REEVALUATINGZULU RELIGION
An Afrocentric Analysis
ANA MARIA MONTEIRO-FERREIRA
TempleUniversity
Througha brief overview of Zulu historyand traditions,this article,committedto reevaluatingtraditionalZulu social patterns,questionsthe European interpretationsof Zulu people's system of beliefs and religious and
spiritualconcepts.Froman Afrocentriccriticalreadingof majorworksby
threeEuropeanauthors(Callaway,Hexham,andBerglund),this studyis an
attemptto trace the spiritualAfrican heritage of the Zulus back to the
ancientKemeticconcepts.Ratherthaninsistingon the attributionof ChristianandMuslintraditionsto the SouthernAfricanindigenouspeoples, this
articleaims at showing the inconsistencyof such attributionsvis-a-vis the
human being's responsibility that underlies the holistic cosmogony of
every African.
Keywords: Africanidentity;Afrocentricity;Africanheritage;Zulu religion; Africancosmogony
As far as the European recognition is concerned,the last glorious
achievementof the Zulu army was the battle of Isandhlawanaon
January22, 1879, where the Zulu, armedwith spears and clubs,
wiped out an entireBritishregiment,renderingtheir cannonsand
guns useless againstZulu's war strategyof swift surpriseattacks.
Notwithstanding,the perverse effect of the glorious performance of Zulu's intelligence, strength,and militaryorganization
determineda reinforcementof the British weaponry and recrudescent military opposition until Ulundi, the Zulu capital, was
burneddown on July 4, 1897, and the Zululandcame underdirect
Britishruling.
Very much from this British militaryfailure and because pre19th-centuryZulu history could not for a long time be tracedby
writtenrecordsother than the ones establishedafter 1824 by the
JOURNALOF BLACKSTUDIES, Vol. 35 No. 3, January2005 347-363
DOI: 10.1177/0021934704263127
© 2005 Sage Publications
347
348 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ JANUARY 2005
reportsof the Europeansettlers in Natal, the Zulu peoples have
gainedtheirreputationas ruthlesswarriors,as well as a people with
no religion.
On the Zulu side, however,the need for survivalto the preconceived ideas of the Europeanmissionariesand tradersand to the
colonialismof the Europeanpowersmadethemtenaciouslydefend
theirculturalheritage,andtheirformerprideandpoliticalposition
in South Africa have been regained in the 20th century under
Buthelezi.
Nowadays,the largestZulu populationcan still be found in the
regionof KwaZuluon the easterncoast of Africa,butmanylive in
the cities of urbanSouth Africa where, accordingto an estimate,
approximately8 million South Africans considered themselves
Zulu or membersof closely relatedethnic groupsin the 1990s.
As historicalsources put it, the Africanpeoples who settled in
subequatorialEasternandSouthernAfricadescendfromtwo broad
groups:
• theKhoi-San,
hunters
andcattleraisers,ochre-skinned
racesdescendentof EarlyStoneAge progenitors,
who livedall overSouthern
Africa;and
• theBantu,a termderivedfromtheZulucollectivenounfor "people"of Blackraceswho lived in the GreatLakesregionof subAfrica.Bigger,stronger,moreaggresequatorialCentral-to-East
and
more
sive,
advanced,theydisplacedthoseof
technologically
Khoi-Sanoriginwhena growingpopulation
requiredmoreland.
The Bantu-speakingpeople weredividedinto two broadgroups:
Nguni-speakingpeople who are the Zulu ancestors,and speakers
of otherAfricanlanguages.
The Nguni people arenamedafterthe charismaticfigurewho is
said to have led a migrationfrom Egypt to the GreatLakesvia the
Red Sea corridorand Ethiopiaand 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 measuredin cattle, a traditionthat continued throughoutthe modern
Zulu Kingdom.1
Monteiro-Ferreira
/ REEVALUATINGZULU RELIGION 349
Most of the speakersof otherlanguages,such as Sotho, Tswana,
Tsonga, and Venda,lived in the interiorof the country.
