Borders of beads: questions of identity in the beadwork of the Zulu-speaking people.

In the volatile circumstances in which the Zulu-speaking people of southern Africa have lived during the past two hundred years, the formulation and articulation of identity at the levels of both the individual and group have been important as well as complex. The construction and assertion of a variety of identities have given the Zulu-speaking people a visible presence in the wider region and also served to represent the multiple voices that make up Zulu society. These identities and the nature of their borders were expressions that became vital in the complicated struggle for recognition and power that characterized southern African society for much of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

As an art form that allows people to individualize their bodies, clothing is often used to communicate information about the identity of the wearer. Joanne Eicher notes, "Dress is a coded sensory system of nonverbal communication that aids human interaction in space and time" (1995:1). It can communicate the location and historical moment in which the wearer exists as well as the individual's positions within the broader community. Among the Zulu-speaking people, beadwork, in particular, has been used as a dynamic exhibition and reflection of fluid and complex identities. Though it is impossible to give an exhaustive survey of this issue here, it is hoped that this overview will provide a new appreciation for the stylistic and symbolic diversity and intricacy of the beadwork of the Zulu-speaking people.

Nature of Identity

Identity is important because it "gives us an idea of who we are and how we relate to others and the world in which we live" (Woodward 1994:1). But the identities of individuals and groups are not simple, static, innate definitions; instead they, like the people they represent, are complex, multifarious, flexible, and not predetermined. Rooted in biological and cultural conceptions, all human identities are fluid constructions formulated in relation to the identities of others. They are forged in response to changing economic, political, and cultural conditions (Appiah 1995:110; Mennell 1994:193) and often feed off of societal traditions. Like a kaleidoscope, the identities of individuals and groups simultaneously embrace multiple, changeable representations. Group and individual identities can interpenetrate, overlap, and influence each other. At the same time, the interaction between individuals, groups, and groups and individuals serve to help determine identities and, thereby, define them. In other words, identities are tied to difference.

The formulation and articulation of identities and the broader impact of this process have proven to be particularly relevant to the study of southern Africa. In this region issues of identity have been exceptionally contentious and important in the struggle for territory and power. Because of the many different interests that have fought to compete for the limited resources in this area, the tendency for people to establish bonds with others who have mutual concerns and to formulate and articulate a common identity to protect these shared interests has been quite strong. Furthermore, the nature, changes, and boundaries of these identities have been a much-contested landscape for those who both claim and disclaim them, and have been used to empower as well as oppress those they represent. Issues of identity are, thus, central to the southern African milieu.

Zulu Identity and Beadwork

The Zulu-speaking people have long appreciated the importance of issues of identity. Starting with the formation of the kingdom from a number of independent clans during the reign of King Shaka Zulu (r. 1817-1828), the royal court put forth a concerted effort to construct and promote a unified Zulu identity. The nation adopted the clan name of the founder, and as clans came to be incorporated into the kingdom they were required to send all young men to serve in the military and some young women to support the military and the court. This type of national service not only provided a standing army and labor for the court, it also promoted a sense of national unity and a common national culture.

In addition, the court promoted interregional marriages to encourage political and cultural unity. Yet in spite of all of these efforts, regional identities as well as divisions based on age, gender, marital status, and wealth remained significant forces.

"Difference is marked by symbolic representations which give meaning to social relations," observed Kathryn Woodward (1997b:38), and visual art is often used for such purposes. In the early years of the Zulu kingdom, members of the upper class (1) were often distinguished by special bodily adornments, particularly certain types of skins, feathers, brass ornaments, and glass beads. Since beads were imported items, (2) the king had strict control over the amount and types in circulation and, until the mid-nineteenth century, reserved them exclusively for himself, women of the isigodlo, (3) and high-ranking officials (Bryant 1949:156). During these early years, beadwork was primarily a signifier of the socio-economic class and political connections of the wearer.

