencyo f such attributionsv is-a-vis the
human being's responsibility that underlies the holistic cosmogony of
every African.
Keywords: African identity;A frocentricity;A frican heritage;Z ulu reli-
gion; African cosmogony
As far as the European recognition is concerned,t he last glorious
achievemento f the Zulu army was the battle of Isandhlawanao n
January2 2, 1879, where the Zulu, armed with spears and clubs,
wiped out an entire British regiment,r enderingt heir cannons and
guns useless againstZ ulu's war strategyo f swift surprisea ttacks.
Notwithstanding,t he perverse effect of the glorious perfor-
mance of Zulu's intelligence, strength,a nd military organization
determineda reinforcemento f the British weaponry and recru-
descent military opposition until Ulundi, the Zulu capital, was
burnedd own on July 4, 1897, and the Zululandc ame underd irect
Britishr uling.
Very much from this British military failure and because pre-
19th-centuryZ ulu history could not for a long time be tracedb y
writtenr ecords other than the ones established after 1824 by the
JOURNALO F BLACK STUDIES, Vol. 35 No. 3, January2 005 347-363
DOI: 10.1177/0021934704263127
© 2005 Sage Publications
347
348 JOURNALO F BLACK STUDIES/ JANUARY 2005
reportso f the Europeans ettlers in Natal, the Zulu peoples have
gainedt heirr eputationa s ruthlessw arriorsa, s well as a people with
no religion.
On the Zulu side, however,t he need for survivalt o the precon-
ceived ideas of the Europeanm issionariesa nd tradersa nd to the
colonialismo f the Europeanp owersm adet hemt enaciouslyd efend
theirc ulturalh eritage,a ndt heirf ormerp ridea ndp olitical position
in South Africa have been regained in the 20th century under
Buthelezi.
Nowadays,t he largestZ ulu populationc an still be found in the
region of KwaZuluo n the easternc oast of Africa, but many live in
the cities of urbanS outh Africa where, accordingt o an estimate,
approximately8 million South Africans considered themselves
Zulu or memberso f closely relatede thnic groupsi n the 1990s.
As historicals ources put it, the African peoples who settled in
subequatoriaEl asterna ndS outhernA fricad escendf romt wo broad
groups:
• theK hoi-Sanh, unterasn dc attler aiserso, chre-skinnerda cesd escen-
dento f EarlyS toneA ge progenitorsw, ho lived all overS outhern
Africa;a nd
• theB antu,a termd erivedf romt heZ uluc ollectiven ounf or "peo-
ple"o f Blackr acesw ho lived in the GreatL akesr egiono f sub-
equatoriaCl entral-to-EaAstf rica.B igger,s trongerm, orea ggres-
sive, andt echnologicallmy orea dvancedt,h eyd isplacedt hoseo f
Khoi-Sano riginw hena growingp opulationre quiredm orel and.
The Bantu-speakingp eople were dividedi nto two broadg roups:
Nguni-speakingp eople who are the Zulu ancestors,a nd speakers
of otherA frican languages.
The Nguni people are nameda ftert he charismaticf igure who is
said to have led a migrationf rom Egypt to the GreatL akes via the
Red Sea corridora nd Ethiopiaa nd settled in the mystical Embo.
At that time, there was not even a clan called Zulu among
those who made up the Nguni people but their wealth was mea-
sured in cattle, a traditiont hat continued throughoutt he modern
Zulu Kingdom.1
Monteiro-Ferreir/a REEVALUATINGZ ULU RELIGION 349
Most of the speakerso f otherl anguages,s uch as Sotho, Tswana,
Tsonga, and Venda,l ived in the interioro f the country.
Some 3,000 years ago, when the explosion in populationo f both
people and livestock led inevitably to the quest for new land, the
Nguni chiefs began moving their communities.F irst, they moved
east ands outheasti nto the territorym akingu p modern-dayZ ambia
andZ imbabwea ndl ater,d uringt he 16thc entury,i nto the beautiful
coastal stripo f Maputalandm, odernM ozambique.
