Neglected Archive: Museum Collections of Locally Forged Hoes as Evidence of Contributions by Women to the Agricultural Economy of the Phongolo-Mzimkhulu Region Prior to the Twentieth Century

Abstract

A 2018 survey conducted in eight KwaZulu-Natal museums determined that field-hoes, called amageja in Zulu, constitute less than one-fifth of locally forged metallurgical items in those archives, while the rest are weapons. Crucially, only two displays related to either Iron Age history or the Zulu Kingdom in the museums that were evaluated provide contextual information on field-hoes. In this article I contend that gender-based divisions of labour in nineteenth-century African communities of this region have affected attitudes towards the tools they used. As groups of objects are generally assembled within collections in relation to other categories, Bourdieu suggested that the value of an artefact can only be established after investigation of the ‘history of the procedure of canonisation and hierarchisation’ of any particular object type. Investigating the place of amageja in museums, this research considers the largely overlooked cultural and economic significance of such items, including evidence of attitudes towards agriculture preserved in oral testimony from African sources and Zulu-language idioms. The article argues that museum collections of hoes form a neglected archive of ‘hoe cultivation’, or subsistence crop production based on the use of manual implements, within the Phongolo-Mzimkhulu geographic region that roughly approximates to the modern territory of KwaZulu-Natal.

Keywords:

• Kwa Zulu-Natal
• gender
• museums
• agriculture
• metallurgy

Acknowledgements

This article is based on two chapters of an MA dissertation submitted at the University of Witwatersrand in 2018, and I would like to record my gratitude for the kind, careful guidance and meticulous supervision I received from Anitra Nettleton and Justine Wintjes for that dissertation. An early draft of the article was presented at the Archive & Public Culture workshop in November 2018, where it benefitted enormously from the critique it received. I also acknowledge the many constructive comments and corrections I received from Gavin Whitelaw and anonymous reviewers for the Journal of Natal and Zulu History.

Notes

1 C. Hamilton, ‘Why Archive Matters: Archive, Public Deliberation and Citizenship’, in Xolela Mangcu, ed., Becoming Worthy Ancestors: Archive, Public Deliberation and Identity in South Africa (Johannesburg: University of Witwatersrand Press, 2011), 120.

2 Ibid., 121; K.A. Appiah, ‘Identity, Politics and the Archive’, in Xolela Mangcu, ed., Becoming Worthy Ancestors: Archive, Public Deliberation and Identity in South Africa (Johannesburg: University of Witwatersrand Press, 2011), 105.

3 C. Hamilton and N. Leibhammer, ‘Tribing and Untribing the Archive’, in C. Hamilton and N. Leibhammer, eds, Tribing and Untribing the Archive: Identity and the Material Record in Southern KwaZulu-Natal in the Late Independent and Colonial Periods (Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2016), 14.

4 V.S. Harris, Archives and Justice: A South African Perspective (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2007), 4.

5 Hamilton, ‘Why Archive Matters’, 142.

6 Harris, Archives and Justice, 7.

7 Hamilton and Leibhammer, ‘Tribing and Untribing’, 24.

8 Ibid.

9 C. Hamilton, ‘Forged and Continually Refashioned in the Crucible of Ongoing Social and Political Life: Archives and Custodial Practices as Subjects of Enquiry’, South African Historical Journal, 65, 1 (2013), 12.

10 Hamilton and Leibhammer, ‘Tribing and Untribing’, 13.

11 S. Kotze, ‘Gender, Power and Iron Metallurgy in Archives of African Societies from the Phongolo-Mzimkhulu Region’ (MA dissertation, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2018), 121–146.

12 Hamilton, ‘Why Archive Matters’, 120.

13 T. Maggs, ‘Metalwork from Iron Age Hoards as a Record of Metal Production in the Natal Region’, South African Archaeological Bulletin, 46 (1991), 131.

14 C. Evans, ‘The Plantation Hoe: The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic Commodity, 1650–1850’, The William and Mary Quarterly, 69, 1 (2012), 71.

15 Ibid., 72.

16 Hamilton and Leibhammer, ‘Tribing and Untribing’, 35.

17 Ibid., 34.

18 E. de Greef, ‘Sartorial Disruption: An Investigation of the Histories, Dispositions, and Related Museum Practices of the Dress/Fashion Collections at Iziko Museums as a Means to Re-Imagine and Re-Frame the Sartorial in the Museum’ (PhD thesis, University of Cape Town, 2019), ix.