Over time, the alliance that made up the Zulu kingdom varied in strength and, especially under the rule of Shaka's successor King Dingane, some clans even broke away and realigned themselves with new groups. (4) In 1840 King Mpande took over the throne, restored the kingdom to vigor, and ushered in a thirty-year period of peace and prosperity. During this time the population and wealth of the kingdom grew (Omer-Cooper 1966:46), as did opportunities for the pursuit and refinement of a national identity. Though beadwork remained an important marker of status, King Mpande loosened the restrictions that regulated European traders and missionaries who entered the kingdom (Wood 1996:149). As a result, even as King Mpande continued to limit the distribution of certain types of beads, the general population had greater access to these trade goods and beadworking was no longer restricted to the royal court. Though there is relatively little surviving beadwork that can be securely dated to this period, it is believed to be during this time that this art form spread throughout the kingdom (ibid.). Still, it was probably not until after the Zulu kingdom lost its independence to Britain in 1879 that beadwork began to have a broader role in the articulation of identity among the Zulu-speaking people.

Once defeated, the Zulu king became subservient to British rule and lost control over the trade in the kingdom, including the trade in beads. People also lost faith in their ruler and no longer felt obliged to follow his rule (Klopper 1989:33). With the sting of the British defeat fresh in their minds and without a strong central leader, the solidarity of the Zulu people suffered and regional identities became increasingly important. (5) With greater access to beads and fewer restrictions on the types of beads people were allowed to wear, it appears (6) that around this time quite distinctive variations in the color combinations, decorative patterns, and types of beaded objects created began to appear. These stylistic variations became signifiers, directed at others within and outside of Zulu society, of the political, cultural, socio-economic, and religious identities of their wearers.

Political Identity

The political fragmentation and strong resurgence of regional identities that characterized the period succeeding the defeat of the Zulu kingdom is clearly expressed in beadwork. The beadwork collections attributed to the KwaZulu and Natal regions dated to this time show a great variety of color combinations and motifs and, to a lesser degree, beadworking techniques and object types. Though the exact locations from which these works were collected as well as detailed information about the function of the pieces are often absent, (7) based on information from eyewitness accounts, Dominices Frey's detailed 1907 review of beadwork created in an area slightly south of Durban, and a few better-documented collections within museums, it is known that these variations were regional and prone to change over time.

Faced with the disruption of the rural communities and the implementation of increasingly racist laws under the rule of the South Africa government, in the 1920s the Zulu-speaking people again began to try to assert some control over the way in which Zulu culture and history was presented in order to solidify and reassert a unified identity. King Solomon ka Dinuzulu began the Inkatha Movement (8) in 1920 as an attempt both to unite the Zulu-speaking people culturally and socially and to re-empower the Zulu royal house politically. At the same, Zulu intellectuals (9) promoted a unified Zulu identity through cultural organizations; (10) by publishing newspapers and books that dealt with Zulu culture, history, and the contemporary concerns of the Zulu-speaking people; (11) and by staging historical dramas. (12) As the promotion of Zulu history and culture was being conducted by a limited number of politicians and intellectuals, Zulu identity became more narrowly defined and standardized than it had been previously and, as in many places throughout Africa, was adapted to meet the economic and political conditions of the modern world (Appiah 1995:108). As Albert Luthuli stated, "We did have an intense wish to preserve what is valuable in our heritage while discarding the inappropriate and outmoded" (1962:37). While the versions of Zulu cultural unity and history created by these movements were to a certain extent mythologized (as is the case for every human identity), the messages carried by them found resonance and acceptance in both rural and urban segments of the Zulu-speaking populations.

Though these movements began to bring some sense of unity to the Zulu-speaking people, divisions between groups of people of different genders, ages, regions, religions, and classes remained. This can be seen in beadwork, wherein by the 1930s at least seven distinct regional beadwork styles appeared (Fig. 2; Boram-Hays 2000:63-4). The similar color combinations, design motifs, and, to a lesser degree, the beadworking methods and types of ornaments that characterize these distinctive styles reflect the importance of local identities and function as a reminder to the king of the independent nature of these regions, which could break away if they felt his rule to be unjust or incompetent. The different styles also implicitly allude to the political power differentials that are associated with various regional identities. For example, the clans that form the original core of the Zulu kingdom and have the easiest access to the power of the royal court live closest to the Zulu capital in the area of Nongoma. Beadwork in the Nongoma regional style (Fig. 3) thus helps comrnmlicate the increased political power of the wearer.