Some 3,000 yearsago, when the explosion in populationof both
people and livestock led inevitablyto the quest for new land, the
Nguni chiefs began moving their communities.First, they moved
east andsoutheastinto the territorymakingup modern-dayZambia
andZimbabweandlater,duringthe 16thcentury,into the beautiful
coastal stripof Maputaland,modernMozambique.
Under this extremepressure,the Lala people, descendedfrom
the Khoi-San,were forced to eitherintegrateor move on.
These are historical divisions of what is nowadays generally
known as the Zulu peoples, whose backgroundof historicalconquests has made them a multiculturalsociety bound togetherby
similarlanguages,similarritualsandcelebrationsperformedaround
common symbols, and common Africansystems of beliefs.
The social organizationof the Nguni clan includedan extended
polygynousfamily determinedby male lineage as well as otherrelativesthrougha varietyof kinshipties andpeople who hadattached
themselves to the householdor imizi.
These social units were politically organized into chiefdoms
ruledby the dominantlineage of the strongestclan.
Chiefdom typically includeda groupof relatedpatrilinealclans
or descent groupsunitedby common ancestryonly a few generations deep.
These paramountchiefs, however, had insufficient military
strength to guaranteeloyalty among the vassal chiefs, and their
influence thus expanded or disappearedas the result of shifting
allegiances or the birthof new clans as chiefs' sons went forth to
establishnew homesteads.
This was exactlywhathappenedto the rulingdaysof Malandela,
when such a clan came into being by virtueof his son, Zulu, a high
spiritedand determinedyoung man whose name means Heaven.
Zulu,his wives, andhis followersaccompaniedthe new clanfurthersouthto the MkhumbaneRiverbasin wherehe establishedhis
own small realm- the first KwaZulu,or Place of Heaven or Sky.
350 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ JANUARY 2005
FIGURE 1 The Zulu Village
Zulu built his homesteadaccordingto the Nguni tradition.The
cattle-fold'scentralpositionwithinthe kraal2evincedanimals'crucial role in society.
Cattle were centralto most Nguni economies, with an almost
complete dependenceon herdingand crop cultivation,often supplementedby hunting.Cattlewere also used for the lobola (dowry)
thataddedmorewealthto the clan when the girls were marriedoff;
cattle were also the sourceof meat and milk, with theirhides used
for clothingandbattle-shields.Cattle,andespeciallythe cattle-fold
where ritualsand ceremoniesin venerationof the ancestorstook
place, were of ritualsignificancetoo.
The clan's homesteadswere arrangedin a crescentat the higher
end of a sloping piece of land with irregularlyshaped fields for
planting grains and vegetables aroundit, which made them selfsufficiententities (see Figure 1).
Until the 18th centuryor later,historiansbelieve, these chiefdoms were not unitedundera king or monarch.
In 1805, Dingiswayo, the leader of the Mthethwapeople, had
become increasinglyimportantdue to his militaryconquests and
dominatedmuch of the region northof the Tugela River.
/ REEVALUATINGZULU RELIGION 35 1
Monteiro-Ferreira
After the paramountChief Jobe's death,he claimedthathe was
Ngodongwana,one 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,both social and political. Not only did he createa regular
army but he also abolished circumcisionas the ritual of passage
into manhood.Instead,he replacedit with the ritualof enteringthe
army.He establisheddifferentarmyunits based on age-set, distinguishableby dressings and shields to create a sense of pride and
identity.This was the first permanentarmedforce in the region.
Shaka,who was a child of Senzangakona,Zulu chief in 1787,
joined Dingiswayo's armyat the age of 16 and won recognitionin
1810 by skillfully subduing the leader of the warringButhelezi
chiefdom. Apparentlyloyal to Dingiswayo while he lived, Shaka
took advantageof Dingiswayo's militarydefeat by the neighboring Ndwandwe armies and began building the Zulu empire after
Dingiswayo'sdeathin 18 18, establishingits capitalin Bulawayo.
