Zulu Homes and Meals, 1864
In looking out a building spot, the Zulu generally finds it necessary to have an eye to several things,—a fountain or stream from whence to get water, pasturage for his…
From: Unknown To: 1864 C.E.
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Zulu-Land: or Life among the Zulu-Kafirs of Natal and Zulu-Land, South Africa by Lewis Grout, 1864.
In looking out a building spot, the Zulu generally finds it necessary to have an eye to several things,—a fountain or stream from whence to get water, pasturage for his cattle; a few patches of good soil, where he may dig and raise Kafir or Indian corn, and other articles of food; and then a site for the kraal, where the water will not lodge in times of rain, where also he may dig pits in the earth to deposit his grain, and where, again, he will not be too much exposed to bleak winds, and cold, driving storms. Under pure native law, a man has no right to build any where, nor at all, until he gets permission from his chief to do so; his first step is to go and ask his chief for a place to build, unless, perchance, his chief may have given him one without his asking.
Having selected a site, he goes to the nearest bush, or jungle, for stakes and wattles with which to construct his isibaya, a cow-pen or fold for his cattle,—a circular enclosure from two to four, or even ten, fifty, or a hundred rods in diameter, according to the proposed size of the kraal, and the number of cattle which the owner or captain of the kraal may have to provide for. Some of the great king's cattle-pens were made to enclose several acres of land, and so hold immense herds, thousands of head. In those sections of the country where little or no wood grows, the pen is built of stones or sods.
A Zulu Group-Frontispiece. Images from book.
Having completed the isibaya, so far at least that it will serve to keep his cattle for the present, the next thing is to erect a hut or house,—inhlu, plural izinhlu, one for himself, and one for each wife, mother, or other dependent. These huts, built of wattles, sustained by two or three posts in the central parts, and covered with thatch,—some kind of coarse grass,—are planted in a circle around the cattle-pen, at the distance of two or three yards from it, and about twice that distance from each other; his own being at the upper or backside of the establishment, while the rest lead off on each side till the circular fold is enclosed by the two wings, — provided he has wives and other dependents enough to fill out the circle.
In former days, when war or predatory incursions were common, it was more customary than now for several men to unite and build together, all in one kraal, for material aid and security. These huts, being hemispherical in form, and thatched with grass, look very much like so many hay-cocks twelve or fifteen feet in diameter, and so high that a man can generally stand upright in the center, especially if he takes his hat off, and does not mind the cock-roaches, smoke, or soot, in which the roof commonly abounds. A single aperture at the lower side of the hut, arched at the top, only about eighteen inches wide, and two feet high, (measuring from the earth up,) serves for both door and windows. Of course, all the inhabitants, save the small children, the dogs, the goats, sheep, and calves, must creep in and out on their hands and knees. A small space near the door, on one side of this one-roomed house, is usually laid off for the calves and the other quadrupeds, at night, to keep them from the roaming wolf or leopard, though even here they are not always safe.
Firewood, calabashes, and other water-pots, cooking utensils, the mill-stone, and the sleeping-mats, fill up the rest of the border of the hut. Near the central pillar, and on the side towards the door, is the fireplace, a shallow, basin-like excavation, scooped out in the earth, with an elevated rim of molded clay. This clay, as also that of which the floor is made, is usually brought from some neighboring ant-heap; when it is properly wet, pounded, and rubbed down with a stone, a very hard, smooth, and durable surface is obtained.
In the evening, and through most of the day, if the weather is cold or wet, gathered around this fire-place, their only hearth-stone, all seated on their haunches much like the dogs by their sides, poking the fire or putting up the brands, by grinding and snuffing their snuff, smoking their pipe, cooking and eating their food, cuffing and scolding their dogs, narrating exploits, telling the news, or talking the merest nonsense, the people pass their hours in what they consider a very pleasant and comfortable manner. When they are weary with sitting, snuffing, smoking, eating, talking, laughing, if nothing worse, the hour for retiring having arrived they spread their bed, a single mat made usually of some kind of rush or flag, and with a block of wood for a pillow, and a coarse blanket or the hide of some animal for a covering, lie down and sleep until a new day dawns upon them.