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When the National Party began to implement the apartheid system in 1948, issues of racial and ethnic identity took on a new importance. (13) According to the policies implemented under this system, most of the Zulu-speaking population was required to live in areas set aside as "homelands," and travel outside of these regions was strictly regulated. In these homeland areas, people came under the control of traditionalist leaders who were, in turn, subordinate to the South African government. Although this system gave the Zulu-speaking people some sense of self-rule, the South African government did not provide any economic support for the homelands, leaving them underdeveloped and impoverished, and silenced attempts to bring Zulu identity into the mainstream of South African society. Support for publications and educational programs that celebrated Zulu culture and history became very limited, while organizations and other forms of political speech that challenged the government's policies were banned. All of this meant that the promotion of a national Zulu identity became restricted to the king and traditionalist leaders, who often encouraged the retention of more conservative ideas about Zulu identity. "The nostalgic impulse is an important agency in adjustment to crisis; it is a social emollient and reinforces [national] identity when confidence is weakened or threatened" (Sarup 1996:96).

At the same time, the apartheid system also worked to reinforce old regional divisions. The poor economic conditions of the "homeland" areas were compounded by inferior land quality, an increasing population, and land shortages. As the problems grew, tensions among people living in these areas increased. These tensions, combined with other social and political issues, inflamed old clan divisions and resulted in sporadic violent confrontations. The manifestations of such conflicts are dramatized well in the development of the umzansi style of beadwork in the Msinga region in the 1950s. The umzansi style, distinguished by the colors light green, white, red, and dark blue (Fig. 4; Jolles 1993:43), arose when, after a dispute, a group of people moved southward away from their old neighbors (Mapastoli Mzila, personal communication, 1997). in the south they developed the new umzansi style, meaning "people from the low country," to distinguish themselves from their old northern neighbors. The umzansi style became then a means to signify the new borders of the political and regional identities of this southern group. Regional divisions were also fortified by the fact that the Zulu "homeland" was not a single continuous unit, but was divided into forty-three parcels of land. This physical separation, exacerbated by travel restrictions, hindered communication between people of different regions. As a result of this isolation, dramatic regional differences in beadworking styles continued to flourish during the apartheid era (Fig. 1).

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Yet, while all of these beadworking styles allude to the multiple identities that characterize the political landscape of the Zulu-speaking people, they also act as implicit voices of support for the king. At least since the first Inkatha Movement, beadwork has been promoted as a symbol of Zulu identity. Within this context, the wearing of beadwork has come to imply support for the king and the traditionalist cultural practices embodied by the court. So when displayed at large national festivals, such as Shaka's Day (14) or the Reed Ceremony, (15) the variety of beadwork styles exhibits the vastness of Zulu territory and the widespread support enjoyed by the king.

Cultural Identity

Regional variations in beadwork also speak to the importance of cultural identities and the differences that exist among identities of Zulu-speaking people of these various areas. While the multiple groups that came to form the Zulu nation shared a common Nguni culture, there were distinctive local variations in pronunciation of words and in cultural customs. (16) These differences were particularly pronounced between the court in the north and the people living south of the Tugela River, and led to prejudices against people from the south. To quote one of James Stewart's informants, "Shaka said they had dirty habits and did not distinguish between good and bad. They did not pay respect to chiefs, nor wash, nor keep neat" (Webb and Wright 1976-1989, 2:55). In turn, southerners bemoaned their conquest, referring to it as the izwekufa ("death of the nation"; Webb and Wright 1976-1989, 3:80). Hence, while the system of national service fostered a national cultural unity, unique regional cultural identities continued to remain important.

In the period that followed the defeat of the Zulu kingdom, the reassertion of regional political identities was accompanied by the declaration of different cultural identities. Even to this day such cultural differences can make marriages that cross these regional divides difficult (Patrick Ngubane, personal communication, 1997). As the art of beadwork spread among the Zulu-speaking people in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the regional stylistic variations that developed became then, in part, emblems of the different cultural identities that existed between these regions.