Unitedby Shaka,the Zuluor Amazulukingdomgainedsupremacy over almost two thirdsof South Africa duringa period of 10
years. Shaka Zulu (r. 1817-1828) became a remarkableking by
adoptingnew fighting strategies,by consolidatingcontrolover his
militaryregiments,andby the enduringwarfarecapabilitiesof his
warriorregiments,the impls.
In 1879, the Zulus inflicted that major defeat to the British
armiesat Isandhlwana,but this triumphparadoxicallydictatedthe
destructionof the Zulu nationas an independentkingdom.
TheZuluempireweakenedafterShaka'sdeathin 1828 andfragmented, especially following militarydefeats at the hands of the
Afrikanersand the British.
Zululand,the areanorthof the TugelaRiver,was invadedby the
British armies and finally incorporatedinto the British colony,
Natal, in 1887.
Among the many consequencesof the destructionof the Zululandas an independentnation,thereis one thatneeds specialreference: the increasingactivity of the missionariesamong the Zulu
peoples and theirconsequentconversionto Christianity.
352 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ JANUARY 2005
Althoughthe presenceof EuropeansandArabsamongthe African peoples in general was known, prior to 1824 very little was
reportedabout the Europeansliving among South African clans,
and even less was known abouttheircontactwith the Arabs.
Next to 1824, however,therearereportsof mutualarrangements
between Europeans,mainly adventurersand traderswho established in PortNatal (now Durban)for a base for tradewith the interior populations,and King Shaka, very much interestedin their
guns and powder.
Muchof whathas been writtenaboutthe Zulupeopleshas thereforebeen authoredby theseEuropeantradersandmissionariesduring the first 50 years of contact,andtheiraccountsreflect the contradictionsand misunderstandingscreated by the clash of two
differentstages of developmentand worldviews.
Althoughwe may not totally agreewith Mazrui's(1986) theory
of a mixed legacy or "Africa'sTripartiteHeritage" (Asante &
Abarry,1996, p. 21 1) as the culturalcoalescenceof Africanindigenous cultureswith Christiansand Muslims from the 1st and 7th
centuriesA.D. onward,and especially afterthe colonizing experience of the 15thcentury,we must undoubtedlyconsiderthatthere
is an extremelyimbricatepatternof culturalfusions that must be
sorted out to reach the African essence of Africa and deploy the
generally accepted interpretationsof African cultures from nonAfricaninfluences.
Following modern African historians like Diop (1974),3
Obenga,andAsante,who partakein the idea that"betweenthe earliest writingsin the Nile Valleyandthe variedwritingsof Africans
at this moment of history, there are fascinatingand illuminating
culturallinkages"(Asante& Abarry,1996, p. 11), I intendto demonstratethatonly by divinginto classicalAfricacan we understand
what is truly African about Africa. Otherwise,the preconceived
ideas of the Europeansabout African peoples and the extent to
which they have changed,influenced,and sometimeserasedAfrican culturewill hardlybe fully assessed. Only throughthe questioning of present-dayoverviews of Africanhistory and religion,
servedby WesternEuropeaninterpretationsthat make the task of
understandingwhat are the traditionalroots of African religious
Monteiro-Ferreira
/ REEVALUATINGZULU 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 developed 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 thatkeeps a close religious relationshipbetween
humans,and between humansand the environment;
Ethics or Ma 'at thatin African societies is the generativeprincipleof
right and righteousness, balance, justice, harmony,respect, and
dignity;and
Ancestorsworshipthatembodiesthe conceptof epic memoryandwisdom, which is the source of ethical teachingsand 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 representativetexts by
Nathaniel Isaacs (1836), Allen Gardiner(1836), Francis Owen
(1837), and William Holden (1866), among otherauthors,cited in
Hexham(1987);
• The re-editionof the extremelyvaluablepublicationof The FolkLore Society, London, in 1884 of a three-partbook by Reverend
HenryCallaway(1884/1967);
• The remarkablestudyof contemporary"traditionalreligion"of the
Zulu by Axel-IvarBerglund(1976).