Under this extreme pressure,t he Lala people, descended from
the Khoi-San,w ere forced to eitheri ntegrateo r move on.
These are historical divisions of what is nowadays generally
known as the Zulu peoples, whose backgroundo f historicalc on-
quests has made them a multiculturals ociety bound together by
similarl anguages,s imilarr itualsa ndc elebrationsp erformeda round
common symbols, and common African systems of beliefs.
The social organizationo f the Nguni clan includeda n extended
polygynousf amily determinedb y male lineage as well as otherr el-
ativest hrougha varietyo f kinshipt ies andp eople who had attached
themselves to the household or imizi.
These social units were politically organized into chiefdoms
ruled by the dominantl ineage of the strongestc lan.
Chiefd om typically includeda groupo f relatedp atrilinealc lans
or descent groups united by common ancestryo nly a few genera-
tions deep.
These paramount chiefs, however, had insufficient military
strength to guaranteel oyalty among the vassal chiefs, and their
influence thus expanded or disappeareda s the result of shifting
allegiances or the birth of new clans as chiefs' sons went forth to
establishn ew homesteads.
This was exactly whath appenedt o the rulingd ays of Malandela,
when such a clan came into being by virtueo f his son, Zulu, a high
spiriteda nd determinedy oung man whose name means Heaven.
Zulu,h is wives, andh is followers accompaniedt he new clan fur-
ther southt o the MkhumbaneR iverb asin where he establishedh is
own small realm- the first KwaZulu,o r Place of Heaven or Sky.
350 JOURNALO F BLACK STUDIES/ JANUARY 2005
FIGURE 1 The Zulu Village
Zulu built his homesteada ccordingt o the Nguni tradition.T he
cattle-fold'sc entralp osition withint he kraal2e vinced animals'c ru-
cial role in society.
Cattle were central to most Nguni economies, with an almost
complete dependenceo n herding and crop cultivation,o ften sup-
plementedb y hunting.C attlew ere also used for the lobola (dowry)
thata ddedm ore wealtht o the clan when the girls were marriedo ff;
cattle were also the source of meat and milk, with theirh ides used
for clothinga ndb attle-shields.C attle,a nde specially the cattle-fold
where rituals and ceremonies in venerationo f the ancestorst ook
place, were of rituals ignificance too.
The clan's homesteadsw ere arrangedin a crescenta t the higher
end of a sloping piece of land with irregularlys haped fields for
planting grains and vegetables aroundi t, which made them self-
sufficiente ntities (see Figure 1).
Until the 18th century or later, historiansb elieve, these chief-
doms were not united undera king or monarch.
In 1805, Dingiswayo, the leader of the Mthethwap eople, had
become increasinglyi mportantd ue to his militaryc onquests and
dominatedm uch of the region northo f the Tugela River.
Monteiro-Ferreir/a R EEVALUATINGZ ULU RELIGION 35 1
After the paramountC hief Jobe's death,h e claimed thath e was
Ngodongwana,o ne of Jobe's sons, and took over political power.
To consolidate his political position, Dingiswayo called the
other chiefdoms into a confederacy and introduced important
reforms,b oth social and political. Not only did he create a regular
army but he also abolished circumcision as the ritual of passage
into manhood.I nstead,h e replacedi t with the ritualo f enteringt he
army.H e establishedd ifferenta rmyu nits based on age-set, distin-
guishable by dressings and shields to create a sense of pride and
identity.T his was the first permanenta rmedf orce in the region.
Shaka, who was a child of Senzangakona,Z ulu chief in 1787,
joined Dingiswayo's armya t the age of 16 and won recognitioni n
1810 by skillfully subduing the leader of the warringB uthelezi
chiefdom. Apparentlyl oyal to Dingiswayo while he lived, Shaka
took advantageo f Dingiswayo's militaryd efeat by the neighbor-
ing Ndwandwe armies and began building the Zulu empire after
Dingiswayo'sd eathi n 18 18 , establishingi ts capitali n Bulawayo.