Nevertheless, there are overriding consistencies in the types of works created, the beadworking techniques used, and the functions of the works that speak to a common cultural basis for these objects. For instance, the method of weaving beads into fabric-like sheets and the technique, called gongqoloza, of wrapping strings of beads around a fibrous tube can be found throughout all Zulu-speaking areas.

Consistency is also seen in the way beadwork came to be used as a means of communication between intimates. In a tradition that has been carried into contemporary times, when a young woman decides to tell a young man that she wants him for a sweetheart, she does not use words but instead uses beads. She does this because "love among the Zulu people is a very private matter" (Mthethwa 1988:340). As the relationship progresses, the young woman will continue to send her boyfriend beadwork encoded with messages (17) both positive and negative, about the progress of the relationship. Although not all of the beadwork exchanged between intimates contains coded messages, and the shapes and patterns used on those that do are highly variable over time and space, the symbolism of the colors is fairly consistent, owing to the fact that it is rooted in the Zulu language and its idiomatic expressions (Mthethwa 1988:35). (18) For example, the Zulu word for the color lavender is ijuba, which is also the name of a local species of lavender-colored dove. The expression associated with this color is "liyajabula ijuba lone licosha izinihlamvu emnyango knewu" ("I envy the dove that picks up corn grains near the door of your mother's hut"; Buthelezi 1963), indicating that the young woman wishes she were already the wife of her suitor. (19)

Parallels in the general types of ornaments created and who wears them also appear across all regions. Particularly since the middle of the twentieth century, when ideas about traditionalist-style dress became more standardized under the influence of ethnic consciousness movements, beaded head ornaments, anklets, belts, necklaces, and aprons became ubiquitous, and similar types of ornaments became indicative of an individual's particular age grade and social status. For example, although the two aprons (isigege, pl. izigege) in Fig. 5 are made in very different regional styles, they are both made to be worn by young, courting age, and engaged women.

[FIGURE 5 OMITTED]

More recently, regional barriers between some areas have become more permeable and as a result, differences in the styles of beadwork from these areas less pronounced (Fig. 6). As the apartheid-era restrictions on travel have been lifted and more women venture outside of their home areas to seek employment, women have an increasing amount of contact with people from different regions. Especially in cities such as Durban and at national festivals where artists from the surrounding areas come to work and sell their wares, beadwork styles are being exchanged (Yvonne Winters, personal communication, 1997). This is in dramatic contrast to the period under the apartheid system, when women rarely had the opportunity to communicate with people from outside of their local region. In the exceptional event that they married a man from a different area, they were expected to adopt the patrilocal beadwork style wholesale, rather than introducing styles from their native area. But while these exchanges seem to allude to a breakdown in some of the cultural divisions between regions in Zululand, there still remain many regional variations in beadwork that reflect the continuing heterogeneity of the cultural identities of the Zulu-speaking people (Fig. 7).

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Socio-Economic Identity

Since the origin of the kingdom and throughout its regions, Zulu society has been stratified according to wealth, age grade, gender, and martial status. Wealth gives an individual a higher social position, with access to more material goods, a wider choice of marriage partners, and increased access to political power. Social rank is also determined by one's region of origin, age, marital status, and gender. As indicated earlier, those nearer to the Zulu capitol generally enjoy a higher social status than those who are more removed. Across Zululand, married men of senior rank enjoy the most social prestige, followed by younger married men, women (in the order in which they have married their husband), courting age people, and children. So, as individuals age and enter new phases of life, they acquire both greater responsibilities and greater prestige.