19 T. Maggs, ‘Mzonjani and the Beginning of the Iron Age in Natal’, Annals of the Natal Museum, 24, 1 (1980), 76; 87.

20 A. Moffett, T. Maggs and J. van Schalkwyk, ‘Breaking Ground: Hoes in Precolonial South Africa – Typology, Medium of Exchange and Symbolic Value’, African Archaeological Review, 34, 1 (2017), 14–16.

21 Maggs, ‘Iron Age Hoards’, 131; 136.

22 Ibid.; T. Maggs, ‘“My Father's Hammer Never Ceased Its Song Day and Night”: The Zulu Ferrous Metalworking Industry’, Southern African Humanities, 4, 10 (1992), 65–87; Moffett et al., ‘Breaking Ground’.

23 Evans, ‘Plantation Hoe’, 78.

24 Kotze, ‘Gender, Power and Iron Metallurgy’, 147–161; Maggs, ‘Iron Age Hoards’, 136.

25 J.B. Wright, ‘The Dynamics of Power and Conflict in the Thukela Mzimkhulu Region in the Late 18^th and Early 19^th Centuries: A Critical Reconstruction’ (PhD thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1989), ix; J.B. Wright and C. Hamilton, ‘Traditions and Transformations: The Phongolo-Mzimkhulu Region in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries’, in A. Duminy and B. Guest, eds, Natal and Zululand from Earliest Times to 1910: A New History (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1989), 49.

26 J. Beall, ‘The Function and Status of African Women in the Social and Economic Life of Natal and Zululand, 1818–1879’ (Hons. dissertation, University of Natal, Durban, 1981); J. Guy, ‘Analysing Pre-Capitalist Societies in Southern Africa’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 14 (1987), 18–37; C. Hamilton, ‘Ideology, Oral Traditions and the Struggle for Power in the Early Zulu Kingdom’ (MA dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1985); S. Hanretta, ‘Women, Marginality and the Zulu State: Women’s Institutions and Power in the Early Nineteenth Century’, The Journal of African History, 39 (1998), 389–415; J.B. Wright, ‘Control of Women’s Labour Power in the Zulu Kingdom’, in J. Peires, ed., Before and After Shaka: Papers in Nguni History (Grahamstown: Institute for Social and Economic Research, 1981), 82–99.

27 T. Huffman, ‘The Archaeology of the Nguni Past’, Southern African Humanities, 16, 1 (2004), 82.

28 Beall, ‘Function and Status of African Women’; M. Gluckman, ‘Zulu Women in Hoecultural Ritual’, Africa, 9, 3 (1935), 255–271; Guy, ‘Analysing Pre-Capitalist Societies’; E. Krige, The Social System of the Zulus (Pietermaritzburg: Shuter & Shooter, 1950); Wright, ‘Control of Women’s Labour Power’.

29 Hamilton, ‘Ideology, Oral Traditions and the Struggle for Power’; Hanretta, ‘Women, Marginality and the Zulu State’.

30 Hamilton, ‘Why Archive Matters’; J.B. Wright and C. Kros, ‘Working with South Africa’s Pasts 1500–1880: Issues and Engagements’ (Unpublished Workshop on Historical Archaeology Paper: Unisa, Pretoria, 2014).

31 Gluckman, ‘Zulu Women in Hoecultural Ritual’, 262, 255–271.

32 Maggs, ‘Iron Age Hoards’, 131; Huffman, ‘Archaeology of the Nguni Past’, 83.

33 G. Whitelaw, ‘Economy and Cosmology in the Iron Age of KwaZulu-Natal’ (PhD thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 2015), 5.

34 G. Whitelaw, ‘Homesteads, Pots and Marriage in Southeastern Southern Africa’, in David Whitley, Johannes Loubser and Gavin Whitelaw, eds, Cognitive Archaeology: Mind, Ethnography, and the Past in South Africa and beyond (London: Routledge, 2019).

35 G.M. Theal, Records of South-Eastern Africa, Volume 2 (Cape Town: Colonial Press, 1898), 65; 74.

36 J. Guy, ‘Women in Labour: The Birth of Colonial Natal’ (Unpublished History and African Studies Seminar Paper: University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 29 April 2009), 1.

37 Wright and Hamilton, ‘Traditions and Transformations’.

38 Hamilton, ‘Ideology, Oral Traditions and the Struggle for Power’.

39 J.B. Wright and A. Mazel, ‘Bastions of Ideology: The Depiction of Precolonial History in the Museums of Natal and KwaZulu’, South African Museums Association Bulletin, 17 (1987), 301–310.

