Found at: http://eshowe.com/article/articleprint/29/-1/13
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Zulu Tours
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Shaka Zulu
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King Shaka Day Celebrations at Duguza (Stanger) in Zululand.Zulus meet to honour Shaka Zulu.
Zululand Eco-Tours. From The George Hotel and Zululand Backpackers in Eshowe.Date 24th September 2010. Cost R450 pp for full day tour, press & VIP access..
24th September each year.Cost R450 pp.
The King Shaka Day Celebrations were being held at Dukuza (Formerly Stanger) on the KZN north coast on Saturday 24th September 2009.These celebrations honouring King, Shaka Zulu (b. 1781) are held at his monument close to the place where he was murdered by his brother Dingane on the 22 September 1828.The stone on which he was sitting having a wash when the deed was done.Shaka Zulu pictures.
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The Kings Men
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A colourful and exciting celebration with the Zulu King, Royal family and all the Zulu dignatories.Anyone who is anyone in the Zulu nation will be there.Speaches will be made by King Zwelithini, Jacob Zuma, Lionel Mtshali and Mangasuthu Buthelezi.
Groups of dressed warriors from various areas around KZN will present themselves to the King.
Led by Prince Gideon Zulu many cultural songs of the nation will be sung.Very vibrant, exciting and colourful occasion. Zulu culture in the zulu nation at its best.
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Shaka Day. Young men
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ZULU KINGS FROM SHAKA ZULU TO ZWELITHINI
The Zulu are a very proud nation, predominantly in Zululand and they have been ruled by kings since time immemorial, as history goes, this is the line of Zulu kings we know of since Senzangakhona (the father of Shaka, the greatest of all kings and Zulu warrior):
1718 – 1816 Senzangakhona
1816 – 1828 Shaka
1828 – 1840 Dingane
1840 – 1872 Mpande
1872 – 1879 Cetshwayo
1879 – 1916 Dinuzulu
1916 – 1933 Maphumazana
1933 – 1968 Cyprian Bhekuzulu 1968 - Goodwill Zwelithini
SHAKA ZULU KASENZANGAKHONA– THE GREATEST OF ALL ZULU KINGS AND WARRIORS
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The Zulu King and Mr M.Buthelezi
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King Shaka Zulu is known as the brave warrior who founded the strong Zulu empire. Shaka Zulu, son of Nandi and Senzangakhona was born in Melmoth around 1788 into the Mhlongo tribe who were under the rule of Chief Dingiswayo kaMthethwa, the most influential ruler in the area. As the two were of the same clan, the couple’s marriage broke Zulu law so Nandi was forced to flee when Shaka Zulu was about six years old; she sought refuge with the neighbouring Langeni people. They were still stigmatized there and were eventually expelled from the tribe. They sought refuge with the Mthethwa people. Though Shaka Zulu did not belong to the Mthethwa people, he won the favour of the chief through his exceptional skills as a young warrior.
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Men & Girls
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On the death of his father (Senzangakhona), Dingiswayo helped Shaka Zulu defeat his brother and take the throne of the Nguni people (who were at the time a minor group)
In 1816 Shaka Zulu succeeded the Zulu chieftaincy, not a very promising position as the Zulus comprised of about 1 500 people – but Shaka was about to change that! He reorganized his army by firstly changing the traditional long throwing spear into a short-handled stabbing assegai, which forced close combat. Secondly he refined the organization of warriors, providing each regiment with a strong identity that included markings and regalia. He also assigned men of the same age to shared living quarters.
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Two old Warriors
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The Zulu battle tactic (the famous bull-horn formation) was honed into a science at this time. The regiments (collectively called ‘impi’) were split into four groups. During battle, they formed the shape of a bull’s head, the first and foremost group forming the ‘chest’ clashed head on, while the enemy were still confused by these tactics (the short assegai and close combat) the second and third group would form the ‘horns’ and encircle the enemy and the fourth would be a reserve group.