354 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ JANUARY 2005
DISCUSSION
AlthoughHexham'sselectionof texts leaves us with the authors'
interpretationsof what they could see and experienceamong the
Zulu during the 19th century, and Berglund's book very much
relies on his interpretationsof the extensiveethnographicresearch
done among 20th-century informants, reading Callaway's outstandingworkofferedme whatI considerto be a muchmoregenuine insight of the Zulu people's system of beliefs.
He named his manuscript- based on the Zulu people's oral
traditions- IzinyangaZokubula;or Divinationas ExistingAmong
theAmazulu,in TheirOwnWords,Witha TranslationIntoEnglish,
and Notes.
The majorityof his notes, however,are language explanations
and the translator'sclarificationsof more obscurestatements.
The thoroughrecordingof the storiestold by the wisdomof ageold Zulu individuals,the carefulquestioningto allow the deepest
understandingof detail, and the considerationof differentclans'
sourcesguided my attentioninto what I considerthe most importantchallengefor researchersof Africanreligionsnowadays:Is the
belief in a Supreme Being compliant with the concept of an
AlmightyGod amongthe manyAfricanethnicgroups?Is it a result
of eitherMuslim or Christianinfluences, or is it partof a coherent
Africanreligious thoughtpattern?
The texts compiled by Hexham are authoredby churchmen,
mainly traders and missionaries. Although some of them, like
Callaway,might have had a thoroughawarenessthat "someof the
statementshere made are the results of contact, in some way or
other,withEuropeanteaching"(Hexham,1987, p. 466), they could
not escape eithertheirpersonalbias of the inheritedaccessoriesof
theirown religion and Europeanworldviewor the Christian"contamination"of their sources.
Berglund(1976) was also awarethat "aninteractionhas taken
place between traditionalZulu beliefs and those of missionaries
andotheroutsiders"(p. 26) andthatstatementworkswrittenin the
1930s presented similar problems of understandingZulu traditional religious beliefs withoutinceptionsfrom Christianity.Not-
Monteiro-Ferreira
/ REEVALUATINGZULU RELIGION 355
withstanding,he could not make a clear distinctionbetween past
andpresentbeliefs, andby readinghis studywe get the idea thata
Zulu Sky God or Lord-of-the-Skyis the same conceptualidea that
Eiselen and Schaper(1937, cited in Berglund, 1976) designateas
Lord of Heaven, and Bishop Sundkler(1948, cited in Berglund,
1976) names High-God.
My contention,however,is thatno suchconceptof one Supreme
God governingAfricancosmogonyis even consistentwiththe spiritualvalues andethicalresponsibilitiesof the humanbeing in Africans' holistic sense of oneness of humankindand nature.
Actually,I preferto tracethe meaningof this sense of onenessof
humankindwith nature back to the Kemetic concept of Ma'at,
understoodas the balancedand harmoniousorderof the creation
where spiritand matterare inseparable.
It was humanbeings' dutyto activelymaintainthis harmony.To
pursuethis crux ethical principle,the quest for truth,justice, harmony, and balance ought to be inherentto the righteousperson,
whose spiritualrighteousnessandtightnesswas morethana "transpersonalexperiencewithinthe humanorder.... It is a continuous
process by which [Africans]align [themselves]with 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 descendedfrom Egypt to the GreatLakes via the Red
Sea corridorand Ethiopia- focus primarilyon the principlethey
call Ubuntu:They exist becauseotherpeople exist. This is a powerful concept that they define as the belief that humansare humans
only becausethey interactwith otherpeople andnature,andif they
wereto ignorethe restof humanityandtryto live in a vacuum,they
would be less thanhuman.
This is also the core of the ZuluPersonalDeclarationthatbegins
(Asante & Abarry,1996), "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 personaldeclarationis, so to
speak, the corpus of the philosophical and ethical values of the
Nguni populationswhere all the correlationbetween Kemeticand
Zulu philosophicaland religious systems can be found.
