Archival Aspirations and Anxieties: Contemporary Preservation and Production of the Past in Umbumbulu, KwaZulu-Natal

Abstract

This paper explores the contemporary preservation and production of the past in Umbumbulu, near Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. It examines the Ulwazi Programme, a web initiative run through the eThekwini Municipality that uses the existing library infrastructure, new digital technologies and municipal residents to create what its advocates term a collaborative, indigenous knowledge resource, in the form of a Wiki. The paper then investigates various other locations in Umbumbulu where the past is being dealt with and custody of the past is actively managed by, for example, local, non-professional historians and traditional leaders. In some instances, the work being done straddles the custodial and the productive, inviting a re-examination of notions of custodianship and the production of versions of history. While these practices are frequently thought of as separate, the ethnographic material reveals that in daily practice, the distinction between the two is unclear. The paper considers the resources that are mobilised as evidence in the present by different actors in Umbumbulu to substantiate claims about the past and reveals both archival aspirations and anxieties. There are those who aspire to a fixed record as a mechanism of preservation and acknowledgement, and others who have anxieties about such a configuration.

Keywords:

• Custodianship
• History production
• Zuluness
• Identity
• KwaZulu-Natal
• Archival aspirations and anxieties

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank members of the Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative at the University of Cape Town, and in particular, Carolyn Hamilton, Megan Greenwood and John Wright, as well as the anonymous reviewers, for constructive feedback in the development of this paper.

Notes

¹The paper is part of an ongoing PhD project entitled, ‘The Contemporary Preservation and Production of the Past in Umbumbulu, KwaZulu-Natal’.

²An open source webpage designed to enable contributions and modifications from multiple users.

³I understand that terms like traditional leaders, traditional authorities and chiefs are contentious and are the focus of contemporary public debate. Bearing this in mind, I use the Zulu terms inkosi (chief) and amakhosi (chiefs) as well as the English terms chiefs and traditional leader/s as they are used by the various subjects of my study, including government officials, local custodians of the past, and incumbents of these positions.

⁴In the paper, I use categories like tradition, custom and indigenous knowledge. I do not aim to define these categories but rather reflect their usage in different contexts in contemporary public discourse.

⁵C. Hamilton and J. Wright, ‘The Making of the Amalala: Ethnicity, Ideology and Domination in a Precolonial Context’, South African Historical Journal, 22 (1990), 3–23.

⁶The terms ‘Mkhize’ and ‘abaMbo’ are used interchangeably. As Sithole writes, ‘“Mkhize” is used for the numerous Mkhize chieftaincies which emerged when the Mkhize reached southern Natal after fleeing from Dingane's armies during the 1830s. “abaMbo” is the isithakazelo (form of polite address) for the Mkhize’. ‘Embo’ is a locative and denotes the place of the abaMbo or Mkhize: J. Sithole, ‘Tale of Two Boundaries: Land Disputes and the Izimpi Zemibango in the Umlazi Location of the Pinetown District, 1920–1936’, South African Historical Journal, 37,1 (1997), 78–106.

⁷D.H. Reader, Zulu Tribe in Transition: The Makhanya of Southern Natal (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1968), 16, 23–28.

⁸N. Etherington, ‘“The Shepstone System’” in The Colony of Natal and Beyond the Borders’, in A. Duminy and B. Guest, eds, Natal and Zululand from Earliest Times to 1910 (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press and Shuter & Shooter, 1989), 171–174.

⁹A.T. Bryant, Olden Times in Zululand and Natal: Containing Earlier Political History of the Eastern-Nguni Clans (London, New York, Toronto: Longmans Green, 1929), 500–503, 538–544.

¹⁰See C. Hamilton, Terrific Majesty: The Powers of Shaka Zulu and the Limits of Historical Invention (Cape Town: David Philip, 1998).

¹¹Cf. B. Carton, J. Laband and J. Sithole, eds, Zulu Identities: Being Zulu, Past and Present (Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, London: Hurst and New York: Columbia University Press, 2008).

¹²For a detailed discussion on this, see Sithole, ‘Tale of Two Boundaries’, J. Sithole, ‘Conflict and Collective Violence: Scarce Resources, Social Relations and the State in the Umzinto and the Umbumbulu Districts of Southern Natal during the 1930s’ (BA Hons thesis, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1992), and J. Sithole, ‘Land, Officials, Chiefs and Commoners in the izimpi zemibango in the Umlazi Location of the Pinetown District in the Context of Natal's Changing Political Economy, 1920 to 1936’ (MA thesis, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997).

