Academic literature on the topic 'Zulu (african people) south africa religion'

Abstract Knowledge production in apartheid-era South Africa was a profoundly collaborative process. In particular, throughout the 1930s–1950s, the joint intellectual labor of both Africans and Europeans created a body of knowledge that codified and celebrated the notion of a distinct realm of Zulu religion. The intertwined careers of Swedish missionary to South Africa Bengt Sundkler and isiZulu-speaking Lutheran pastor-turned-ethnographer Titus Mthembu highlight the limitations of overly clear demarcations between “professional” versus “lay” anthropologists as well as between “colonial European” versus “indigenous African” knowledge. Mthembu and Sundkler’s decades-long collaboration resulted in a book called Bantu Prophets in South Africa ([1948] 1961). The work is best understood as the joint output of both men, although Sundkler scarcely acknowledged Mthembu’s role in the conceptualization, research, and writing of the book. In an era of racial segregation, the idea that African religion occupied a discrete, innately different sphere that the book advanced had significant political purchase. As one of a number of African ideologues supportive of the apartheid state, Mthembu mobilized his ethnographic findings to argue for innate racial difference and the virtues of “separate development” for South Africa’s Zulu community. His mysterious death in 1960 points to the high stakes of ethnographic research in the politically fraught climate of apartheid South Africa.

This article explores the relevance of Western models of marriage counselling in the African context and specifically with Zulu couples. It argues that because of different worldviews, there are elements of western therapeutic approaches with couples that do not fit with the beliefs and values of many African people. The article examines some of the philosophies that underlie marriage in contemporary Zulu society, as well as the worldview, values and practices of Zulu people with regard to marriage. It then examines a selection of Western marriage counselling approaches in order to establish whether the Western based marriage counselling theories that are taught and practiced by social workers in South Africa today are relevant when used with Zulu couples.

In a recent article by Veit Erlmann in the South African journal of musicology (SAMUS vol. 14, 1995) entitled “Africa Civilized, Africa Uncivilized,” Erlmann draws upon the reception history of the South African Zulu Choir’s visit to London in 1892 and the Ladysmith Black Mambazo presence in Paul Simon’s Graceland project to highlight the epithet “Africa civilized, Africa uncivilized.” Though the term was used by the turn of the century British press to publicize the event, the slogan carries far greater impact upon the locus of the identity of urban black people in South Africa for more than a century.

“Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu” translates into a person is a person because of people. There is an idea of unity in this frequently used Zulu proverb that is posted boldly next to the Afrocentric logo on the African Union International School (AUIS) website in Midrand South, Africa. All these words are factors within Pan-Africanism, and AUIS is more than an international school in South Africa, but it is one of two schools created by the African Centered Educational Foundation (ACE). The other school is called the African American Academy in Douala, Cameroon. Under the auspice of ACE, both schools share a very special mission implied within its vision that includes an education for the African Renaissance. Through a content analysis, this paper will illustrate how the African Centered Education Foundation represents Pan-Africanism through the institutionalization of African Centered Education illustrated by their technological media (school websites, facebook, online articles), educational tools (brochures, teacher evaluations, lesson plans, teacher’s introduction package), and their African diaspora volunteer teacher program.

This article examines the response of Bishop Alphaeus Hamilton Zulu to the racism that was prevalent in both the church and society when he was elected as the first African Bishop of the Anglican Church in South Africa. Clergy, especially bishops, are by virtue of their ecclesial positions expected to transcend racial prejudices, to embrace all members of their churches and to transform their churches to multi-racial ones. This means that they have to deal with racial stereotypes both within the church and society at large. This study is based on interviews with key leaders of the Anglican Church who knew and worked with Bishop Zulu, as well as an analysis of media releases and minutes of meetings that he was part of and some that were written about him. This article argues that Bishop Zulu played a pivotal role in the fight against racism, through his episcopal ministry which brought politics and religion into a creative tension, when he worked as bishop, speaker of the Legislative Assembly in Natal and key founder of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP). It also argues that church leaders must hold politics and religion together for their ministry to bring transformation to both the church and society.

AbstractMost of the literature on African independent churches (AICs) in South Africa has not paid much attention to their economic and developmental role. In contrast, this article will show how AICs are involved in important economic activities such as voluntary mutual benefit societies, savings clubs, lending societies, stokvels (informal savings funds), and burial societies that control millions of South African rand. In light of firsthand empirical research, this article investigates these kinds of activities, and analyses independent churches’ developmental role. This will allow us to better understand how these communities play a strong and supportive function among Africans in a deprived economic situation. In a period of socio-political transformation in South Africa, AICs are able to answer the needs of the people and their hunger to rebuild an identity. My major critique of classical research on AICs is the failure of the literature to address ‘social change’ in a theoretically adequate way, as something more than just descriptions of ‘traditional’ social structures away from interpretations of modernity.