40 Local History Museums and KwaZulu Cultural Museum, eds, Zulu Treasures: Of Kings and Commoners/Amagugu kaZulu, Second edition (Durban: KwaZulu Cultural Museum and the Local History Museums, 2011), 7.

41 F. Roodt, ‘Zulu Metalworking’, in Local History Museums and KwaZulu Cultural Museum, eds, Zulu Treasures: Of Kings and Commoners/Amagugu kaZulu (Durban: KwaZulu Cultural Museum and the Local History Museums, 2011), 95.

42 Ibid., 303.

43 G. Porter, ‘Studies in Gender and Representation in British Museums’ (PhD thesis, University of Leicester, 1994), 33.

44 H. Swingler, ‘Africa Can Emulate China’s Development’, UCT Alumni News 2015–2016, 2016, 9, http://www.uct.ac.za/usr/dad/alumni/UCTALUMNINEWS2016_WEB.pdf [Accessed 2 July 2017].

45 Evans, ‘Plantation Hoe’, 77.

46 Moffett et al., ‘Breaking Ground’, 17.

47 Natal Museum Services, ‘Pinetown Museum Exhibition’ (Durban: Local History Museums, c. 1995).

48 Hamilton and Leibhammer, ‘Tribing and Untribing’; C. Hamilton and J.B. Wright, ‘The Beginnings of Zulu Identity: The Image of Shaka’, Indicator SA, 10, 3 (1993), 43–46; J.B. Wright, ‘Reflections on the Politics of Being Zulu’, in Ben Carton, John Laband and Jabulani Sithole, eds, Zulu Identities: Being Zulu, Past and Present (Scottsville, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2008), 35–43; J.B. Wright, ‘The Thuli and Cele Paramountcies in the Coastlands of Natal, c. 1770–c. 1820’, Southern African Humanities, 2, 21, 1 (2009), 177–194; J.B. Wright, ‘Making Identities in the Thukela-Mzimvubu Region c. 1770–c. 1940’, in C. Hamilton and N. Leibhammer, eds, Tribing and Untribing the Archive: Identity and the Material Record in Southern KwaZulu-Natal in the Late Independent and Colonial Periods (Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2016), 182–215.

49 C. Rodéhn, ‘Lost in Transformation: A Critical Study of Two South African Museums’ (PhD thesis, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008), 200; 204.

50 B. Guest, Trek and Transition: A History of the Msunduzi and Ncome Museums (Incorporating The Voortrekker Complex) 1912–2012 (Pietermaritzburg: Msunduzi (Incorporating the Voortrekker Complex) and Ncome Museums, 2012), 150.

51 Rodéhn, ‘Lost in Transformation’, 216.

52 Guest, Trek and Transition, 178–179.

53 Msunduzi-Voortrekker Museum, ‘Accession Register’, 51. 1912 W.J.J. Botes donation.

54 Msunduzi-Voortrekker Museum, ‘A River Runs Through It: The Iron Age Display’ (Pietermaritzburg: Msunduzi (Incorporating the Voortrekker Complex) and Ncome Museums, 2006).

55 Ibid.; see Figure 2.

56 T. Maggs, ‘Mabhija: Pre-Colonial Industrial Development in the Tugela Basin’, Annals of the Natal Museum, 25, 1 (1982), 139; H.M. Friede and R.H. Steel, ‘Traditional Smithing and Forging of South African Bloomery Iron’, The South African Archaeological Bulletin (1986), 82; G. Whitelaw, ‘Precolonial Iron Production around Durban and in Southern Natal’, Natal Museum Journal of Humanities, 3 (1991), 34.

57 E.W. Herbert, Iron, Gender and Power: Rituals of Transformation in African Societies (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1993), 9.

58 Maggs, ‘Mabhija’, 67.

59 Whitelaw, ‘Precolonial Iron Production’, 33.

60 M. Hall, ‘An Iron-Smelting Site in the Hluhluwe Game Reserve’, Annals of the Natal Museum, 22 (1980), 174; Maggs, ‘Mabhija’; Maggs, ‘My Father’s Hammer’, 72.

61 P. Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, Translated by Richard Nice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984), 209–229.

62 J. Guy, ‘Gender Oppression in Southern Africa's Precapitalist Societies’, in Cheryl Walker, ed., Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945 (Cape Town: David Philip, 1990), 46.

63 N. Leveridge, ‘History of Talana Museum’ (Unpublished report, Talana Museum archive, Dundee, 2016).

64 Moffett et al., ‘Breaking Ground’, 7.

65 Ibid., 5–7.

66 Talana Museum, ‘Agriculture’, Talana Museum online, https://www.talana.co.za/index.php/our-museum/agric, accessed 2 July 2017.