Dress has always been an important signifier of these societal divisions and, as beadwork's role was expanded among the Zulu-speaking people, it came to have a place in communicating information about the wearer's socio-economic identity. Because they are imported goods, beads were and continue to be expensive items. Consequently, the quantity of beads worn is indicative of the wealth of the individual. The quantity, types, and combinations of beadwork ornaments worn also came to convey information about an individual's age, gender, and courting or marital status. Before the age of puberty, Zulu children traditionally wore little, if any, clothing. If they wore anything, it was simple tokens of affection such as strings of beads and/or minimal, fringed pubic aprons with simple designs called isigege (Fig. 8). As young men and women reached the age of courting, they began wearing elaborate outfits to advertise their new social status and attract the attention of members of the opposite sex. Young women made and wore aprons also called isigege, consisting of a panel of bead fabric attached to a band made of bead fabric or composed of tubes of grass or cloth covered in beads; beaded hair ornaments; belts consisting of strings of beads, or tubes of grass or cloth covered in strings of beads; anklets formed from bead fabric panels or strings of beads; and wristlets made from bead fabric panels or strings of beads. In addition, they wore a variety of neck ornaments that took the form of tubular structures wrapped with strings of beads, necklaces featuring one or more bead fabric panels in various shapes and sizes, and/or beaded chokers (Fig. 9). Young men did not normally wear beadwork until young women gave it to them, but dressed in animal products and donned metal ornaments, and, more recently, have taken to adorning themselves in brightly colored items of Western-style clothing.

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When a young girl chose the young man she wished to court, she announced her intentions, with the permission of her age-grade leader, by giving the young man a string of white beads (Vilakazi 1962:50; Bryant 1949:535). (20) This string of beads, known as an ucu (pl. ocu), indicated "her heart was full of love" (Vilakazi 1962:50). If the young man accepted this gift, he returned home and hoisted a white flag over his homestead to announce his good news. As one elderly man fondly recalled when remembering the receipt of his ucu, "Ngigjima, gjima," "I danced and danced." (21) While young women were limited to choosing only one young man, young men could be chosen by any number of girls; the more girls a young man could attract, the higher his prestige and that of his family. (22) As young women continued to lavish beadwork on their suitors, the young men became progressively more adorned and more envied.

Once a young man and woman became engaged, the woman began to incorporate items of dress worn by married women to announced the transition of her identity into married life. One of the most significant of these pieces was a band worn around the head, called umnqwazi, (pl. iminqwazi; Fig. 10). This ornament was used to symbolically deflect the woman's direct gaze from her in-laws, as part of the hlonipha (respect) customs (23) she observed toward them. Other items worn by engaged women could include pieces that communicated her fiance's progress with lobola. (24)

[FIGURE 10 OMITTED]

While women continued to wear beadwork after they married, several of the types of objects changed and larger areas of the body were required to remain covered (Fig. 11). The anklets, wristlets, and necklaces worn by married women were often the same types that the women had worn when they were single or engaged, but the small isigege of their courting years was replaced by a larger, beaded, cloth apron (itete, pl. amatete) that was worn over a pleated leather skirt (isidwaba, pl. izidwaba). Married women also continued to wear an umnqwazi around their head as a display of respect toward their in-laws, adorned their hat or hair with beaded pins and, in many areas, wore a beaded cape on special occasions. For the day of her marriage and throughout her pregnancy, the new bride put on a duiker-hide apron, called isibhodiya (pl. izibhodiya) or ingcayi (pl. izingcayi), usually adorned with beads and brass studs, that covered her body from chest to knee. The apron was intended to symbolically provide the woman with a safe and speedy delivery, and was later used to hold the baby on her back. The piece would also have doubtlessly helped convey the new social status that pregnancy brought her. In the early Zulu kingdom only the highest-ranking members of society were allowed to wear brass ornaments. With this in mind, Kennedy (1991:55) has suggested that the use of brass studs on these hide aprons, relating to the older use of brass armlets, conveys high status on the wearer. After the birth of her first child, a woman was allowed to adopt a beaded, incema grass (Juncus maritimus) belt, called ixhama (pl. amaxhama; Fig. 12) as an indication of the still higher rank that the successful birth brought her. The value of such works as emblems of prestige was often increased by the presence, along with the beads, of brass buttons. Thus, as a woman aged and went through the various age grade levels and stages of marriage, her increased social status was clearly indicated by various types of beadwork items.

