Culture / People · Southern Africa
Zulu
A Southern African people whose nineteenth-century kingdom and later struggles are central to the history of the region.
Geography and regions
Primarily KwaZulu-Natal and neighbouring parts of South Africa.
Language
isiZulu
Origins and historical development
This section is being prepared by Ozikoro editors with reviewed sources.
Political organisation
Lineage-based chiefdoms were consolidated into a kingdom under Shaka and his successors; monarchy and traditional councils continue in changed forms.
Religion and worldview
Ancestral relations, divination and a creator tradition coexist with diverse Christian practices.
Economy and trade
This section is being prepared by Ozikoro editors with reviewed sources.
Marriage and life-cycle traditions
This section is being prepared by Ozikoro editors with reviewed sources.
Festivals and ceremonies
This section is being prepared by Ozikoro editors with reviewed sources.
Food and material culture
This section is being prepared by Ozikoro editors with reviewed sources.
Art, architecture and technology
Beadwork, basketry, ceramics, hideworking and distinctive homestead architecture.
Archaeology
Settlement remains and material studies illuminate homesteads, cattle economies and political consolidation.
Colonial and modern history
The kingdom resisted British invasion in 1879; dispossession, segregation and apartheid profoundly reshaped Zulu life.
Diaspora
This section is being prepared by Ozikoro editors with reviewed sources.
Further study and sources
This section is being prepared by Ozikoro editors with reviewed sources.
Further study
Related courses
Courses for this area are in preparation. Explore related collections in the meantime.