If ever South Africa could boast of a Robinson Crusoe of her own, as affable, shrewd, politically sagacious, courageous and large-hearted as Defoe's, here is one to life… “Mr Fynn”[Fynn is] a greater ass and Don Quixote than one could possibly conceive.The fictional referents in these diametrically opposed judgments of Henry Francis Fynn (1806-61) alert us to the “constructed” nature of the reputation of this most famous of Shakan eyewitnesses. Although Nathaniel Isaacs' Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa (1836) first introduced Shaka and his Zulu people to the British reading public, and had easily the profoundest influence on popular conceptions, Fynn was the more widely acknowledged “expert” on the Zulu. Having pursued an extraordinarily tortuous, violent, and well-documented career through forty formative years of South African frontier history, he left a body of writings which belatedly attained authoritative status in Shakan historiography. Since 1950, Fynn's so-called “Diary” has become the paramount, and until recently largely unquestioned, source on Shaka's famous reign (ca. 1815-1828). As recent political power struggles centered on the “Shaka Day” celebrations in Zululand have amply demonstrated, there is no more appropriate juncture at which to reassess the sources of this semi-mythologized Zulu leader's reputation.

ABSTRACTChildren in many African societies have meaningful names – unlike their Western counterparts, whose names are primarily labels. In Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Tswana, and many other cultures, namegivers traditionally chose personal names that pointed to a range of people and circumstances that were relevant at the time of the child's birth. These highly individual or unique names were part of particular social frameworks that have long been evolving with Western acculturation. Like the social frameworks within which they are embedded, naming practices are in the process of change.This article investigates change in Zulu naming practices as a reflection of wider social changes. Taking historical accounts as the source of traditional namegiving, an analysis of rural, farm, and urban names shows quantitative and qualitative differences in naming practices. Contemporary names differ significantly from traditional ones, and provide evidence that the world view within which names are given is in the process of redefinition. (Anthropological linguistics, naming, South Africa, Zulu)

Este trabalho parte do universo do povo zulu, da região de KwaZulu-Natal (áfrica do Sul), para analisar o ensino de história, as polá­ticas de memórias e as desigualdades sociais presentes nas terras sul-africanas durante o Apartheid. Nesse sentido, a análise, que toma os anos de 1948 a 1994 como recorte temporal, utiliza como fontes a coleção de livros didáticos History for Today, imagens e jornais levantados no arquivo sul-africano Alan Paton Center e na biblioteca pública de Pietermaritzburg. Tais fontes foram produzidas e utilizadas no perá­odo do Apartheid (1948-1994). Procura-se ainda investigar quais eram as polá­ticas educacionais presentes na áfrica do Sul durante aquele regime. O intuito é identificar nos livros didáticos e nas polá­ticas educacionais os modos como a/as identidade(s) zulus foram construá­das, pensadas e dadas a ler, além de problematizar os modos de ver da sociedade sul-africana no que se refere á população zulu no perá­odo em questão.Palavras-chave: Zulu. áfrica do Sul. Ensino de História.SEGREGATION TIMES (1948-94): Teaching history, memory politics and social inequalities in the universe of the Zulu peopleAbstract: This article will examine the assemblage of the Zulu people, from the KwaZulu-Natal region (South Africa), with the intention to analyze the history teaching, memory politics and social inequalities present in the South African lands during the period of Apartheid. The analysis, which pertains to the years 1948 to 1994, uses as its sources, the History for Today collection of textbooks, images and newspapers from the South African archives Alan Paton Center and the Pietermaritzburg public library. These sources were produced and utilized in the Apartheid period (1948-1994). It also seeks to investigate which educational policies were present in South Africa during that regime. The aim is to identify in textbooks and educational policies the ways in which Zulus identity (s) were formulated, conceptualized and construed, as well as problematizing South African society's views on the Zulu population in the period in question.Keywords: Zulu. South Africa. Teaching History. TIEMPOS DE SEGREGACIÓN (1948-94): enseñanza de historia, polá­ticas de memorias y desigualdades sociales en el universo del pueblo zulúResumen: Este trabajo parte del universo del pueblo zulú, de la región de KwaZulu-Natal (áfrica del Sur), para analizar la enseñanza de la historia, las polá­ticas de memorias y las desigualdades sociales presentes en las tierras sudafricanas durante el Apartheid. En ese sentido, el análisis, que toma los años de 1948 a 1994 como recorte temporal, utiliza como fuentes la colección de libros didácticos History for Today, imágenes y periódicos levantados en el archivo sudafricano Alan Paton Center y en la biblioteca pública de Pietermaritzburg. Estas fuentes fueron producidas y utilizadas en el perá­odo del Apartheid (1948-1994). También busca investigar cuáles eran las polá­ticas educativas presentes en Sudáfrica durante ese régimen. La intención es identificar en los libros didácticos y en las polá­ticas educativas los modos como la/las identidad(es) zulús fueron construidas, pensadas y dadas a leer, además de problematizar los modos de ver de la sociedad sudafricana en lo que se refiere a la población zulú en el perá­odo en cuestión.Palabras clave: Zulú. áfrica del Sur. Enseñanza de Historia.

