The Zulu People Essay Example

in the KwaZulu-Natal part of Africa. Their name translated in English means ???People of Heaven??? There is around seventeen to twenty two million people in this tribal group. The Zulu kingdom was established in the ninth century. A lot like in the United States the Zulu culture are horticulturalists.

This means they live off of the land. They raise their livestock and grow their vegetable gardens to supply food for their family. In the twentieth century they became overcrowded and a problem occurred with it becoming a fight for graze rights over the land for the livestock, now they mainly buy and grow their own food and hunt off of the land. Sense they do not have trade in their culture. They live in huts with their families. When it comes to religion is where the Zulu is really different than us here in the United States.

Most of the people believe in one God in the United States. The Zulu people are what is called pure traditionalist in their culture, although some of the Zulu people are Christians and believe in one god because of missionaries. Most express their religion through rituals. They have a strong belief in the potency of their ancestors.

Unlike us in the United States they believe in several different gods and goddess. They believe that there is a god for just about everything and worship each one. Their ancestors are believed to live in a spirit world known as Unkulunkulu.This is known to be almost like our heaven but with a few differences.

Unkulunkulu is known to believe to be the greatest of the great place. They praise to this place

where their ancestors are at and even make offerings to their ancestors. One God they believe in is uMvelingqangi he is a male god responsible for all life. Another is God uNomkhubulwano she is a female god who provides food security, particularly good harvests. Then there is a God that is responsible for the control of weather, particularly thunder and earthquakes.

There are several more gods and goddess.As in Mamlambo, the goddess of rivers, Demeter she is a goddess that is thought to have created the rainbow, the agriculture, the rain and beer. In their religion is the Zulu will go bare foot for strength and spirituality reasons. The Zulu strongly believe in cleanliness.

They will sometimes bathe up to three times a day. So as you can see the Zulu religion is a lot different than ours of here in the United States. They also do a lot of ceremonies for spiritual reasons. They also look their ancestors when they become sick for healing.Unlike us in the United States when we get sick we call a doctor and see what is wrong and take our medicine.

In the Zulu culture there is what is called an Isangoma which is the healer. The Isangoma calls upon the ancestors for healing. The isangoma is used like a medium; they kind of open the door to the dead, and it allows them to speak to their dead ancestors, then the ancestors apparently answer and heal the person. They also use herbal medicines when someone is sick.

Most commonly they use an herbal medicine called Ubulawu. It allows the person using this herbal medicine to purify their body

and mind.It also allows them to communicate with their dead ancestors while dreaming. Which it is done regularly.

There is thought to be about twenty five different plants mixed together to create this Ubulawu medicine. How it is used is they mix these plants together and then do a ritual dance and drink the medicine. The Zulu also have several different ceremonies. Say for instance in the United States we have a baptism for a child, we have a ceremony when some gets married and of course for peoples birthday, Then when someone passes there is a gathering of people who get together to mourn the death of a loved on.However in the Zulu culture when a baby is born it is named and then it is introduced to the ancestors with a ceremony called Immbeleko.

They ask the ancestors to accept the child and protect the child. During this ceremony there is a goat that is slaughtered. When a teenage girl has her first menstruation there is a ceremony for that as well in the Zulu culture. It is called Umhlonyane. It is named after a plant that cleansed a girl after her first menstrual cycle. When doing this ceremony a girl drinks this plant as a tea while doing the actual ceremony.

The Umhlonyane ceremony is to make a girl to beware that she has to have good behavior. The girl having the ceremony has to go to other girls her age and ask them to stay at her house in one room for one complete week. The only time one of the girls will be able to leave the room is to go

the bathroom and then she is ordered back into the room. Within this week there is one older women there to talk to the about what it means to become a young lady, and how they should carry their selves. The girls are fed and are prohibited from talking to males in this week.

During this ceremony a goat is slaughtered as well.In the United States this would kind of be like what we consider a sex education class, without the having to stay in a room for a complete week and not talk to anyone. Normally our parents here in the states talk to us regularly on how to carry ourselves and how to stay pure, and to have proper behavior. Another ceremony is called Umemulo. This ceremony is done when a female is between the ages of twenty and twenty six.