67 Anonymous, ‘A Cultural Village Comes to Dundee’, Northern Natal Courier, 3 March 2009, 3.

68 Talana Museum, ‘KwaKunje Cultural Village’, Talana Museum online, https://www.talana.co.za/index.php/our-museum/kwakunje, accessed 8 October 2017.

69 C. Hamilton, Terrific Majesty: The Powers of Shaka Zulu and the Limits of Historical Invention (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009), 187.

70 Talana Museum, ‘KwaKunje: Ixhiba Exhibition’ (Dundee: Talana Museum, 2008).

71 Talana Museum, ‘KwaKunje: Transformation Process of Ixhiba to a Modern Kitchen Exhibition’ (Dundee: Talana Museum, 2008).

72 P. Lehohla, Census 2011: Agricultural Households (Pretoria: Statistics South Africa, 2013), 4.

73 Hamilton and Leibhammer, ‘Tribing and Untribing’, 27.

74 S. Brooks, ‘The Natal Society Museum (1851–1904): Potentialities and Problems’, Natalia, 18 (1988), 64.

75 T. Maggs, ‘Three Decades of Iron Age Research in South Africa: Some Personal Reflections’, South African Archaeological Bulletin, 48 (1993), 73–75.

76 R.J. Mason, M. Klapwijk, R.G. Welbourne, T.M. Evers, B.H. Sandelowsky and T. Maggs, ‘Early Iron Age Settlement of Southern Africa’, South African Journal of Science, 69 (1973), 324–326.

77 B. Guest, A Century of Science and Service: The Natal Museum in a Changing South Africa (Pietermaritzburg: KwaZulu-Natal Museum, 2012), 208; Rodéhn, ‘Lost in Transformation’, 194.

78 Rodéhn, ‘Lost in Transformation’, 207.

79 P. Croeser, ‘A History of the KwaZulu-Natal Museum’ (Unpublished exhibition content: KwaZulu-Natal Museum archive, Pietermaritzburg, 2010).

80 Rodéhn, ‘Lost in Transformation’, 208.

81 D. Miller and G. Whitelaw, ‘Early Iron Age Metal Working from the Site of KwaGandaganda, Natal, South Africa’, South African Archaeological Bulletin, 49 (1994), 79–89.

82 G. Whitelaw and M. Moon, ‘The Ceramics and Distribution of Pioneer Agriculturists in KwaZulu-Natal’, Southern African Humanities, 8, 12 (1996), 53–79; G. Whitelaw, ‘Southern African Iron Age’, Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa: Archaeology, History, Languages, Cultures, and Environments (1997), 444–455.

83 T. Maggs and G. Whitelaw, ‘A Review of Recent Archaeological Research on Food-Producing Communities in Southern Africa’, The Journal of African History, 32, 1 (1991), 3–24.

84 Rodéhn, ‘Lost in Transformation’, 213; Anonymous, ‘Natal Museum Iron Age Exhibition’, Natal Witness, 23 November 1997.

85 KwaZulu-Natal Museum, ‘Farming Comes to Southern Africa Exhibition’ (Pietermaritzburg: KwaZulu-Natal Museum, c. 1997).

86 KwaZulu Cultural Museum, ‘The Iron Age Exhibition’ (Ulundi: KwaZulu Cultural Museum, c. 1998).

87 KwaZulu Cultural Museum, ‘Roots of the Zulu Kingdom Exhibition’ (Ulundi: KwaZulu Cultural Museum, c. 1983).

88 S. Pearce, On Collecting: An Investigation into Collecting in the European Tradition (London: Routledge, 1995), 10.

89 KwaZulu Cultural Museum, Accession card C3234.

90 Roodt, ‘Zulu Metalworking’, 106.

91 C. Nyembezi, Zulu Proverbs, Second edition (Pietermaritzburg: Shuter & Shooter, 1990), 63–64.

92 Ibid., 194.

93 Fugitives’ Drift Lodge, ‘News Blog: Museum’, Fugitives’ Drift Lodge online, last modified 26 March 2017, http://www.fugitivesdrift.com/renovations/, accessed 15 July 2017.

94 D.G. Rattray, A. Rattray, D. Rattray and R. Caskie, Museum Display Catalogue, Second edition (Fugitives’ Drift: Rattray Publications, 2018).

95 Fugitives’ Drift Lodge. Museum display case, drawer 11L.

96 Ibid.

97 E.M. Bordy, S. Spelman, D.I. Cole, and P. Mthembi, ‘Lithostratigraphy of the Pietermaritzburg Formation (Ecca Group, Karoo Supergroup), South Africa’, South African Journal of Geology, 120, 2 (2017), 296; Maggs, ‘Mabhija’, 126; Whitelaw, ‘Precolonial Iron Production’, 33.