Despite many efforts to publish comprehensive literary histories of South or Southern Africa in recent years, few studies existin which a thorough comparative study is undertaken between two or more South African literatures. This article wants to provide a practical example of such a study by comparing the urbanisation of Afrikaners in Afrikaans literature with that of black people as seen in English and Zulu literature. The statement made by Ampie Coetzee that comparative studies should take place within the framework of discursive formations is one of the fundamental starting points of this study. Maaike Meijer’s concept of the “cultural text” is further employed as a theoretical instrument. The identification of repeating sets of representation is central to the demarcation of a “cultural text about urbanisation” in Afrikaans, English and Zulu literature respectively. The cultural text forms the basis from which a valid comparative study can be embarked upon, and the results of the research have important implications for further comparative studies but also literary historiography.

The study is about a Zulu male vocal tradition called isicathamiya performed by 'migrants' in all night competitions called ingomabusuku. This is a performance style popularized by the award winning group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Isicathamiya, both in its symbolic structure and in the social and culturalpractice of its proponents has much in common with the ritual practices of Zionists. And Zionists are worshippers who integrate traditional beliefs and Christianity. This study will reveal that isicathamiya performance and Zionists are linked in three major areas:in the sqcial bases and practice of its proponents, in the structural properties of their performances and tn the meanings attached to these practices. Firstly, Zionists, who are also called a Separatist or African Independent church, and isicathamiya performers have minimal education and are employed in low income jobs in the cities. Most groups are formed with 'homeboy networks'. Furthermore, performers, unlike their brothers in the city, cling tenaciously to usiko [custom and tradition]. Although they are Christians, they still worship Umvelinqangi [The One Who Came First], by giving oblations and other forms of offerings. Amadlozi [the ancestors] are still believed to be their mediators with God. Also commonplace in this category is the practice of ukuchatha, [cleansing the stomach with some prepared medicine]; and ukuphalaza [taking out bile by spewing, which is also done as a way of warding off evil spirits]. These are rural practices that have meaning in their present domiciles. The second area of similarity consists in the structure of the nocturnal gatherings that form the core of the ritual and performance practices among isicathamiya singers and Zionists. Thus, a core of the ritual of Zionists is umlindelo [night vigil] which takes place every weekend from about 8 at night until the following day. Likewise, isicathamiya performers have competitions every Saturday evening from 8 at night until about 11 am the following day. Although Zionists night vigils are liturgical and isicathamiya competitions secular, the structures of both isicathamiya choreography and Zionists body movements appear the same. These movements are both rooted in a variety of traditional styles called ingoma. Thirdly, the meanings attached to these symbolic correspondences must be looked for in the selective appropriation of practices and beliefs taken to be traditional. Using present day commentaries in song and movement, ingoma and other rural styles performed in competitions and Zionists night vigils reflect a reconstruction of the past. Isicathamiya performers and Zionists see themselves as custodians of Zulu tradition, keeping Zulu ethnicity alive in the urban environment. This is why in this study we are going to see rural styles like ingoma, isifekezeli [war drills], ukusina [solo dancing] that were performed on the fields, now performed, sort of feigned and 'held in' as they are p~rformed in dance halls with wooden stages.