It is called the coming of age this is for a female who has remained pure and her parents are giving her this ceremony honoring her in doing right.During this ceremony the Zulu ancestors bless her for what she has done right. The father of the girl gives his daughter his blessing in whomever she wishes to marry whether she has met him or not. This is her crossing over to adult hood and having the blessing for her ancestors. During this ceremony a cow is slaughtered.

As you can tell the men and women are treated differently. The men of the family are the make all of the decisions in the house and about the family. They also deal with any visitors that may come to their hut.Also in the Zulu

culture the men in the family always sit on the right of the hut with those of highest standing to the rear this is how there sitting arrangement goes.

The women in the family are expected to do house work, take care of the children, get the water for the family, and do all of the field work to the crops, and to make beer. The women are also supposed to walk behind their husbands. Women also do beadwork. All the bead work is done by women. Normally a sister will pass it to the other sister.

Each beads color has a meaning behind it. It also allows communication between men and women.Blue stands for faithfulness, Green stands for bliss, black stand for marriage, white stands for love, Yellow Stands for wealth, red stands for strong emotions and pink stands for a promise. So say for instance if a women was wearing a black and white necklace a man knows not to approach the women because she is married and in love. These beads allow men and women to avoid conflict.

Similar to the United States the Zulu beads are like our wedding rings. Over in the states if you see a man or women with a ring on their left ring finger, you know not to approach the m because they are married.There are also negative meanings in these beads to depending on how they are made and altered. The negative meanings of these colors are Green stands for illness, blue stands for hostility, red stands for anger, black stands for death, White has no meaning at all, yellow stands for badness, and pink

stands for poverty. We here in the United States can somewhat relate to the Zulu when it comes to marriage.

The Zulu culture marriages are most commonly it is monogamous marriage just one husband and one wife. In a monogamous marriage a man pay the woman???s father off with cattle and gifts.This is what is known as bride wealth or in their culture as loboa. If anything happens to go wrong then the father would have to pay the soon to be husband everything back. So basically the father is trading his daughter for a couple of cows. In the states this would be illegal, because it would kind of be like selling a person.

However there are still some Zulu people who still practice polygamy. Those who practice polygamy in the Zulu culture the women will keep her father???s name, but if she has children the children will take its fathers name.Now here in the United States our gender roles are different. Most women in the US would think that the Zulu gender roles are really wrong when compared. Here we choose to share the household and work tasks with our spouse.

As well as raising our children. No one person has a certain role they must do. Most people in the United States like to look at being in a relationship as an equal partnership. As far as the Zulu culture goes the women walking behind the man in our culture would be extremely wrong. A man and women here walk side by side.

Even the children are treated differently depending on their sex. Males are expected to leave home in the mornings to

care for the livestock, milk the cows. The males also play stick fighting when they are younger to prepare their selves for when they get older. For the males this is also a way to prepare their selves for the Zulu military.

Girls are slowly introduced to chores. They start off by carrying water. Then she will learn to carry it on her head with supports that her mother will make for her head.Then when she gets at the age where she is taught to plant the crops she is at the age where she can then look after her younger siblings, and making small meals, and start taking on a more adult role to prepare her for womanhood.

This prepares her for when she gets married and has children. Although sense they are children they still get to play games like soccer. With concluding this I hope now you can somewhat understand why people from different cultures are different from us, and why they may do thing that seems to be out of the normal to us in the United States.How a person is taught and what they see out of their community is what a person is going to do.

It is a person???s believes and values that make a person. We here in the United States think that a women and a man share equal responsibilities, because that is what we have grown up seeing and what are community has done, It is the same for other cultures like the Zulu culture, they believe that a women should stand behind her husband and a women should strictly do house work and tend

to the children and a man should do the farm work. That is what their culture has taught them to believe.It strictly comes down to where a person is from and the way the community is and what is taught to them.

Each person may do things differently and it???s okay because every culture is different but we all resemble each other???s cultures just with some differences. Now understanding that each culture is going to have different beliefs, values, way of thinking and living is going to reflect on how a person does a typical task. Here in the United States we are not too different than other people around the world with different cultures. Everybody just does task differently.Referenceshttp://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Zuluhttp://zulu-culture.co.za/ancestor_zulu_culture.php