Unitedb y Shaka,t he Zulu or Amazuluk ingdomg ained suprem-
acy over almost two thirdso f South Africa during a period of 10
years. Shaka Zulu (r. 1817-1828) became a remarkablek ing by
adoptingn ew fighting strategies,b y consolidatingc ontrolo ver his
militaryr egiments,a nd by the enduringw arfarec apabilitieso f his
warriorr egiments,t he impls.
In 1879, the Zulus inflicted that major defeat to the British
armiesa t Isandhlwanab, ut this triumphp aradoxicallyd ictatedt he
destructiono f the Zulu nation as an independentk ingdom.
The Zulue mpirew eakeneda fterS haka'sd eathi n 18 28 andf rag-
mented, especially following military defeats at the hands of the
Afrikanersa nd the British.
Zululand,t he arean ortho f the TugelaR iver,w as invadedb y the
British armies and finally incorporatedi nto the British colony,
Natal, in 1887.
Among the many consequenceso f the destructiono f the Zulu-
land as an independentn ation,t herei s one thatn eeds special refer-
ence: the increasing activity of the missionaries among the Zulu
peoples and their consequentc onversiont o Christianity.
352 JOURNALO F BLACK STUDIES / JANUARY 2005
Althought he presenceo f Europeansa nd Arabsa mongt he Afri-
can peoples in general was known, prior to 1824 very little was
reporteda bout the Europeansl iving among South African clans,
and even less was known aboutt heir contact with the Arabs.
Next to 18 24, however,t herea rer eportso f mutuala rrangements
between Europeans,m ainly adventurersa nd tradersw ho estab-
lished in PortN atal (now Durban)f or a base for tradew ith the inte-
rior populations, and King Shaka, very much interestedi n their
guns and powder.
Mucho f whath as been writtena boutt he Zulup eoples has there-
fore been authoredb y these Europeant radersa ndm issionariesd ur-
ing the first 50 years of contact,a nd theira ccountsr eflect the con-
tradictions and misunderstandingsc reated by the clash of two
differents tages of developmenta nd worldviews.
Althoughw e may not totally agree with Mazrui's( 1986) theory
of a mixed legacy or "Africa's TripartiteH eritage" (Asante &
Abarry,1 996, p. 21 1) as the culturalc oalescence of Africani ndige-
nous cultures with Christiansa nd Muslims from the 1st and 7th
centuriesA .D. onward,a nd especially aftert he colonizing experi-
ence of the 15th century,w e must undoubtedlyc onsidert hatt here
is an extremely imbricatep atterno f culturalf usions that must be
sorted out to reach the African essence of Africa and deploy the
generally accepted interpretationso f African cultures from non-
Africani nfluences.
Following modern African historians like Diop (1974),3
Obenga,a ndA sante, who partakei n the idea that" betweent he ear-
liest writingsi n the Nile Valley and the variedw ritingso f Africans
at this moment of history, there are fascinating and illuminating
culturall inkages"( Asante& Abarry,1 996, p. 11 ), I intendt o dem-
onstratet hato nly by diving into classical Africac an we understand
what is truly African about Africa. Otherwise, the preconceived
ideas of the Europeansa bout African peoples and the extent to
which they have changed,i nfluenced,a nd sometimes erasedA fri-
can culturew ill hardly be fully assessed. Only throught he ques-
tioning of present-dayo verviews of African history and religion,
served by WesternE uropeani nterpretationsth at make the task of
understandingw hat are the traditionalr oots of African religious
Monteiro-Ferreir/a REEVALUATINGZ ULU RELIGION 353
ideas a very hazardous one, will we find the path to the true African
heritage in ancient Kemetic civilization.