This thesis is a comparative regional study of a complex of beliefs and practices regarding the water divinities in southern Africa. These snake and mermaid-like divinities, which are said to work in conjunction with one's ancestors, are believed to be responsible for the calling and training of certain diviner-healers by taking them underwater for periods of time. In addition to granting healing knowledge, these divinities are associated with fertility, water and rain, and the origins of humanity. The research combines comparative ethnography with the anthropology of extraordinary experience (AEE), and focuses particularly on the Zulu, Cape Nguni, Shona and Khoisan groups. The use of the 'radical participation' method, as recommended by AEE, was facilitated by the author being identified as having a ' calling' from these water divinities, which subsequently resulted in her initiation under the guidance of a Zulu isangoma (diviner-healer) who had reputedly been taken underwater. The research details the rituals that were performed and how dreams are used to guide the training process of izangoma. This resulted in the research process being largely dream-directed, in that the author traces how the izangoma responded to various dreams she had and how these responses opened new avenues for understanding the phenomenon of the water divinities. The comparative study thus combines literature sources, field research and dream-directed experiences, and reveals a complex of recurring themes, symbols and norms pertaining to the water divinities across the selected groups. In seeking to explain both the commonalities and differences between these groups, the author argues for a four-level explanatory model that combines both conventional anthropological theory and extraordinary experience. Responses to the author's dream-led experiences are used to throw light on the conflicting discourses of morality regarding traditional healers and the water divinities in the context of political-economic transformations relating to capitalism and the moral economy; to illuminate the blending of ideas and practices between Zulu Zionists and diviner-healer traditions; and to link up with certain issues relating to San rock art, rain-making and healing rituals, which contribute to the debates regarding trance-induced rock art in southern Africa.

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for B.A. Honours degree in the Department of African Languages at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 1997.
Zonke izizwe zoMdabu lapha e-Afrika zinenkolo yazo Le nkolo ihambisana nemikhuba ethize. Inkolo yalezi zizwe isemthanjeni yempilo yabantu bakhona kangangoba akulula ukuhlukanisa usikompilo nenkolo yesizwe soMdabu. Imvamisa akekho umqambi walezi nkolo yize bekhona abaqambi bezizwe ezithile. Izizwe ziqiniseka ukuthi 1e nkolo zadatshu1wa nayo nguMdali. NamaZulu nawo anenkolo yawo ayilandelayo, yize-ke isithe ukudungeka idungwa impucuko yaseNtshonalanga ihambisana nenkolo yobuKrestu.

This study examines the Church of Sweden Mission and the encounter between Swedish missionaries, African Christians and evangelists in Natal and Zululand in the early twentieth century. The ambition with the present study is to demonstrate that the mission enterprise was dependent on and an integral part of developments in society at large. It attends to the issue of how the idea of folk Christianisation and the establishing of a territorial folk church on the mission field originated in the Swedish society and was put into practice in South Africa. It describes how the goals implied attempted to both change and preserve African society. This was a task mainly assigned the African evangelists. By closely focusing on the particular regions where the Church of Sweden Mission was present, conflicts between pre-capitalistand capitalist, black and white societies are revealed. The 1906 Bambatha uprising became a watershed. The present study demonstrates how the uprising differently affected different regions and also the evolving -Zulu church. in the one region where Christianity was made compatible with African Nationalist claims, it was demonstrated that it was possible to be both a nationalist and a Christian, which paved the way for both religious independency and nationalist resistance and, eventually, large scale conversions.