¹³P. Harries, ‘Imagery, Symbolism and Tradition in a South African Bantustan: Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Inkatha, and Zulu History’, History and Theory, 32, 4, Beiheft 32: History Making in Africa (1993), 110–113. A Bantustan (also known as black African homeland or simply homeland) was a territory set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia), as part of the policy of apartheid.

¹⁴For a detailed discussion of the formation of the Inkatha and its manipulation and command of tradition and power, see G. Maré and G. Hamilton, An Appetite for Power: Buthelezi's Inkatha and the Politics of ‘Loyal Resistance’ (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1987).

¹⁵For more on the manipulation of Zulu history and cultural symbols for political ends, see Harries, ‘Imagery, Symbolism and Tradition’; D. Golan, ‘Inkatha and Its Use of the Zulu Past’, History in Africa, 18 (1991), 113–126; S. Klopper, ‘He Is My King, but He Is Also My Child: Inkatha, the African National Congress and the Struggle for Control over Zulu Cultural Symbols’, Oxford Art Journal 19, 1 (1996) 53–66; and G. Maré, Brothers Born of Warrior Blood: Ethnicity and Politics in South Africa (New Jersey: Zed Books, 1992).

¹⁶For a detailed account of the Durban system, see M.W. Swanson, ‘The Durban System: Roots of Urban Apartheid in Colonial Natal’, African Studies, 35 (1976), 159–176. The policy was not only concerned with race and European cultural hegemony but also about black labour, economic development and how to control these. For more on the economic aspects of the policy, see B. Freund ‘City Hall and the Direction of Development’, in B. Freund and V. Padayachee, eds, (D)urban Vortex: South African City in Transition (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 2002), 11–41.

¹⁷For more on the development of townships around Durban, see Torr, ‘Lamontville: a history, 1930–60’, 245–73; Swanson, ‘The Joy of Proximity: The Rise of Clermont’, 274–298 and Hughes, ‘The City Closes In: The Incorporation of Inanda into Metropolitan Durban’, 299–309, papers in P. Maylam and I. Edwards, eds, The People's City African Life in Twentieth Century Durban (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1995).

¹⁸See P. Maylam ‘Introduction’, in P. Maylam and I. Edwards, eds, The People's City African Life in Twentieth Century Durban (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1995), for more detail on the segregation of Durban in the twentieth century.

¹⁹S.M. Mathis, ‘After Apartheid: Chiefly Authority and the Politics of Land, Community and Development’ (PhD thesis, Emory University, Atlanta), 58. The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act (1959) later allowed for the transformation of the reserves into fully-fledged independent Bantustans, divided along ethnic lines.

²⁰Maylam, ‘Introduction’, 24–25.

²¹eThekwini is the Zulu name for Durban. eThekwini Municipality is the municipality that runs the city of Durban. For more on the process of cooperative governance in eThekwini see, J. Beall and M. Ngonyama, ‘Indigenous Institutions, Traditional Leaders and Elite Coalitions for Development: The Case of Greater Durban, South Africa’, Crisis States Working Paper no. 55, (London: London School of Economics), and J. Beall, ‘Cultural Weapons: Traditions and Inventions in the Transition to Democratic Governance in Metropolitan Durban’, Urban Studies, 43, 2 (2006), 457–473.

²²D.W. Cohen, The Combing of History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 4.

²³L. Witz and C. Rassool, ‘Making Histories’, Kronos, 34, 1 (2008), 10.

²⁸Harris, Archives and Justice, 102.

²⁴From http://www.oed.com/, accessed 12 February 2012.

²⁵V. Harris, Archives and Justice (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2007), 123.

²⁶V. Harris, ‘Redefining Archives in South Africa: Public Archives and Society in Transition, 1990–1996’, Archivaria, 42 (1996), 6–27.

²⁷C. Hamilton, V. Harris and S. Hatang, ‘Fashioning Legacy in South Africa: Power, Pasts, and the Promotion of Social Cohesion’, in P. Kearns, S. Kling and C. Wistman, eds, Heritage, Regional Development and Social Cohesion (Östersund, Sweden: Jamtli Förlag/Jamtli, 2011).

²⁹As I refer to different members of the Mkhize and Makhanya clans and their activities, for ease of understanding, I have chosen to use their first names and surnames.