98 Fugitives’ Drift Lodge. Museum display case, drawer 11L.

99 Moffett et al., ‘Breaking Ground’, 3.

100 F. Verga, ‘Phansi Museum Opened’. Artthrob online, 109, last modified 1 September 2006, https://artthrob.co.za/06sept/news/phansi.html, accessed 10 October 2016.

101 Durban Tourism, Durban City Guide: Arts and Galleries (Durban: eThekwini Municipality, 2015).

102 Ulwazi programme, ‘Phansi Museum’, Ulwazi programme online, last modified 3 August 2016, http://www.ulwaziprogramme.org/2016/08/phansi-museum/, accessed 10 October 2016.

103 Moffett et al., ‘Breaking Ground’, 7.

104 H.I.E. Dhlomo, ‘Undated Draft Manuscript’, Campbell Collections: KCM 9705, file 14a.

105 V. Buthelezi, M. Cele, and E. Krige, ‘Treasures of the South: The History and Holdings of the Campbell Collections’ (Unpublished History and African Studies Seminar paper: University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 1 June 2011), 4.

106 Yvonne Winters, pers. comm. 2015.

107 Moffett et al., ‘Breaking Ground’, 7.

108 Campbell Collections, ‘Accessions register’, Campbell Collections n.d.: MM1931.

109 Moffett et al., ‘Breaking Ground’, 17.

110 Porter, ‘Studies in Gender and Representation’, 28.

111 F. Jolles, ‘The Origins of the Twentieth Century Zulu Beer Vessel Styles’, Southern African Humanities, 17, 1 (2005), 103, 109; F. Jolles, Zulu Beer Vessels in the Twentieth Century: Their History, Classification and Geographical Distribution (New York: Arnoldsche Art Publishers, 2015), 10, 21.

112 Porter, ‘Studies in Gender and Representation’, 31.

113 A. McClintock, Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest (New York: Routledge, 2013), 255.

114 Swingler, ‘Africa Can Emulate China’s Development’, 9.

115 Bourdieu, Distinction, 209–229.

116 Pearce, On Collecting, 10.

117 Guy, ‘Gender Oppression’, 46.

118 Pearce, On Collecting, 25.

119 C. Steiner, African Art in Transit, Volume 94 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 105.

120 P. Bourdieu, ‘Principles of a Sociology of Cultural Works’, in Salim Kemal and Ivan Gaskell, eds, Explanation and Value in the Arts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 177.

121 A. Nettleton, ‘The Standard Bank Collection of African Art: A Heritage in the Making’, in Julia Charlton, ed., Signature Pieces: The Standard Bank Corporate Art Collection (Johannesburg: Standard Bank, 2009), 137–153.

122 Beall, ‘Function and Status of African Women’, 44–45.

123 Guy, ‘Analysing Pre-Capitalist Societies’, 24; Wright, ‘Control of Women’s Labour Power’, 89.

124 Whitelaw, ‘Economy and Cosmology’, 31.

125 Guy, ‘Analysing Pre-Capitalist Societies’, 24.

126 Whitelaw, ‘Economy and Cosmology’, 31.

127 Guy, ‘Analysing Pre-Capitalist Societies’, 24.

128 Ibid., 22.

129 J. Guy, Theophilus Shepstone and the Forging of Natal: African Autonomy and Settler Colonialism in the Making of Traditional Authority (Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2013), 526.

130 Wright, ‘Control of Women’s Labour Power’, 82.

131 Y. Hariri, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (New York: Harper Collins, 2011), 152.

132 P. Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice, translated by Richard Nice. (Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 1977), 72.

133 J.G. Zuma, ‘Address by President Jacob Zuma at the Unveiling of the Tombstone of the Late Zulu Queen Mother, Queen Thomozile Jezangani Emelda kaNdwandwe Zulu, Cato Manor, eThekwini Metro’, The Presidency online, Speeches, 8 May 2011, http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/speeches/address-president-jacob-zuma-unveiling-tombstone-late-zulu-queen-mother%2C-queen-thomozile?page=10#!slide, accessed 10 October 2017.

134 S. Maphumulo, ‘Green Light for uMkhumbane Museum’, New Age, 26 May 2017, 7.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Steven Kotze

STEVEN KOTZE studied at the Universities of KwaZulu-Natal and Witwatersrand; he is the Curator of the Old Court House Museum in Durban.