No young men and women from the enemy tribe were killed; they were brought to Zululand to be trained as soldiers and become wives. In this way he built a great Zulu nation.
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Beads Beads Beads
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Over the next few years he went on to dominate small neighboring groups, among them the Langeni, who had rejected him and his mother.
By then the Zulu army had grown nearly four fold and during the following year, Dingiswayo was murdered. This opened a path for rapid expansion as Shaka Zulu led a march to the now leaderless tribe to conquer it. Following his victory, he went on to subdue neighboring tribes until his name inspired fear in all his opponents. He dominated the powerful Ndwandwe and Qwabe people and all the Nguni clans to the south. Their land was destroyed and they became part of Shaka’s people. Survivors fled to the south, where they met the Xhosa and settled in the Cape.
European traders arrived in Natal in 1823; Shaka extended his hospitality and granted them trading rights and land around Port Natal, about 160 km south of the capital of kwa Bulawayo. He also requested that they teach his people their language so they could communicate. He realized they were powerful especially because of their weapons (guns). He sent some of his men to travel to Europe to be educated, but they were kept in the Cape for unknown reasons and never educated.
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Young Colourful girl
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In 1827, Shaka’s mother, Nandi died. The following year signaled the end of his reign, he sent his warriors on a raid to the South and on their return immediately ordered them to the far north, a huge tactical error! This was the last straw for his exhausted warriors...
His half brothers Dingane and Mhlangana (who had never forgotten that he was not the rightful leader as he had usurped the throne) instructed Mbopha, his induna, to stab him! He died in Stanger on 22 September 1828.
Although fatally wounded, he prophesied that his brothers would never rule over the Zulu, but would be ruled by the white settlers.
Because of this great man who unified and founded the mighty Zulu, they were put on the map, to this day, his life and death are remembered by the Zulu and this prompted a day to be set aside to remember and honour this man. This day is known as Shaka Zulu Day and is held yearly in KwaDukuza, Stanger.
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Isilo
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KING SHAKA DAY COMMEMORATION CEREMONY HELD AT KWADUKUZA, STANGER, ZULULAND ON 24 SEPTEMBER 2004.
The King Shaka Day commemoration day is where we pay homage to the great Zulu King Shaka, who died on 22 September 1828 in Stanger.
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Shembe Eye Fashion
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On this day, thousands of Zulus gather to celebrate this day and the heritage of the Zulus. The day is characterized by Zulus coming from different ‘izigodi’ (regions) dressed in traditional attire that may have certain colours that show where they are from, the 'izintombi' (young virginal girls) come out in all their splendour and try to out dance the 'competition' (the izintombi from another region) The 'izinsizwa' (young men) also dress traditionally and have stick fights and generally make a show of their prowess in the hope of attracting the ladies' attention.
The celebration is open to everyone who would like to attend, transport and food is provided and this is one of the few occasions that His Majesty Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini *kaBhekuzulu can address his subjects. This year is special in that it marks fifty years since the revival of the King Shaka Day celebration by King Bhekuzulu *kaSolomon (father of the reigning king).
Of the VIP’s invited this year were: Members of the Royal family, amaKhosi, the mayor of KwaDukuza and iLembe, the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Ministers from both the National Assembly and KwaZulu-Natal Legislature, Chairpersons of Regional Councils, Councillors and Indunas. We were also honoured to have the Prime Minister of Punjab who presented the King with a magnificent chair/throne.
Various speeches are made, but the main address is made by the King. The reigning king is King Goodwill Zwelithini *kaBhekuzulu.
*When the word ‘ka’ is used with a person’s name, it means ‘of’ e.g King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu means Goodwill Zwelithini, son of Bhekuzulu.
Overview of the Speech by King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu at the King Shaka Day Celebration
The King welcomed all dignitaries; members of Parliament and everyone present at the celebration and expressed his joy and happiness at the crowds of people who had attended the ceremony.