99 leaves printed on single pages, preliminary pages and numberd pages 1-87. Includes bibliography. Digitized at 600 dpi grayscale to pdf format (OCR), using a Bizhub 250 Konica Minolta Scanner.
Thesis (MPhil (Philosophy))--University of Stellenbosch, 2000.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Death is a universal phenomenon and each culture develops its own ways of coping with it. The reaction of people to death also involves a complex network of relationships. To appreciate their responses to this phenomenon requires an understanding of the socio-cultural context in which these responses occur because they influence the individual's responses to issues of life and death. In the African context and indeed in the Zulu culture, death is a continuation of life in the world hereafter. The deceased renews his relationship with his ancestral relatives. Various rites and ceremonies are performed to mark his reunion with his ancestral relatives. For the living, the rites and ceremonies mark a passage from one phase of life to another requiring some readjustment. The belief in the existence of life after death also affects the nature of these rites and ceremonies, the social definition of bereavement and the condition of human hope. The belief in the existence of the ancestors forms an integral part African religion and its importance cannot be over-estimated. This belief flows from the strong belief in the continuation of life after death, and the influence the deceased have on the lives of their living relatives. The contact between the living and the living dead is established and maintained by making offerings and sacrifices to the ancestors. The ancestors, therefore, become intermediaries with God at the apex and man at the bottom of the hierarchical structure. However, for the non-African, the relationship seems to indicate the non-existence of God and the worshipping of the ancestors. Women play a pivotal role in issues of life and death, because African people recognize their dependence and the procreative abilities of women to reconstitute and to extend the family affected by the death of one of its members.Social change and Westernisation have affected the way the African people view death. Social changes have been tacked onto tradition. A contemporary trend is to observe the traditional and Christian rites when death has occurred. The deceased is then buried in accordance with Christian, as well as traditional rites. The belief in the survival of some element of human personality is a matter of belief and faith. It lessens the pain and sorrow that is felt upon the death of a loved one by giving the believer hope that one day he will be reunited with his loved one and thereby easing the fear and anxiety of death. Thus, the purpose of this investigation is to critically analyse the African perception of death and its implications with special reference to the Zulu people. The objective is to expose the complexities, diversities and the symbolism of death. The essence is to demystify the African perception of death and to indicate that the perception of death is not necessarily unique to African people in general and to the Zulu people in particular. Other groups like Christians have perceptions of death particularly with regard to the world hereafter. The aim of the investigation of the topic is to reveal some of the underlying cultural beliefs in death, enhance those beliefs that are beneficial to society and discard those that are anachronistic. Since culture is dynamic, not everything about African tradition will be transmitted to the future generation; there is bound to be cultural exchange.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die dood is 'n universele fenomeen en elke kultuur ontwikkel sy eie manier om daarmee om te gaan. Mense se reaksie op die dood geskied binne 'n komplekse netwerk van verhoudinge. Om mense se reaksie op hierdie fenomeen te begryp, is 'n verstaan van die sosio-kulturele konteks nodig waarin hierdie reaksies plaasvind, aangesien dit die individu se reaksie op lewe en dood beinvloed. In die Afrika-konteks en ook in die Zulu-kultuur word die dood beskou as die kontinuasie van lewe in die hiermamaals. Die oorledene hernu sy verhouding met sy voorouers. Verskeie rituele en seremonies vind plaas om hierdie gebeurtenis te identifiseer. Vir die oorlewendes is die rituele en seremonies die oorgang van een lewensfase na 'n ander en vereis dus 'n mate van aanpassing. Die geloof in die lewe na die dood beinvloed die aard van hierdie rituele en seremonies, die sosiale defenisie van rou en die toestand van menslike hoop. Die geloof in die bestaan van die voorvaders vorm 'n integrale deel van Afrika-religie en die belangrikheid daarvan kan nie oorskat word nie. Die geloof vloei voort uit die sterk geloof in die hiermamaals en die geloof aan die invloed wat oorledenes op hulle lewende nasate het. Die kontak tussen die lewendes en die lewende oorledenes word daargestel en onderhou deur offerandes aan die voorvaders. Die voorvaders word dus gesien as intermediere skakel in 'n hierargie met God aan die bokant en die mens aan die onderkant. Maar, vir nie-Afrikane, dui hierdie struktuur op die nie-bestaan van God en die aanbidding van die voorvaders. Vroue speel 'n deurslaggewende rol in kwessies van lewe en dood aangeslen Afrikane hul afhanklikheid besef van vroue se voortplantingsbekwaamhede om die famile wat deur die dood geaffekteer is te herkonstitueer en te vergroot. Sosiale veranderinge en verwestering affekteer Afrikane se houding teenoor die dood. Sosiale veranderinge is bo-oor tradisie geplaas. 'n Hedendaagse neiging is om Christelike sowel as tradisionele rituele na te volg na 'n sterfte. Die oorledene word begrawe in ooreenstemming met sowel tradisionele as Christelike praktyke. Die geloof in die oorlewing van elemente van die menslike persoon is 'n kwessie van geloof. Dit verminder die pyn en lyding na die afsterwe van 'n geliefde deur aan die gelowige oorlewende die hoop van 'n herontmoeting te bied - en verminder dus die vrees en angs wat met die dood gepaard gaan. Dus is die doel van hierdie ondersoek om 'n kritiese analise te maak van die Afrika-siening van die dood en die implikasies daarvan, met spesiale verwysing na die Zulu-nasie. Daar word probeer om die kompleksiteite, verskeidenhede en simbolisme van die dood aan te toon. Die essensie hiervan is om die Afrika-houding teenoor die dood te de-mistifiseer en te wys dat die siening van die dood nie noodwendig uniek van Afrikane in die algemeen en spesifiek van die Zoeloes is nie. Ander groepe soos Christene het beskouinge oor die dood met spesifieke verwysing na die hiernamaals. Die doel van die ondersoek is om sekere onderliggende kulturele oortuiginge aangaande die dood te onthul, om die beskouinge wat voordelig is, te versterk en om die anachronistiese beskouinge aan die kaak te stel en so te diskrediteer. Aangesien kultuur dinamies is, sal nie alles wat betref die Afrika-tradisie oorgedra word aan toekomstige generasies nie; daar sal noodwendig kulturele interaksie wees.