This is, in its essence, the Afrocentric perspective that allows for
the understanding that although each African society has devel-
oped its unique orientation in the quest for a functional and holistic
understanding of the universe and the mysteries of life like birth
and death, a common spiritual heritage can be traced back to the
ancient Kemetic concepts of the origin of the world and the human
beings based on three common functional principles that can be
identified in all African religions and whose source is the religious
and philosophical thought of Kemet:
Harmony,a concept that keeps a close religious relationshipb etween
humans,a nd between humansa nd the environment;
Ethics or Ma 'at that in African societies is the generativep rincipleo f
right and righteousness, balance, justice, harmony,r espect, and
dignity; and
Ancestorsw orshipt hate mbodiest he concepto f epic memorya ndw is-
dom, which is the source of ethical teachings and social harmony.
SOURCES
For the purpose of this study that I claim to be an Afrocentric
critical reading of Zulu peoples' system of beliefs through the many
interpretative problems that still can arise in the recognition of true
African concepts, I selected three major works on Zulu history and
religion:
• The outstanding selection of the most representativet exts by
Nathaniel Isaacs (1836), Allen Gardiner( 1836), Francis Owen
(1837), and William Holden (1866), among other authors,c ited in
Hexham(1987);
• The re-editiono f the extremely valuable publicationo f The Folk-
Lore Society, London, in 1884 of a three-partb ook by Reverend
Henry Callaway (1884/1967);
• The remarkables tudyo f contemporary" traditionarl eligion"o f the
Zulu by Axel-IvarB erglund( 1976).
354 JOURNALO F BLACK STUDIES / JANUARY 2005
DISCUSSION
AlthoughH exham'ss election of texts leaves us with the authors'
interpretationso f what they could see and experience among the
Zulu during the 19th century, and Berglund's book very much
relies on his interpretationos f the extensive ethnographicr esearch
done among 20th-century informants, reading Callaway's out-
standingw orko fferedm e what I considert o be a much more genu-
ine insight of the Zulu people's system of beliefs.
He named his manuscript- based on the Zulu people's oral
traditions- IzinyangaZ okubula;o r Divinationa s ExistingA mong
theAmazulu,i n TheirO wn WordsW, itha TranslationI nto English,
and Notes.
The majorityo f his notes, however, are language explanations
and the translator'sc larificationso f more obscure statements.
The thoroughr ecordingo f the storiest old by the wisdom of age-
old Zulu individuals,t he careful questioningt o allow the deepest
understandingo f detail, and the considerationo f differentc lans'
sources guided my attentioni nto what I considert he most impor-
tantc hallengef or researcherso f Africanr eligionsn owadays:I s the
belief in a Supreme Being compliant with the concept of an
AlmightyG od amongt he manyA fricane thnicg roups?I s it a result
of eitherM uslim or Christiani nfluences, or is it parto f a coherent
Africanr eligious thoughtp attern?
The texts compiled by Hexham are authoredb y churchmen,
mainly traders and missionaries. Although some of them, like
Callaway,m ight have had a thorougha warenesst hat "some of the
statementsh ere made are the results of contact, in some way or
other,w ith Europeant eaching"( Hexham,1 987, p. 466), they could
not escape eithert heirp ersonalb ias of the inheriteda ccessorieso f
theiro wn religion and Europeanw orldview or the Christian" con-
tamination"o f their sources.
Berglund( 1976) was also awaret hat "an interactionh as taken
place between traditionalZ ulu beliefs and those of missionaries
and othero utsiders"( p. 26) and thats tatementw orks writteni n the
1930s presented similar problems of understandingZ ulu tradi-
tional religious beliefs without inceptions from ChristianityN. ot-
Monteiro-Ferreir/a R EEVALUATINGZ ULU RELIGION 355
withstanding,h e could not make a clear distinctionb etween past
and presentb eliefs, and by readingh is study we get the idea that a
Zulu Sky God or Lord-of-the-Skyi s the same conceptuali dea that
Eiselen and Schaper( 1937, cited in Berglund, 1976) designate as
Lord of Heaven, and Bishop Sundkler( 1948, cited in Berglund,
1976) names High-God.
My contention,h owever,i s thatn o such concepto f one Supreme
God governingA fricanc osmogony is even consistentw ith the spir-
itual values and ethicalr esponsibilitieso f the humanb eing in Afri-
cans' holistic sense of oneness of humankinda nd nature.