356 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ JANUARY 2005
It is the relationshipof humankindwith natureand the natural
phenomenathatare the centralissues in the Africancosmological
understandingof life, death, and creation.Like the ancientEgyptians, Africansbelieved thatthe fundamentalprincipleof creation
was the equilibriumof opposites, a perfectly establishedenergy
whose force regulatesthe universe;andthe harmonythatpreexists
to chaos is translatedinto Ma'at "as the organizingprinciple of
human society, the creative spirit of phenomena,and the eternal
orderof the universe"(Asante, 1998, p. 89).
These cosmological and ethical concepts were recreated
throughoraltradition,narrativesof creationgenerationaftergeneration, symbolizedby the spiritof the ancestors,the guardianof an
individual'squest for the generativeforce of cosmic harmony.
Fromthe narrativesof creationof differentZulu ethnic sources,
one consistent concept of a First Creator- Ukulunkulu,Unkulu- emerges.And this is whatthe essence of
nkulu,or O(n)kulukulu
ReverendHenryCallaway'swork is about.
The whole set of narrativestranslatedby Callawayunanimously
points to Unkulunkuluas an agelessness concept of a first human
being who came to be beforetime, as we conceive it, andis said to
have made all things and given them to humankindto dispose of
them. Then he died.
He did not leave any laws or regulationsto be followed, the living presentbeing but the renewedfollow-up of past experiences,
the actualizationof a previousmatrixinscribedon an immemorial
time whose teachingsis the ancestors'duty to perform.
Because the Zulu people believed in a humanfirst creatorwho
died away,Unkulunkulu,unlikea SupremeGod, has less influence
on theirlives (Berglund,1976, was also quiteawareof this) thanthe
spirit of the ancestors whom they can place in a time they can
recognize.
When we take the Zulu oral traditionsof creation,the notion of
Unkulunkuluitself is a personal concept, creating and backing
away,lost in a non-timedimension,which seems muchcloserto the
Kemeticconceptof a FirstOccasion(TepZepi)thatcontainsall the
blueprintsof a commonlife thanto the SupremeGod of the Chris-
Monteiro-Ferreira
/ REEVALUATINGZULU RELIGION 357
tian and Muslim traditionsthatgovernshumankindand the entire
universe.4
On the other hand, the ancient Kemetic people also dealt with
this nontemporal/nonspatial
concept of movementfrom nonexistence into existence. Ratherthan conceiving of an all-governing
God, the Zulu peoples, following ancestralAfricanreligious systems, believe in the existence of ever-presentancestralspiritswho
watch over daily activities, promote social harmony,and create a
sense of accountabilityamong its members.
Unlike the wordshades coined by Berglund(1976), which is, in
my opinion, both a negative and a static notion reportingto the
underneathworld of the dead, the concept of spiritsapplies to all
things. African ontological systems revolve aroundthe core concept of the spiritsas the vital universalenergythatembodiesall living things, humanbeings and naturealike. Africans'holistic concept of humankindand the universe,whose balance and harmony
has to be respected,turnedthe respectfor the spiritsinto a sacred
notion thatrequiresa sense of agency.
The conceptof an AlmightyGod rulingoverhumankindandthe
universeas well as the polarizednotions of good and evil and the
sense of guilt centeredon the individualarethereJudaic-Christian
fore incompatiblewith the Africannotion of collective agency and
reciprocalrespect.Inversely,amongAfricanpeoples, good andbad
coexist and are partof everythingand of everydaylife. It is every
humanbeing's responsibilityto preventchaos andactivelyseek for
balanceandharmonyin the community.Insteadof guilt, shameis
taboo amongAfricans.It is shamefulto be cast out from the community when wrong actions create chaos and the disturbanceof
ontological order.
Therefore,it is all membersof the homestead'srequirementto
be at peace with one anotherandnature.Forinstance,before social
events or medicinaltreatmentcan take place, peace and harmony
among lineage membershave to be achieved, and this provides a
significantincentiveto resolve theirdifferencesexpediently.