Around the fold for cattle and the huts for the people, some kind of enclosure is usually erected, a hedge or wattled fence, like that of which the fold is made, and in a like circular form, parallel to the inner enclosure; the gate of each being on the same side, so as to make a straight passage through the two. When the people felt less secure than they now do, this outer fence was made strong, and at night the outer gate was shut with all available strength and care, the way being filled up with stakes and thorny bushes so as to make entrance from without next to impossible.
Passing from the Umuzi, or Umzi, plural Imizi, the village or hamlet, or, as the Dutch say, the Kraal, we come to the Insimu, or garden, plural Amasimu. These may be near the kraal, or far away, according as the people can find patches of land suited to their ideas of fitness for cultivation. Such places may be nooks of made-land along the edges and angles of some stream; or, they may be the bushy side or the open summit of some hillock. The field having been selected, it is the duty of the men and boys to cut away the brush; the work of planting, weeding, and harvesting the crop, being assigned to the women and girls.
Sometimes the men run a wattled fence round the garden, to protect it from cattle by day, and from the wild boar by night; otherwise, the herd-boy must keep a sharp lookout for the cows, calves, and goats, for three months; and when the corn puts out the ear, the men must guard it vigilantly, night after night, rain or no rain, to keep it from the wary, ravenous pig out of the bush. Of course, a new order of things is gradually introduced among those who embrace Christianity; an open, level field, fit for the plow, being preferred to the narrow, stony, or precipitous patches, which must be dug by hand. But, in the heathen state of this people, the poor woman, with her pick and basket, must serve as plow and cart, ox and horse.
The season for planting having arrived, she takes her babe, if she has one, binds it upon her back by means of a goat-skin, balances a basket of seed on her head, lays her heavy pick on her shoulder, and goes forth to the field for a day's work. Sometimes she has a nurse to care for the child; sometimes she keeps it bound to her back, or she lays it wrapped in the goat-skin on the ground by her side; while she scatters the seed and goes on to labor, hour after hour, often under a burning sun, swinging her rude pick of eight or ten pounds weight, to mellow the earth and prepare it to bring forth food for the support of her lord, herself, their children, and friends. Her day's work done, she returns home, gathering and carrying a bundle of wood by the way; sends the children to the brook to fill their earthen pots and calabashes with water; then, as the sun sinks behind the hill, she prepares to cook their principal meal.
And just now is the best time for us to take a look at her pantry and cupboard, her crockery and kettles,—only you must not suppose the inventory large. There is the great pot in which she cooks her umbila or amabele,—that is, maize or millet,—standing on a tripod of three rough stones, while the faggots blaze beneath and on every side. Here, too, she boils her vegetables,—greens, pumpkins, or turnips —and occasionally steams a loaf of bread. The potlid is just another pot of the same size, inverted, fitted lip to lip, one upon the other, its position secured, and the apertures closed by the use of a little ubulongwe from the cattle fold, the same article with which she smears the floor of her house once a week, not to mention sundry other important uses to which the people are wont to put it; though of its value as a fertilizer, judging from their neglect, they have little idea.
These great pots, as also the few bowls from which they eat their crushed corn and thick milk, are made of clay, and baked in some furnace, probably an ant-heap, and all perhaps by the woman who is now using them to prepare an evening repast.
The Zulu at work.
The corn being boiled, this woman-of-all-work brings out the mill to mash or grind it. This mill is one of the most simple of all machines—two stones, one larger and flatter, six inches thick, ten or twelve wide, and fifteen or twenty long; the other a small oval-shaped cobble, the size of your two fists. On the first, a little worn, or scooped out by art or by use, or by both, the grinder lays a handful of corn, which, under the steady, compressed, rocking motion which she gives the cobble, as she clinches it fast with both hands, and throws the strength of her arms and much of the weight of her body upon it, soon comes out mashed, somewhat like the pomace of apples from a cider-mill, and falls upon a mat, which she has laid under the front edge of the nether mill-stone.
Having ground her grist, she puts a good portion of it into a little basket, and bears it away to her husband, who, night having set in, lights a straw as a candle; mingles his isicaba and amasi, — mashed mealies (or corn) and thick milk,—takes the wooden ladle, which is fashioned from a good bit of timber, and soon devotes the simple dish to the end for which it was designed.