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Fashion designers at Shaka Day
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As in his speech at the uMkhosi woMhlanga (Reed Dance), he reiterated the need for virginity testing, as this is the best way to promote abstinence, he however added that this was by no means forced on any child that did not want to take part. He had always seen the children that take part in this ceremony happy, willing and proud of their status (as were their parents).This is a zulu culture which has been passed down to the zulu nation. activity passed down the zulu nation.All testing is done with the consent of the parent and child. Virginity testing also helps in the prevention of the spread of HIV/AIDS, which has become a huge problem particularly because of the large numbers of orphans, especially those relying on grandparents (a new trend seeing as the parents die from AIDS leaving the grandparents to ‘adopt’ the children) pensions, which are not near enough to feed a family. Because of this, some of the young children must take to the streets – particularly the young girls who are eventually forced to sell their bodies to put food on the table for their siblings and family. It is unheard of in the Zulu culture to have orphans roaming about, prostituting themselves; the King believes we have lost our sense of culture, ‘ubuntu’ because in the olden days, if a man was struggling to feed his family, his neighbour would lend a hand to ensure that at least the children would not go hungry. Westernisation has brought poverty to his people because there are simply no jobs which translate to no money and food.
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Dressed for the occassion
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There has also been an increase in the incidence of pregnancy of teenagers. It is very difficult for a married, mature couple to raise a family, so when a child falls pregnant and has to raise another child; it then falls on the child’s parents (grandparents) to raise this child. In the Zulu culture, there were ways and means to ensure that sexual tension was released without having sexual intercourse. He believed we should go back to our culture in order to prevent the spread of AIDS and STD’s.
The King then spoke about our new government, which we all voted in, in the first free and fair elections in 1994. He asked what this government had done for us, as there are still no jobs, our children are hungry. We have also been experiencing a brain-drain because of low salaries and lack of employment, a lot of our children have now immigrated to foreign countries looking for greener pastures – why do our children feel that the only way to make money and find opportunities is to leave their country? First it was the mass exodus of nurses; now teachers are following suit, it is sad to see that our children feel that our country does not provide them with any future. Our government should focus more on job creation.
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Swazi Visitors
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Children should be taught from school age to create their own opportunities (entrepreneurship) so that they do not have to depend on other people for work. Another way to try and alleviate poverty in the rural areas would be to provide them with tractors, irrigation equipment and land so that they can grow food for themselves and the community at large, those that cannot be sustained agriculturally, should be able to work with their hands and make crafts that can be sold at local markets, the government can also set up and help them export their crafts overseas. But all crafters should also ensure that their products are of a very high standard to ensure repeat orders, good business links and show that we too can as competitive as any other country.
Drugs have also become a problem in our youth, but their use and abuse also stems partially from poverty as they provide immediate relief for an ongoing problem so this starts a cycle which never ends. Some of our children now resort to crime - a lot of them intentionally because being in prison means a bed at night, three hot meals per day and free education.
In order to succeed in rebuilding our divided and broken society, we need to do so from the roots upwards, so we must go back to our culture in order to move on to a brighter and better future
Other Tours
Zululand Eco-Tours. From The George Hotel and Zululand Backpackers. Eshowe.
1.Tours to other Zulu Villages. Walters Zulu Village
2.Tours to Traditional Zulu Ceremonies Traditional Zulu Ceremonies.
3.Tours to Sangomas Healings and Initiations. Sangomas Healing and Initiations
4. Walking Township Tours. King Dinizulu Township Tour
5. Three day Zululand Outback Tour. Zululand Outback Tour
6. Zululand Weekend Package. Zululand Weekend Package
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Couple at Shaka Day
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Zululand Eco-Adventures.
Eshowe. Zululand. KwaZulu Natal. South Africa.
info@eshowe.com
035 4744919.
Your Guides:
Graham Chennells. Walter Cele. Victor Mdluli.