Because thereis no writtenbook of preceptsto guide theirmoral
and ethical life, Zulu peoples, following traditionalAfrican systems of beliefs, dependon the spiritof the ancestorsto teach them
358 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ JANUARY 2005
the principlesof harmony,of visible and invisible, the humanand
nonhuman,the matterand the mind.
Under this holistic and communalwisdom, whose archetypal
imprintsdate back to the spirit of the ageless ancestor Unkulunkulu,oraltraditionsof the Zulupeoples developedtheirontological andcosmological systems, whose thoughtpatternsandexperiences are evinced by Zulu historiesof creation.
The various reports by old Zulu people of different ethnic
groups, as they appearedin Callaway (1884/1967), are unanimous about a centralconcept of antiquity,the old-old one or the
great-great-greatgrandfather,the first ancestorwho no longer is,
who died and no longer exists. This timeless conceptual framework in clans like the Amazulu, the Amabaka,the Unokgopoza,
and the Uzimase embodies the generative notion of priorityUmvelinqangi(meaningthe firstout-comeror the firstto breakoff)
and the potentialsource of being, Uthlanga, a feminine concept,
and Unsondo,the moralconceptof perfectionandgoodnessas well
as physical beauty.
Unkulunkulu,both the ancientman andwoman,5is assignedby
the Zulu peoples to a periodwhen ancientsunderstoodthe history
of creationand told the new generationsthe accountsof Unkulunkuluand of the ancientsof long ago.
This is the reasonthat the conceptualidea of a SupremeBeing
whomthey mustworshipdoes not fit into the Zulupeople's system
of beliefs. No one worshipsor praysto Unkulunkulubecausehe is
so faraway.He is so separatedfromthemin theirmindsthatdirect
connection between humankindand Unkulunkuluhas progressively been erasedandhe is not regardedas a commondeity.He is
as naturalas rain,food, andcorn and men and women know of his
existencethroughthese manifestationsthatarethe everydayliving
proofof the existenceof a firstcreator.The idea of the Zulupeoples
being indebtedto the first creatorhas to do merely with the good
things he createdfor them to have a pleasantlife in harmonywith
nature.Actually,he createdeverything;heaven, earth,and everythingthatexists didnot come into existenceuntilUnkulunkulupronouncedthem, namedthem, designatedthem, and taughthuman-
Monteiro-Ferreira
/ REEVALUATINGZULU RELIGION 359
kind how to use them. This is again the central philosophical
concept that can be tracedback to ancient Kemetic civilizationthe power of Nommo(cf. Asante, 1990; Karenga,1993).
He left to the human beings the responsibility of the ethical
behavior,of the good andbaddeeds, andthe ancestorsas bearersof
balanceand harmonyin the community.
Zulupeoples are,therefore,ancestors'venerators.They prayto,
or else they venerateandrespect,theAmatongoor Itongo, which is
the spirit of the ancestors,the spirit of the dead whom they call
Amadholozi(pluralof Idhlozi) or Umoya,whom they believe will
takecareof the living lineage, theirwealth,cattle,andthe harmony
in the kraal.The Amatongo are, therefore,in charge of bringing
correction,cure,balance,andharmonyinto the communityfor the
good of everybodyandareas muchpresentin the homesteadjust as
the living membersof the lineage. Communionwith the spiritof
the ancestorsis perhapsthe hugest partof traditionalZulu culture
performedin the ritualsacrifice of cattle.
Wrongdeeds in the communityare "censored"by the spiritsof
the ancestorsor Amadhlozi- those whose life is still remembered
andwhose teachingsandexamplesareto be followed- andpropitiatoryrites are made in theirhonor.
The dead of a lineage- Amadhlozi or Itongo, those who died
and became the inhabitantsof the spirit world- manifest their
spirit (Amatongo) by means of dreams, omens, or symbols that
generallycome as advice, warnings,or protection.These areinterpretedby a divineror a doctorandrequirethe sacrificeof an animal
(a bullockor a goat). Cattlekilling is thenthe most importantritual
among the Zulu, and specific places within the kraalare, for that
matter,the back wall of the chief's homestead where there is a
shrine, called umsamo, to revere the Amatongo, the doorway
throughwhich the spiritsof the ancestorsarewelcome, andthe cattle enclosure for the sacrifices in their honor, as we have already
seen.