In Natal and Zululand Swedish missions had precedence through the Church of Sweden Mission from 1876 on, the Swedish Holiness Mission from 1889 on, and the Scandinavian Independent Baptist Union from 1892 on. Between 1876 and 1902, thirty-six women were active in these South African missions. The history of all these women are explored on an individual basis in this, for the most part, empirical study. The primary goal of this dissertation is to find out who these women missionaries were, what they worked at, what positions they held toward the colonial/political situation in which they worked, and what positions they held in their respective missions. What meaning the women’s mission work had for the Zulu community in general, and for Zulu women in particular are dealt with, though the source material on it is limited. Nevertheless, through the source material from the Swedish female missionaries, Zulu women are given attention. The theoretical starting points come, above all, from historical research on women and gender and from historical mission research about missions as a part of the colonial period. Both married and unmarried women are defined as missionaries since both groups worked for the missions. In the Swedish Holiness Mission and in the Scandinavian Independent Baptist Union the first missionaries in Natal and Zululand were women. The Church of Sweden Mission was a Lutheran mission were women mostly worked in mission schools, homes for children and in a mission hospital. Women were subordinated in relationship to male missionaries. In the Swedish Holiness Mission and in the Scandinavian Independent Baptist Union women had more equal positions in their work. In these missions women could be responsible for mission stations, work as evangelists and preach the Gospel. The picture of the work of female missionaries has also been complicated and modified.

Bibliography: pages 325-334.
This thesis is a theological and historical study of the Swedish missionary and evangelist Peter Otto Helger Witt (1848-1923), who served as the Church of Sweden Mission's first missionary and as such launched its work amongst the Zulu people of Southern Africa in the 1870S before growing disillusioned with his national Lutheran tradition and, after following a tortuous spiritual path through generally increasing theological subjectivity, eventually becoming a loosely affiliated Pentecostal evangelist in Scandinavia. Undoubtedly owing to the embarrassment he caused the Church of Sweden Mission by resigning from it while it was in a formative stage, but also to tension between him and its leaders, Witt has never received his due in the historiography of Swedish missions. For that matter, his role in Scandinavian nonconformist religious movements for nearly a third of a century beginning in the early 1890S is a largely untold chapter in the ecclesiastical history of the region. This thesis is intended to redress these lacunae by presenting Witt's career as both a foreign missionary and evangelist as well as the contours of his evolving religious thought and placing both of these emphases into the broader history of Scandinavian and other missionary endeavours amongst the Zulus, late nineteenth-century developments in Swedish Lutheranism, and the coming to northern Europe of those religious movements in which he successively became involved. As the copious documentation indicates, it is based to a great extent on little-used materials in the archives of the Church of Sweden Mission and other repositories in Scandinavia, South Africa, and the United States of America. Witt's own numerous publications also provide much of the stuff for it. The structure of this study is essentially chronological and, within that framework, thematic with clear precedents in previous missions and ecclesiastical historiography. The first chapter is largely a critical review of previous pertinent literature, professional and otherwise, emphasising its general misunderstanding and neglect of Witt. Chapter II covers his background in nineteenth-century Swedish Lutheranism, call to the Church of Sweden Mission, and role in establishing that organisation's endeavours amongst the Zulus. Chapter Ill deals with the trauma of the Anglo-Zulu War of 1819, particularly Witt's controversial but misunderstood role in it and the place of this in the existing historiography of that conflagration. Chapter IV surveys his part in re-establishing the Swedish Lutheran mission following the war and his co-operative and at times creative role in this major task. Chapters V and VI, on the other hand, have as their respective themes Witt's consequential spiritual crisis of the mid-1880s and resulting gradual departure from the Church of Sweden Mission. The seventh chapter is a consideration of Witt's Participation in and temporarily great impact on the Free East Africa Mission, a pan-Scandinavian free church undertaking which undertook evangelisation in both Durban and rural Natal in 1889. Chapter VIII treats Witt's generally independent career in Scandinavia from 1891 until his death, focusing on the new developments in which he became involved. The final chapter is an attempt to assess his general place in the missions and ecclesiastical history of Scandinavia and Southern Africa.