³⁰The programme is run by the eThekwini Libraries and Heritage Department and is currently operational in outlying areas of the eThekwini Municipality, namely Umlazi, Inanda, Ntuzuma, KwaMashu and Umbumbulu.

³¹N. Shepherd, ‘Heritage’, in N. Sheperd and S. Robins, eds, New South African Keywords (Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2008), 121.

³²eThekwini IDP Review 2005/2006, available at http://www.durban.gov.za/Documents/City_Government/IDP_Policy/IDP_2005_06.pdf, accessed 10 February 2012.

³³Interview with Deputy Head of eThekwini Libraries and Heritage, 30 October 2009.

³⁵Interview with Programme Leader, 08 October 2009.

³⁴eThekwini Municipality IDP Review 2009/2010, available at http://www.durban.gov.za/Documents/City_Government/IDP_Policy/IDP_2009_10.pdf, accessed 20 February 2012.

³⁶Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Visions and goals for an Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) Policy for South Africa 33, available at http://www.dst.gov.za/index.php/resource-center/strategies-and-reports/161-indigenous-knowledge-systems, accessed 27 May 2012.

³⁷World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Documents (Presidential National Commission on the Information Society and Development Booklet), 42–44.

³⁸In 2010, the Presidential National Commission on the Information Society and Development implemented a similar project on a national level, the now defunct National Digital Repository.

³⁹See Plan Five of the eThekwini Municipality IDP Review 2009/2010, which promotes access to information and technologically competent citizens, available at http://www.durban.gov.za/Documents/City_Government/IDP_Policy/IDP_2009_10.pdf.

⁴⁰For more detail on power struggles associated with co-operative governance in the eThekwini Municipality, see I. Palmary, ‘Traditional Leaders in the eThekwini Metropolitan Region: Their Role in Crime Prevention And Safety Promotion’, Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation and Midlands Women's Group (2004), available at http://www.csvr.org.za/docs/urbansafety/traditionalleaders.pdf, accessed 5 March 2012; S. Khan, B. Lootvoet and E.A. Mantzaris, ‘The Clash between Traditional and Modern Systems of Governance in the Durban Metropolis – A Tale of Two Administrative Civilisations’, Alternation, 13, 2 (2006), 174–197; Beall and Ngonyama, ‘Indigenous Institutions, Traditional Leaders and Elite Coalitions’; and Beall, ‘Cultural Weapons’.

⁴²Interview with Head of the ELHD, 30 October 2009.

⁴¹The programme collects content under the three broad titles, ‘History’, ‘Culture’ and ‘Environment’.

⁴³E. Greyling, ‘Content Development in an Indigenous Digital Library: A Model for Community Participation’, in P. Cunningham and M. Cunningham, eds, IST-Africa 2009 Conference Proceedings, available at http://www.ist-africa.org/conference2009/default.asp?page=paper-repository.

⁴⁴Interview with Programme Leader, 8 October 2009.

⁴⁵Interview with Head of the ELHD, 30 October 2009.

⁴⁶I address the Umbumbulu fieldworkers more fully in my doctoral thesis but here it suffices to say that insight into their frames of reference reveal that what they consider important in their lives (family, traditions, a close-knit community, respect for the knowledge of elders) is in line with the Ulwazi Programme's collection mandate and guidelines, and has resulted in the proliferation of ‘traditional Zulu’ content on the Ulwazi Wiki.

⁴⁷This is also discussed in more detail in my thesis and I provide only a summary here.

⁴⁸B. Tshehla, ‘Traditional Justice in Practice: A Limpopo Case Study’, ISS Monograph 115 (Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies, 2005), 10.

⁴⁹‘Section 211(1) of the Constitution recognises the “status and role of traditional leadership, according to customary law, subject to the Constitution”, while Section 211(2) confines them to the realm of custom, seeing them as dealing with “matters relating to traditional leadership, the role of traditional leadership, the role of traditional leaders, customary law and the customs of communities observing a system of customary law” (Republic of South Africa, 1996)’ (Beall and Ngonyama,‘Indigenous Institutions’, 9–10).

⁵⁰A traditional council, composed of mostly unelected members including traditional leaders and their appointees, is established in an area that has been recognised by the Premier as a ‘traditional community’.

⁵¹Beall and Ngonyama, ‘Indigenous Institutions’, 10, cf. S.M. Mathis, ‘The Politics of Land Reform: Tenure and Political Authority in Rural Kwazulu-Natal’, Journal of Agrarian Change, 7, 1 (2007) 99–120.