Zulu'sfunctionalsystemof beliefs is completedby the symbolic
position of Earth- a feminine concept of origin- and Sky- the
masculine concept above. This symbolic position ties up human-
360 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ JANUARY 2005
kind andnatureas the balancingsubjectsof creationlike the crops
and the rain.
They say thatUnkulunkuluhad his origin in a bed of reeds and
wateras well as everythingelse, and the knowledge of everything
thatwas broughtforthby the powerof the wordof Unkulunkulu
the powerof Nommo.Fromthe Sky above,personifiedby the spirit
of the Lord-of-the-Sky,who emerged from the reeds like everything else, the Zulu got theirname (Zulu = sky).
Accordingto the stories of creation,the sky is a big blue rock
stretchedacrossthe surfaceof the earth,which is flat. The earthis
conceived as being held up on the hornsof four greatbulls thatare
the cause of the earthquakeswheneverthey shaketheirheads. The
sky is differentfromthe earthonly in the sense thatit is believedto
have perpetuallight. Otherwiseeverythingis similarto earth.The
Lord-of-the-Sky,like the chief of the kraal,has his own cattlethat,
by trampingon the muddygroundof the sky duringthe rainyseason, make the holes through which the sky light filters that are
named the stars. Actually, the Zulu peoples did not interpretthe
thunderandthe lightningas the wrathof God, neitherdid they conceive of such a divineentity.6Forthe Zulupeoples, the thunderand
the lightningmeanthatthe king of the sky is playingwithhis wives.
He is not angry.As for the lightningor hail, because they can kill
people or cattle or destroythe crops, it is believed thatthey affect
only those whose wrong deeds have harmedthe harmonyof the
communityor the balanceof nature.
These are omens whose meaning requires the extraordinary
knowledge of the doctors,the most importantpersonin the social
hierarchynext to the king or chief. As it is evinced by the diagram
in the appendix, the Zulus' social organization,mirroredin the
topographyof the kraal,reflectsbothZulus'cosmological andreligious interpretationsof the world.Butthey also mirroranimbricate
patternwhere sorcerersand witches, following the popularexpansion of Christianconcepts of good and evil, the god and the devil,
easily mingled with the naturalistictrendof the Africans'cosmological perspectives.
Monteiro-Ferreira
/ REEVALUATINGZULU RELIGION 36 1
CONCLUSION
Where do Christianinterpretationsclash with African worldviews? Where do they imbricate?How would one separateones
from the others?It is an almostimpossibletask, I agree.However,
from the various oral traditionscompiled by Callaway,although
manycould not escape the Whiteman'sperspective,I drewthe following assumptionsas core issues in my effortto help correcta few
misreadingsby non-Afrocentricscholars.
The Lord-of-the-Skycannotbe regardedas the FirstBeing and
the distantand unpredictablerulerwho is to be reveredandfeared
(Berglund,1976), neithercan we assumeanyrelationshipbetween
the Lord-of-the-Skyand Unkulunkulufor the reasons mentioned
before;muchless can we regardhim as the nativedenominationto
an Almighty God.
Actually,it is not a matterof vocabulary.It is a matterof ontological views.
Quitethe opposite,I would say thatthe importanceof the Lordof-the-Sky as well as the mythological figure of Unkulunkuluis
inscribedin the functionalrelationshipbetween the humanbeings
and the naturalforces thatregardthunderand lightning as partof
life in the sky as much as on the earth.
On the other hand, it is my opinion that the extremelogic and
comprehensibilityof the Zulureligious andphilosophicalsystems
became the fertile groundwhere the seeds of good and evil, sent
overhumankindby an AlmightyGod of Christianinspiration,easily grewinto worshipandvenerationof a SupremeDeity,this Lordof-the-Sky as interpretedby Berglund.
