Zulu Legacy: Metaphors, Leadership, and Struggles in Historical Contexts

Milk and Power: Leadership Mechanisms in Zulu Society

This article mainly makes an attempt to synthesize the metaphors as well as practices that surround humans, the bovine milk as well as semen, which appears in the archive of James Stuart concerning the oral history of the Zulu people. It illustrates that kings were responsible for the control of the flow of milk within the society, and this was their source of leadership, power, and governing mechanism within the Zulu society. The article depicts the Zulus are oppressed in that the king had control of everybody.

He used to favor those who were close to him, while those who were not close to him were given tough jobs. There was nepotism within the society. King has all the powers regarding decision-making within the society. This article has been chosen because it gives a lot of information regarding how this community used to be managed, and some of the members were oppressed due to the harsh leadership of the kings. The strength of the article lies in the fact that its information is generated from primary sources hence a bit more accurate. On the other hand, its weaknesses lie in the fact that this article doesn’t have a good representation of the samples used to give information. Zulus are a big group in South Africa, and any information regarding their ancient life needs a lot of information and should be well-researched (Bjerk, 2016).

From Creation to Decolonization: Zulu Evolution Under the British

This article considers the identity of the contemporary Zulus and what the differences are from the past. This article is a collection as well as Zulu scholarship concerning a wide range of topics such as the history of Zulus, their political nature, health, roles of gender in society, society classes stratification, arts, and sports, among others. This article illustrates the way the Zulu nation was created during colonial times by the British. The article gives information about how the Zulu kingdom was uncreated during British colonialism. The US-Zulu relations and other foreign lands have also illustrated their general struggles in life, thus showing some point of oppression in the society and how the community culturally express itself today (White, 2010).

The article was chosen since it gives information regarding the tough times during the creation of the Zulu kingdom, which led to the way of British colonial powers. The community was oppressed during this time since the soldiers of the colonial powers outshined the community on many occasions, destroying their life. The weakness is that the article’s research literature seems not well synthesized, thus giving inadequate information.

Oral Traditions: Resilience and Resistance Among Zulus

A standout amongst the most deliberately composed collections of African oral customs and old stories is an investigation of how the oral convention among the African people groups filled in as resistance against colonization and Apartheid. While indigenous narrating is one of the minimum clear types of disruption, it is a standout amongst the best ways Africans opposed white principles, and the oral convention was a method for survival. This article is chosen since it is a collection of poetry as well as stories in Xhosa, Zulu, Swati, and Ndebele. Numerous Zulus see themselves in any case as Black or African. This article has been picked since the character delineated is regularly connected to colonial oppression. Be that as it may, a couple of Zulus portray themselves as far as an essential South African character. Ethnic mindfulness is encouraged by the view of contrasts with different Blacks and cooperation informal exercises. Be that as it may, as of now showed, Zulu speakers have separated political loyalties, and a large number of the individuals who depict themselves as Zulu lean toward not voting in favor of the IFP. A portion of the reasons proposed for the absence of help for the IFP is the way that Buthelezi used to be excessively near the politically-sanctioned racial segregation government. The strong Zulus presence in the current ANC authority presumably serves to additionally defuse Zulu ethnic activation.

Shaka: The Paradox of a Leader

The article portrays Shaka’s legacy has dependably been huge in South African history, and it has dependably been challenged. Was he the true hero or the villain within the society? During the apartheid time, whites would, in general, paint him as a ruthless dictator, simply the kind of thing to expect without white principles. Others saw and still consider him to be enormity itself and envelop themselves by his mantle. The article further outlines that Shaka demanded that the quickly developing numbers under his standard embrace the specific acclaim and poetry of his Zulu roots. It appears, once more, the liquid idea of ethnic personality and how it can extend and contract. In a lot of regards, this is the way to the way that ‘Zulu’ today is the biggest single ethnic personality in South Africa. ` So Shaka, subsequently, was a developer and, in addition, a destroyer. He did build a nation and kingdom. On many occasions, in any event, he motivated and also constrained steadfastness.

This article has been chosen since it shows how the oppressed Zulus were desperately looking for freedom from the hands of their colonizers. Their leader, Shaka, organized the war against the Colonial powers, thus leading to the creation of the Zulu kingdom. This article’s strength lies in the fact that it gives much information on the literature, thus making the literature more synthesized for social studies research work. On the other hand, the weakness of the article is that research questions are not framed in a manner that can generate both positive and negative information for studies.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, South African society is highly diverse and deeply divided not only because of linguistic, cultural, and religious factors but also due to historical processes that have often brought groups in direct opposition to one another in processes of intergroup competition and conflict. The paper shows that, occasionally, South African societies tend to exist with one another in a way that can be described as free-flowing minority groups. This is due to the fact that descriptions and central midpoints do change continuously. These minorities are overpowered by the bigger tribes and hence are oppressed. This was the case for the Zulus, who did fight with colonial powers to gain independence in terms of politics. During apartheid times, Zulus were oppressed, and many of them were killed. This trend has continued with Zulu also trying as much as possible to take all the senior positions in the country as well as outshining other minor tribes as far as cultural heritage and economy are concerned. 

References:

1. Bjerk, P. (2016). Title of the Article. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), Page numbers. doi:10.xxxxx

2. White, H. (2010). Outside the dwelling of culture: estrangement and difference in postcolonial Zululand. Anthropological Quarterly, 83(3), 497–518. doi:10.xxxxx

3. Boonzaaier, C., & Wels, H. (2016). Juxtaposing a cultural reading of landscape with institutional boundaries: the case of the Masebe Nature Reserve, South Africa. Landscape Research, 41(8), 922-933. doi:10.xxxxx

4. Laband, J. (2015). Rope of sand: The rise and fall of the Zulu Kingdom in the nineteenth century. Jonathan Ball.

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