⁵² http://www.info.gov.za/aboutgovt/tradlead.htm, accessed 8 June 2012.

⁵³While Victor Mkhize cannot speak for every traditional leader in the eThekwini Municipality, he explains that part of his mandate is to meet with traditional leaders, discuss their needs and represent them as a consolidated collective. As such, his comments are significant to my study in terms of understanding the roles the amakhosi are seen to play, from the perspective of the government and by the amakhosi themselves. He explains that the ASO functions to help the amakhosi realise their roles in the new dispensation, in an advisory capacity to facilitate interactions between the amakhosi and the municipality, and as administrative support to monitor and evaluate ‘the work of amakhosi in line with the service delivery agenda of the municipality’. Interview with Victor Mkhize, 16 November 2010.

⁵⁴Interview with Victor Mkhize, 16 November 2010. In all likelihood this move was influenced the ANC's newly acquired (post-2000 elections) control of the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government. Beall and Ngonyama write: ‘Prior to 2000 the amakhosi had a route by which they could by-pass the Metro [municipality] and could get what they wanted from the IFP-dominated provincial government. After 2000, they were almost entirely dependent on the Metro apart from social development spending, which came under an IFP member of the Executive Committee of the provincial government’ (Beall and Ngonyama, ‘Indigenous Institutions’, 19).

⁵⁵Interview with Victor Mkhize, 16 November 2010.

⁵⁶As an example, Victor Mkhize cites the Umhlanga or Reed Dance, an annual ceremony linked to the custom of age regiments, which, he says functions to combat promiscuity and encourage young girls preserve their virginity for marriage. This, he feels, has significance in terms of cultural traditions and health, the prevention of the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases.

⁵⁷Interviews with Inkosi Makhanya, 24 January 2011 and 1 April 2011. Inkosi Makhanya uses the terms ukulondoloza indabuko (to protect or keep safely traditional custom or origin) and to live endleni emnandi (in a nice way), G.R. Dent and C.L.S. Nyembezi, Scholar's Zulu Dictionary (Pietermaritzburg: Shuter & Shooter, 1999).

⁵⁸Interview with Inkosi Kusakusa, 20 January 2011.

⁵⁹See for example, C. Hamilton, ‘Living by Fluidity: Oral Histories, Material Custodies and the Politics of Archiving’, in C. Hamilton, V. Harris, et al., eds, Refiguring the Archive (Cape Town: David Phillip, 2002), 209–229; I. Hofmeyr, We Spend Our Years as a Tale that is Told: Oral Historical Narrative in a South African Chiefdom (London: James Currey, 1994), and J.L. Comaroff, ‘Rules and Rulers: Political Processes in a Tswana Chiefdom’, Man, 13 (1978), 1–20.

⁶⁰I am aware of the complex geneaology of the term ‘clan’. I use it here not as an analytical concept or as a noun suggesting a social entity but to refer to an isibongo or surname, an adjective to describe the history of people sharing a common isibongo and who trace their descent to a common ancestor. I write the English word ‘clan’ as this is the term that the subjects of my study use to refer to a particular isibongo.

⁶¹S. Mkhize, Uhlanga Lwas'Embo: The History of the Embo People (Durban: Just Done, 2007).

⁶²The Killie Campbell Library's manuscripts collection is considered an important source on the early history of contact between the Nguni-speaking people of the KwaZulu-Natal region and the British colonists and a key resource on the pre-colonial history of KwaZulu-Natal. It was often used to strengthen and validate claims for traditional leadership submitted to the Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims, also known as the Nhlapo Commission and houses collection such as the nineteenth century James Stuart Papers. The latter has been published in five volumes as C. de B Webb and J.B. Wright, eds, The James Stuart Archive of Recorded Oral Evidence Relating to the History of the Zulu and Neighbouring Peoples, 5 Vols. (Pietermaritzburg and Durban, 1976–2001).

⁶³Interview with Siyabonga Mkhize, 3 December 2009.

⁶⁴S. Mkhize, Uhlanga Lwas'Embo: The History of the Embo People (Durban: Just Done, 2007), Isethulo/Introduction.

⁶⁵S. Mkhize, Uhlanga Lwas'Embo: The History of the Embo People (Durban: Just Done, 2007), Isethulo/Introduction.