This is one more reason that I believe in an unquestionable
urgencyto revisethe historyof Africanpeoples, reinterpretancient
sources,andrereadandreevaluatepreviousconceptsforthe sakeof
a trueAfricanconceptualidentity.
This articlethatwas primarilycommittedto reevaluatingtraditional Zulu social patternsbased on theirtraditionalreligious system of beliefs underan Afrocentricperspective,avoidingthe focus
of WesternEuropeanconceptualframeworkas much as possible,
has anothermain purpose:to be challenging enough to stimulate
362 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ JANUARY 2005
new discussions and bring new light into African issues so that
Africanreligionsmay be one moresourceof peace andunityrather
than separationof Black people.
APPENDIX
Zulu Social Organization
King / Chief / Headmanor Priest
Diviners
Doctors of Medicine or Healers
HeavenDoctors
Sorcerers
Witches
NOTES
1. For more information,please see http//Zululand.kzn.oig.za
2. A kraalis a village formedby the homesteadsof people with a commonancestor(lineage group).
3. Diop (1974) statedthat"thehistoryof Black Africa will remainsuspendedin air and
cannot be writtencorrectlyuntil African historiansdare to connect it with the history of
Egypt"(p. xiv).
4. See Asante (1990): "Akhenaton'sheresy, after thousandsof years of the Egyptian
attemptfor harmonythroughMa'at workinginternally,was thathe sought in Aton the one
cosmic generatorthatgave meaningto life. But this force, this one god heresy,was external,
outside of the individual,a cosmic weaver weaving from afar.Thus, Akhenaton'sheresy
was . . . [the attemptto replace] the individual'squest for Ma'at with a giver or chief of
Ma'at"(p. 84).
5. Kulu = great, expresses age. This can be clearly understoodin the following word
family:
Ubaba- my father
Umame- my mother
- my grandfather• (or Ukulu) • Umame-mkulu- my grandmother
Ubaba-mkulu
Ukoko- ancestor(male, female)
- ancientman or woman
Unkulunkulu
6. CompareIsaacs (1836, cited in Hexham, 1987): "Chaka,when we firstheld a conversationwithhim on the subjectof the existenceof a SupremeBeing, at once evincedhe hadno
idea of a deity, and thathis people were equally ignoranton this subject"(p. 38).
Monteiro-Ferreira
/ REEVALUATINGZULU RELIGION 363
REFERENCES
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Press.
Asante, M. K. (1998). TheAfrocentricidea. Philadelphia:TempleUniversityPress.
Asante,M. K., & Abarry,A. (1996). Africanintellectualheritage:A bookof sources.Philadelphia:TempleUniversityPress.
Berglund,A-I. (1976). Zuluthought-patternsand symbolism.Bloomington:IndianaUniversity Press.
Callaway,H. (1967). The religious system of the Amazulu.Nendeln/Liechtenstein:Kraus
ReprintLtd. (Originalworkpublished 1884)
Diop, C. A. (1974). TheAfricanorigin of civilization.Mythor reality.Chicago:Lawrence
Hill Books.
Hexham,I. (Ed.). (1987). Textson Zulu religion. TraditionalZulu ideas about God. New
York:Edwin Mellen Press.
Karenga,M. (1993). Introductionto Black studies. Los Angeles: Universityol Sankore
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Mazrui,A. A. (1986). TheAfricans:A triple heritage.Boston: Little, Brown & Co.
Ana Maria Monteiro-Ferreirais presently conducting researchfor her Ph.D. in
American literatureand culture, gender and ethnicity at TempleUniversity.She
receivedher M.A.in women'sstudiesat UniversidadeAberta,Lisbon,Portugal,and
postgraduatein migration,subjectivity,and deconstructionat 1FU, Universityof
Hanoverin Germany.She is a researcherat the Centrefor Anglo-AmericanStudies
and the Centrefor the Studiesof Migrationand InterculturalRelationsof Universidade Aberta,Lisbon, as well as a boardmemberof the PortugueseAssociationfor
Women's Studies.