Mgaga, an informal settlement in KwaZulu, south of Durban, on Cele-Zulu polity land, had an indigenous, albeit urban, system of Zulu land tenure in 1980. Mgaga's transformation, from an area with scattered homesteads in 1959 to an informal settlement, was linked to local and external factors. The external factors were, regional industrialisation, urbanisation and apartheid policies which involved, the division of South Africa into ethnically based 'homelands'; controlled Black access to 'White' cities; an urban management system for 'homeland' townships, like Umlazi township which abutted Mgaga. Umlazi's development and urban management system involved, the resettlement of members of the polity; the removal of their office bearers from their posts; and the phased building of the township; which caused cumulative effects in Mgaga. I link these external factors to the behaviour of Mgaga's residents, who transformed the area's land tenure system, by using Comaroff's dialectical model (1982), where the internal dialectic interacts with external factors to shape behaviour at the local level. I analyze the Zulu ethnography to show that the internal dialectic in Zulu social organisation, and in Mgaga, is centred around fission and integration; and that the integrating hierarchy associated with Zulu social organisation and the Zulu land tenure system is composed of groups with opposed interests in the same land. Within this hierarchy entrepreneurship and coalition formation influence the transfer of land rights. Also, rather than rules determining the transfer of land in the land tenure system, processes associated with the interaction of external factors with the internal dialectic, within terms of the cultural repertoire associated with the system, shape local behaviour; and the system's rules are manipulated within this cultural repertoire by individuals striving for gain. This results in different manifestations of the internal dialectic in the Zulu land tenure system, i.e. a range of variations in the Zulu land tenure system, including different local level kinship groups; a variety of terminology and rights held by office bearers; and communal and individualised land rights. The external factor of urbanisation interacted with the internal dialectic in Mgaga, manifested in terms of an ongoing izigodi (wards) dispute -including its boundaries, to shape residents' behaviour, so that some introduced an informal settlement and others resisted its geographical spread. This informal settlement development, where eventually purely residential land rights were transferred for cash to strangers by strangers, with no role for polity officials, was an urban variation of the Zulu land tenure system, because of the continued existence of the internal dialectic in Zulu social organisation in the local system, with the integration side being expressed by the community overrights. Characteristics found in Mgaga, such as kinship diminution; the individualisation and sale of land rights; and the ongoing influence of polities; are found elsewhere in Africa where informal settlements have developed on indigenous land tenure systems. Therefore the transformation of Mgaga's land tenure system to urban forms is not an isolated phenomenon, and my dialectical ransactional approach may have an applicability beyond the context of the Zulu land tenure system.

This study explores severe mental illness in a South African ru~al district, moving, as with a zoom lens, from the macroperspectives of (i) Xhosa culture, and (ii) biomedicine, to the lived experience of the individual. Its methodology, predominantly qualitative, employed anthropological and psychological procedures. The fieldwork (1988-1989)encompassed a three month stay in the village of Msobomvu. Patients continued to be tracked informally until June, 1995. The empirical research has three parts. In part one, the person with a mental illness was contextualized within Xhosa cosmology and social attitudes. The cognitive and social ecologies were tapped through the narratives of high school and university students at different stages of a Western-biased education. Social attitudes regarding mental illness, and confidence in treatment by traditional healers and the hospital, were also evaluated. Traditional attitudes and supernatural beliefs of illness causation persisted in spite of Eurocentric education, with a concurrent increase in the acceptance of Western-type causal explanations commensurate with continued education. Part two considered the the patients in relation to (i) the biomedical framework (the mental and local hospitals), and (ii) their readjustment to the community after hospitalization. Data came from patient charts, interviews with medical staff, and follow-up visits in the villages. Socio-political and economic issues were salient. Part three case-studied people identified by the village residents as having a mental illness. Resources for treatment - traditional healers, mobile clinic, and village health workers - were the focus. The traditional healing system, and biomedicine, were compared for effectiveness, through the course of illness events. While biomedicine was more effective in containing acute psychotic episodes than treatment by the traditional healer, lack of appropriate resources within the biomedical setting had disastrous results for patient compliance and long-term management of the illness, particularly in people with obvious symptoms of bipolar disorder. The mental hospital emerged as an agent of control. While Xhosa culture provided a more tolerant setting for people with a mental illness, the course of severe mental illness was by no means benign, despite research suggesting a more positive outcome for such conditions in the developing world.

Previously understood as a fixed and universal set of behaviours social constructionists are now arguing that masculinity is contextual and fluid, reflecting a multiplicity of different understandings. Within any 'cultural environment' the discourse of masculinity, culturally and historically bound, expresses attitudes and behaviours that shape the understanding of what it means to be a man. Adopting a narrative approach and analysis this research explores the stories of six Zulu men in seeking to elicit the aspects of their masculinity and show how these men negotiate an identity 'position' from the social narratives available to them. It was found that while the ideal Adult (responsible) man contrasts with the Young man's ('isoka' ) position there is a consistently hegemonic and patriarchal notion of masculinity.