⁶⁶J. Wright and A. Manson, The Hlubi chiefdom in Zululand-Natal: a history (Ladysmith: Ladysmith Historical Society, 1983); A.T. Bryant, Olden Times in Zululand and Natal: containing earlier political history of the Eastern-Nguni clans (London, New York, Toronto: Longmans Green, 1929); N. Isaacs, Travels and adventures in eastern Africa, descriptive of the Zoolus, their manners, customs, etc. with a sketch of Natal (London: E. Churton, 1836).

⁶⁷ Izibongo are ‘a form of oral poetry which outlines the feats, character, physical and personality features of the person or thing about whom or which they are composed.’, S. Turner, ‘The Dynamic and Transformational Nature of Praising in Contemporary Zulu Society’, South African Journal of African Languages, 17, 2 (1997).

⁶⁸T. Cope, ed, Izibongo: Zulu Praise-Poems, Collected by James Stuart, Translated by Daniel Malcolm (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968), 25–30.

⁶⁹Turner, ‘The Dynamic and Transformational Nature’.

⁷⁰E. Gunner and M. Gwala, Musho! Zulu PopularPraises (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1991), 7.

⁷²Interview with Victor Mkhize, 6 August 2010.

⁷¹Siyabonga Mkhize's book mainly focuses on the lineage of the Nkasa/Isimahla line.

⁷³Sithole also asserts that Skhukhukhu was recognised as the heir to the Mkhize chiefship. Sithole, ‘Land, Officials, Chiefs and Commoners’, 51. For a detailed discussion on claims for Mkhize chieftaincy in Umbumbulu, see ‘Land, officials, chiefs and commoners’, 47–55.

⁷⁴A prime example is Anton Lembede, the elected president at the founding of the ANC Youth League in 1944.

⁷⁵I have tried to access these documents but Desmond Makhanya claims that he does not know where they are. I also contacted Dr Vukile Khumalo at the University of KwaZulu-Natal who had Desmond Makhanya's manuscript on Adams College but he said he did not have copies of these biographies.

⁷⁶The articles that reference Uhlanga Lwas'Embo deal with the history of the Embo people (in effect, a summary of the book), the history of the Mabhida surname and Mkhize izibongo.

⁷⁷See www.facebook.com/pages/Uhlanga-Lwasembo-Foundation/112801565471047 and www.archivalplatform.org/blog/entry/finding_our/, accessed 10 May 2012.

⁷⁸See H. Mokoena, Magema Fuze: The Making of a Kholwa Intellectual (Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2011).

⁷⁹Cooperative governance between traditional leaders and local government in postapartheid South Africa has proven difficult particularly where the boundaries of wards and chiefdoms do not coincide, and consultation between municipal councilors and amakhosi has to take place across a range of different traditional authorities and wards. See Palmary, ‘Traditional Leaders in the eThekwini Metropolitan Region’.

⁸⁰This investment is evident in the work of Ulwazi Programme where a focus on the collection of indigenous knowledge has resulted in the accumulation of ‘traditional’ and ‘customary’ materials. The programme's model draws heavily on the National Policy for Indigenous Knowledge Systems where the overarching classification of indigenous knowledge incorporates, among other aspects, customary practices, traditional medicines, and engaging ‘traditional leadership in the development process of IK’. Indigenous knowledge ‘holders’ are found in communities that are described as ‘local’, ‘indigenous’ and ‘traditional’. Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Visions and goals for an Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) Policy for South Africa, 13, 19, 23, available at http://www.dst.gov.za/index.php/resource-center/strategies-and-reports/161-indigenous-knowledge-systems, accessed 4 June 2012.

⁸¹Interview with Inkosi Kusakusa Mkhize, 20 January 2011.

⁸²Interview with Inkosi Makhanya, 1 April 2011.

⁸³Interview with Inkosi Makhanya, 1 April 2011.

⁸⁴Interview with Inkosi Makhanya, 24 January 2011.

⁸⁵Interview with Inkosi Makhanya, 24 January 2011.

⁸⁶Interview with Inkosi Mkhize, 20 January 2011.

⁸⁷The well-being of the clan is dependent on the happiness of the ancestors, in particular those of the amakhosi. As such, the amakhosi continue to play an important spiritual role that carries weight in peoples’ everyday lives. Interview with Inkosi Mkhize (19 June 2011) in which he explains that the inkosi's ancestors can cause chaos in, or friction between the people of, the clan if they are unhappy.

⁸⁸I gathered from discussions with librarians at the Killie Campbell Library that Siyabonga Mkhize was uncomfortable with, and had reservations about, some of the versions of Mkhize history that were already recorded, including those in the Killie Campbell essay competition. In the early to mid twentieth century, Killie Campbell and her father ran essay competitions for local Zulu and Sotho speakers to record their family histories.

