For the second feature on the (not so) new Durban road names, we thought that we’d tackle a road that runs through the centre of our city, and is host to the famous Comrades Marathon taking place this Sunday. Berea Road, now King Dinuzulu Road, is the ‘gateway’ to Durban, with Tollgate Bridge forming a … Read more
Anyone who’s a regular early morning beachgoer is likely to have seen those curious groups of people dressed in white performing baptisms in the rather choppy Indian Ocean. You might also have driven past those circles of white stones dotted around Durban’s public spaces, and wondered what they mean. Well if you have a curious … Read more
There was a story on the radio recently that related to the calabash fruit, and how it can be used as a musical instrument for calling the ancestors. Unfortunately there’s very little information online regarding this ancestral link, but nonetheless it’s still a very interesting fruit and one that has special significance in KZN. The … Read more
The annual Royal Zulu Reed Dance (uMkhosi woMhlanga) took place last week with thousands of young women attending the ceremony at the Enyokeni Royal Palace in Nongoma, KwaZulu-Natal. The festival, which takes its name from the riverbed reeds which the young maidens carry, was reintroduced by King Goodwill Zwelithini in 1991, as a means of … Read more
Cynthia aka Zulu Maiden is currently running an excellent podcast where you can learn to speak Zulu. Each podcast is centred around a theme, such as ‘What’s in your house?’, and she provides a vocabulary list as well as audio recordings to help with pronunciation. In her own words: “These are podcasts designed to help … Read more
Integrating the knowledge of indigenous Zulu medicinal plants into the teaching of chemistry is under investigation by Fulbright scholar Deshi Moodley, now a science education lecturer at the faculty of education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Moodley’s study, which she says will take three years, integrates indigenous knowledge of Zulu medicinal plants into the teaching … Read more