Each month we do a wrap up of what our Ulwazi fieldworkers have been researching, and this month it’s clear that Siboniso’s work had a definite theme, with the majority of his stories focusing on Zulu traditions surrounding death. Click on the links below to read about the isihlangu ceremony that’s performed after the death of a male family … Read more
One of the core principles of the Ulwazi Programme is that information be collected in as democratic a manner as possible, with members of the public working in conjunction with fieldworkers to create content, many of which were previously unrecorded. Working along similar lines, Proclamation 73 is a not-for-profit project that is currently calling for the … Read more
Last month Siboniso Langa, one of our enthusiastic Ulwazi fieldworkers, reported on the different clothes that Zulu men and women wear at different times of their lives, and in different contexts. Siboniso discussed everything from bridal outfits to the clothes that a Zulu prince wears, as well as everyday attire for traditional Zulu girls and boys. Follow the … Read more
It doesn’t seem possible, but Ulwazi is ten years old! A whole decade! Conceptualised by the ex-Head of Information Systems at eThekwini Libraries, Betsie Greyling, Ulwazi was initially run as a library project before joining the Local History Museums family where it now happily resides. The motivation for starting Ulwazi was threefold: Increase the volume of … Read more
Proverbs are found in all languages. They act as colourful lessons, offering advice that’s passed down from generation to generation in the guise of a clever sentence or two. In English there is a well-known saying, ‘Too many cooks spoil the broth’, implying that some things are better done alone. The Zulu equivalent, as explained … Read more
Culture is something that is dynamic. We talk about ‘preserving’ culture, but in truth culture is something that is always changing and adapting, so at best we are are recording culture at a point in time. One of the stories that Nqobile researched last month is a good illustration of this point. In contemporary Zulu culture a … Read more