AbstractIn the first half of the twentieth century, “social” issues in South Africa were framed by both rapid social and economic change (especially industrialisation and urbanisation) and racial division. The social question in South Africa was as much a racialised version of a “national question” as a social one, revolving around the social and economic inclusion (through state intervention) of “poor white” people and white workers and the reinforcement of a clear racial hierarchy. From the 1930s, political elites slowly moved towards the very partial inclusion of the African majority. Political and religious ideas, primarily from Europe, informed understandings of the social question among both supporters and opponents of public provision.

Apartheid like colonialism was anchored on the divisions of African people according to ethnic and tribal orientations among others. The idea of the South African apartheid government was to build tribal exceptionalism and superiority which would make one tribe feel more superior than the other. A Zulu would feel better human than a Sotho, while a Venda would feel the same over a Tsonga, for example. This is a qualitative desktop study investigating how apartheid education was used to fuel tribalism and xenophobia in South Africa.

This chapter examines the emergence of a category, “belief in spiritual beings,” which drove certain “intellectualist” assumptions about the essence, origin, and persistence of religion. Like many terms in the study of religion in Europe during the late nineteenth century, animism arose through a global mediation in which an imperial theorist, in this case the father of anthropology, E. B. Tylor, relied on colonial middlemen, such as missionaries, travelers, and administrators, for evidence about indigenous people all over the world. Among other colonial sources, E. B. Tylor relied on the Anglican missionary Henry Callaway for data about Zulu people in South Africa. Drawing on Callaway’s reports about Zulu dreaming and sneezing, Tylor distilled his basic definition of religion as belief in pervading and invading spirits. Against a broad imperial and colonial background, this chapter explores the historical emergence and ongoing consequences of the category animism in the study of religion.

South Africa is a multi-lingual country with a population of about 40.5 million people. South Africa has more official languages at a national level than any other country in the world. Over and above English and Afrikaans, the eleven official languages include the indigenous languages: Southern Sotho, Northern Sotho, Tswana, Zulu, Xhosa, Swati, Ndebele, Tsonga, and Venda (Pretorius & Bosch, 2003). Figure 1 depicts the breakdown of the South African official languages as mother tongues for South African citizens. Although English ranks fifth (9%) as a mother tongue, there is a tendency among national leaders, politicians, business people, and officials to use English more frequently than any of the other languages. In a national survey on language use and language interaction conducted by the Pan South African Language Board (Language Use and Board Interaction in South Africa, 2000), only 22% of the respondents indicated that they fully understand speeches and statements made in English, while 19% indicated that they seldom understand information conveyed in English. The rate of electrification in South African is 66.1%. The total number of people with access to electricity is 28.3 million, and the total number of people without access to electricity is 14.5 million (International Energy Agency, 2002). Although the gap between the “haves” and “have-nots” is narrowing, a significant portion of the South African population is still without the basic amenities of life. This unique environment sets the tone for a creative research agenda for HCI researchers and practitioners in South Africa.

Apartheid was established in South Africa between 1948 and 1994 as a force of exclusion and incorporation, excluding people from citizenship and exploiting people as labor. This chapter suggests that the term apartheid, meaning “separation,” was formative for certain ways of thinking about religion. One of the architects of apartheid, the anthropologist W. M. Eiselen, was a leading expert on indigenous religions in South Africa. Eiselen’s writings on African religion illustrate three overlapping types of comparative religion—a frontier comparative religion based on denial and containment; an imperial comparative religion assuming evolutionary progress from savagery to civilization; and an apartheid comparative religion creating and reinforcing boundaries to keep people apart. Although apartheid was formally established as a racist policy of separation in South Africa, the making and maintaining of boundaries has been a recurring feature of religious formations.

This chapter explores the narrative that people associate strongly with a Zulu identity, but which also resonates beyond South Africa, a moral schema demanding that the good life requires respect for all people. It talks about hierarchies, how it affects people's perception of who they are, and how they learn to live with them. It defines inequality as the kind of situation when someone with lesser power has to figure out how to demand better treatment from someone in power. The chapter discusses how South African people manage with precarity — a situation when people have a source of income, a supportive social group, and a home to live in, yet they are always hovering just at the edge of losing those basic necessities. It also talks about respect as a moral code, respect being at the intersection of work and the good life, and it asks if respect is truly achievable.