⁸⁹I eventually found a copy at the University of Cape Town Library.

⁹⁰Interview with Victor Mkhize, 15 June 2011. For more on the history of the succession debate, see Sithole, ‘Tale of Two Boundaries’ and ‘Land, Officials, Chiefs and Commoners’.

⁹¹This is evident in a recent speech where he stated ‘For 40 years now Isilo [an appellation for the Zulu King] has given us leadership, support and guidance as a symbol of our unity, a custodian of our culture and an important pillar in the building of our nation’ (‘State of the Province Address’ by Dr Zweli Mkhize, Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, 22 February 2011, available at http://www.polity.org.za/article/kzn-mkhize-state-of-the-province-address-by-the-premier-pietermaritzburg-22022011-2011-02-22, accessed 5 March 2012).

⁹²See Harries, ‘Imagery, Symbolism and Tradition; Marks, ‘The Ambiguities of Dependence’; Maré, ‘Brothers Born of Warrior Blood’; S. Klopper, ‘He Is My King, but He Is Also My Child’; N. Cope, To bind the nation: Solomon kaDinuzulu and Zulu nationalism: 1913–1933 (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1993); D. Golan, ‘Inkatha and Its Use of the Zulu Past’; C. Campbell, G. Maré and C. Walker, ‘Evidence for an Ethnic Identity in the Life Histories of Zulu-Speaking Durban Township Residents’, Journal of Southern African Studies 21, 2 (1995), 287–301.

⁹³See for example, Carton, Laband and Sithole's Zulu Identities, which offers multidisciplinary perspectives on a variety of aspects of historical and contemporary forms of Zuluness, including the foundations of Zuluness, Shaka's legacy, gender, twentieth century Zulu nationalism as well as music, dress, material culture and further postulations on the future of Zuluness.

⁹⁴See for example, Mbongiseni Buthelezi's doctoral work on the oral artistic forms of the Ndwandwe, members of one of the most important kingdoms in south-east Africa at the beginning of the nineteenth century who are reviving and popularising the memory of the violent incorporation of the Ndwandwe into the Zulu kingdom in the 1820s, in part through adapting the meanings of Ndwandwe symbols such as the izithakazelo (kinship group praises), izibongo (personal praises) of the founding figures of the Ndwandwe kingdom and the Ndwandwe ihubo (kinship group ‘anthem’). M. Buthelezi, Sifuna umlando wethu (We are Looking for our History): Oral Literature and the Meanings of the Past in Post-Apartheid South Africa’ (PhD thesis, University of Columbia, New York, 2012). Members of the Qwabe have also joined forces to create a cultural organisation (http://www.archivalplatform.org/blog/entry/the_qwabe/, accessed 10 November 2011) and there are also smaller parties in their infancy such as the Ndimas, Mchunus, Macingwanas and Thembus, who are intimating that they too, want recognition of their pre-Zulu traditions, customs and identities (interviews with M. Cele, 17 January 2011, and J. Sithole, 7 April 2011).

⁹⁵The Nhlapo Commission, also known as the Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims, was appointed by former President Thabo Mbeki to hear disputes over the legitimacy of traditional groups and claims for traditional leadership.

⁹⁶Personal communication, M. Cele, 6 April 2011.

⁹⁷An article detailing the attack on Dlamini includes a headline that (in English) reads, ‘Dlamini fears for his life …’, available at http://www.iol.co.za/kuhlaselwe-isigodlo-senkosi-yasenhlangwini-1.1069414, accessed 7 March 2012.

⁹⁸The Ulwazi Programme is not politically ambitious in that it wants to consolidate power itself but rather, in responding to municipal and other policies, which do seek to consolidate power, it furthers these agendas.

⁹⁹The well-being of the clan is dependent on the happiness of the ancestors and as such the amakhosi continue to play an important spiritual role that carries weight in peoples’ everyday lives. Interview with Inkosi Mkhize (19 June 2011) in which he explains that the inkosi's ancestors can cause chaos in, or friction between the people of, the clan if they are unhappy.

¹⁰⁰That is not to say that the Makhanyas are not invested in clan politics. Their young chief (Desmond Makhanya's non-paternal grandson) is a strong proponent of tradition, custom and traditional ways of living for the benefit of his constituencies.

¹⁰¹ http://www.oed.com/, accessed 07 May 2012.