Actually,I prefert o tracet he meaningo f this sense of oneness of
humankindw ith nature back to the Kemetic concept of Ma'a t,
understooda s the balanced and harmoniouso rder of the creation
where spirita nd mattera re inseparable.
It was humanb eings' duty to actively maintaint his harmony.T o
pursuet his crux ethical principle,t he quest for truth,j ustice, har-
mony, and balance ought to be inherentt o the righteous person,
whose spiritualr ighteousnessa ndt ightnessw as moret hana "trans-
personale xperiencew ithin the humano rder.. .. It is a continuous
process by which [Africans]a lign [themselves]w ith the harmony
[they] find in nature"( Asante, 1998, pp. 83-84).
It is of no wonder, then, that the Zulu- being a Nguni people
said to have descendedf rom Egypt to the GreatL akes via the Red
Sea corridora nd Ethiopia- focus primarilyo n the principlet hey
call Ubuntu:T hey exist becauseo therp eople exist. This is a power-
ful concept that they define as the belief that humansa re humans
only becauset hey interactw ith otherp eople andn ature,a ndi f they
were to ignoret he rest of humanitya ndt ry to live in a vacuum,t hey
would be less than human.
This is also the core of the Zulu PersonalD eclarationt hatb egins
(Asante & Abarry,1 996), "I;I am; I am alive; I am conscious and
aware;I am unique;I am who I say I am; I am the value UQOBO
[essence]" (pp. 371-378). The Zulu personal declarationi s, so to
speak, the corpus of the philosophical and ethical values of the
Nguni populationsw here all the correlationb etween Kemetic and
Zulu philosophicala nd religious systems can be found.
356 JOURNALO F BLACK STUDIES / JANUARY 2005
It is the relationshipo f humankindw ith naturea nd the natural
phenomenat hat are the centrali ssues in the Africanc osmological
understandingo f life, death, and creation.L ike the ancientE gyp-
tians, Africansb elieved that the fundamentalp rincipleo f creation
was the equilibriumo f opposites, a perfectly established energy
whose force regulatest he universe;a nd the harmonyt hatp reexists
to chaos is translatedi nto Ma'a t "as the organizing principle of
human society, the creative spirit of phenomena,a nd the eternal
ordero f the universe"( Asante, 1998, p. 89).
These cosmological and ethical concepts were recreated
througho ralt raditionn, arrativeso f creationg enerationa fterg ener-
ation, symbolizedb y the spirito f the ancestors,t he guardiano f an
individual'sq uest for the generativef orce of cosmic harmony.
Fromt he narrativeso f creationo f differentZ ulu ethnic sources,
one consistent concept of a First Creator- Ukulunkulu,U nkulu-
nkulu,o r O(n)kulukulu- emerges. And this is what the essence of
ReverendH enry Callaway'sw ork is about.
The whole set of narrativest ranslatedb y Callawayu nanimously
points to Unkulunkulua s an agelessness concept of a first human
being who came to be before time, as we conceive it, and is said to
have made all things and given them to humankindt o dispose of
them. Then he died.
He did not leave any laws or regulationst o be followed, the liv-
ing presentb eing but the renewed follow-up of past experiences,
the actualizationo f a previousm atrixi nscribedo n an immemorial
time whose teachingsi s the ancestors'd uty to perform.
Because the Zulu people believed in a humanf irst creatorw ho
died away,U nkulunkuluu, nlike a SupremeG od, has less influence
on theirl ives (Berglund,1 976, was also quitea wareo f this) thant he
spirit of the ancestors whom they can place in a time they can
recognize.
When we take the Zulu oral traditionso f creation,t he notion of
Unkulunkului tself is a personal concept, creating and backing
away,l ost in a non-timed imension,w hich seems muchc loser to the
Kemeticc oncepto f a FirstO ccasion (TepZ epi) thatc ontainsa ll the
blueprintso f a common life thant o the SupremeG od of the Chris-