If his means allow, his supper comprises several courses, each course consisting of a single dish. Perhaps he will begin with meat, which may be either broiled or boiled, and served on the mat, which took the grist from the mill, and answers as a tray for numerous domestic purposes. For a carving knife he uses his spear; for a fork, his fingers.
Their ordinary drinking cup, at least for water and for home use, is a dipper made from the shell of a gourd, of which they grow various kinds. For beer cups they may use a large earthen pot, or bowl, or a closely woven basket, holding from two to ten quarts. And if you ever saw two or three pigs after they had drunk their fill of whey, you have some idea as to how these men generally look after sitting half a day over their pots and baskets of beer. Their mode of drinking water from a brook, when traveling, is both simple and instructive, probably just that which is spoken of in Judges as a mark of the men with whom Gideon was to go out to battle against the Midianites. If the stream be small, the thirsty man stands upon the brink, forms the fingers and palm of one hand into a shallow kind of spoon, stoops till he can reach the water, and then by a series of peculiar, sudden, rapid jerks, tosses the water from the stream to his mouth; or if the stream be broad and high, he wades in, and tosses the water as before, yet without stooping, perhaps without halting, but drinking as he goes, lapping the water as a dog laps, tossing it with his hands as a dog with his tongue to his mouth.
Their amasi, or thick milk, is made by pouring sweet milk into the igula, a large bottle-shaped calabash, where it soon undergoes a kind of fermentation, or acidulous chemical change, from being speedily leavened, as it were, by a little which was left there for the purpose when the previous mess was poured out. The whey which is generated by the process is first drawn off, and used as a drink, or as food for the little folks; then comes a rich, white, inspissated substance, which is neither curd nor bonny-clabber, nor buttermilk, nor any thing else but just that light, acidulated, healthy, and, to most persons, very acceptable dish which the natives call amasi.
Having been through the house, peeped into the pantry, enumerated and described their cooking, eating, and drinking utensils, we must take a look at their barn. As to a house for horses and hay, they have none; since they never (until of late) have kept horses, and never think of laying up any thing for their cattle. As to their stables, I have already described them, that for the cows and oxen being the circular pen within the kraal; that for the calves and goats being included in their own huts. All we can find, then, is a corn-house, or granary, and a threshing floor. The latter consists of a hard, smooth, open piece of ground, such as we read of in the Scriptures, prepared sometimes within the kraal, and sometimes outside, where the ears are poured down in a pile, and threshed by a company of women, who sit round and beat it with their flails. The flail is nothing more than a staff, four or five feet in length, and an inch or so in thickness. The grain is winnowed by pouring it from one basket into another in a breeze.
When the corn is brought from the fields, the heads of amabele, which look much like broom-corn, are stacked for a time in heaps, on a slender frame work; the ears of maize, their UmbiIa, the Indian corn of America, are stored for a few months in cylindrical bins of reeds, (native ratan,) or other kinds of wicker work, which are also raised a little from the earth. Here their grain may stand, save what is required for immediate use, till the winter season begins to set in, or about the month of May, when it must be threshed out and deposited in air-tight pits, in the cattle fold, to protect it from the ravages of the weevil.
These pits are large bottle-shaped excavations in the central part of the cow-yard, having a small round mouth, about a foot wide, (just large enough for a man to let himself down through) a short neck of two feet; and then a broad internal enlargement in all directions, making a hole that will contain from ten to fifty or a hundred bushels of grain, according to the requirements of the proprietor. The grain having been poured in, the mouth of this great underground bottle is covered over, first with a flat stone or something of the kind, and next with earth or the contents of the yard; and left for the cattle to trample and press, and so make it as proof as possible against air and moisture.
The few bushels which are taken out now and then for daily use, are kept in the isilulu,—a large egg-shaped basket, made of twisted and woven grass, and set up on a kind of stool, like some of the granaries with which Dr. Barth met in Northern Africa. The natives often have a small hut, set up on poles five or six feet from the ground, in which to keep their seed-corn; ears of seed are sometimes kept stuck in the smoky roofs of their huts.
Grout, Lewis. Zulu-Land: or Life among the Zulu-Kafirs of Natal and Zulu-Land, South Africa. Presbyterian Publication Committee, 1864.
About TOTA
TOTA.world provides cultural information and sharing across the world to help you explore your Family’s Cultural History and create deep connections with the lives and cultures of your ancestors.