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Before about the middle of the twentieth century, after a man was married he donned only a limited number of beadwork items on special occasions. But as more men began to leave their home steads for extended periods to work as migrant laborers, women, left in the rural areas without phones or the ability to write, increasingly used beadwork to send messages (Mthethwa 1988:30) and tokens of affection to their absent husbands. Consequently, more elaborate beadwork, such necklaces, wristlets, anklets, aprons, vests, hats, and chest pieces (Fig. 13), came to be associated with the status of a married man.

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The particular generation to which a woman or wife of a man belonged is also indicated by beadwork. In most regions, artists change the color combinations and patterns used on beadwork items, and, to a lesser degree, the types of objects made every ten to twenty years (Fig. 14; Boram-Hays 2000:63). Sometimes these changes are relatively minor--the addition of a new color, for example--and other times there are dramatic shifts in palettes and designs. These changing fashions of color were noted in many of the earliest observations of the Zulu-speaking people. (25) In fact, Zulu artists were notorious for rejecting any beads that did not meet the current fashion, often leaving missionaries, who used beads to barter for essential supplies, with piles of useless beads (Beck 1989:219). Continuing to this day, generational style changes reflect the value of generational borders to the identity of a Zulu-speaking person and the unique importance of each generation to the whole. The only region where these changes do not occur is the Nongoma area. Probably owing to the prestige and history associated with this area, Nongoma artists have retained their distinctive red, black, green, and white color combination and rhomboid-shaped motifs since at least the 1940s.

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The twentieth century also brought with it new factors that influenced the socio-economic identity of an individual and the way this identity was displayed in beadwork. The spread of Western-style education was one of these factors. As female artists gained access to education, letters and words became increasingly popular as design elements in beadwork, and the promotion of education by Zulu leaders made these new motifs important symbols of prestige (Vilakazi 1962:109). Beadwork items that incorporated words and/or letters (Fig. 15) became then, in part, statements about the literacy of the maker and the increased social status that this imparted to the artist or her suitor or husband.

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Twentieth century changes also brought social divisions between those who advocated a traditionalist lifestyle as opposed to those who preferred a more Westernized one. As industrialization and urbanization increased, more women became attracted to urban life. Yet many Zulu men wanted their wives and daughters to remain in the rural areas, away from what they felt to be the corrupting influences of the city. Indeed, many of the men involved in Zulu consciousness activities believed that to preserve traditionalist values and culture it was important to maintain a rural homestead and make sure that women obey the rules of hlonipha (Marks 1989:225-30). This meant that women were encouraged to stay at home and maintain traditionalist forms of dress, including beadwork. For those who wore beadwork on a regular basis, such dress became, therefore, a statement about the traditionalist social orientation of their identity and that of their families (Winters 1988:47).

Religious Identity

After the art of beadworking entered the general population in the late nineteenth century, the religious affiliations of a person also came to be, implicitly and explicitly, shown in the beadwork worn. While Christian missionaries had long been active among the Zulu-speaking people, after the defeat of the kingdom their activities began to have a significant impact by creating further divisions between converts

and the general population. As a condition of their conversion, the Kholwa community (those who had converted to European-based sects of Christianity) renounced many traditionalist Zulu cultural practices including lobola, polygyny, and the wearing of traditionalist-style clothing. As a result, the Kholwa community was often distinguished by its lack of beadwork. (26) Conversely, the wearing of beadwork has generally come to imply that the wearers identify themselves as practitioners of traditional religious beliefs (Winters 1988:47).

In contrast to members of European-based sects of Christianity, followers of independent churches sometimes don traditionalist-style clothing, including beadwork. The most popular and noteworthy of these churches is the Nazareth Baptist Church. Founded in 1911 by the Zulu prophet Isaiah Shembe, the Nazareth Baptist Church abides by Shembe's teachings. Fusing traditionalist Zulu cultural and social values with Christian doctrine, church members follow practices such as being married in Zulu traditionalist-style weddings and upholding Christian and traditional Zulu practices of strict respect for elders as a means of living a righteous life. Among Shembe's prophetic visions was a message to return to traditionalist-style dress. In the 1940s, Isaiah Shembe's son and successor, Johannes Galilee Shembe, encouraged church followers to adhere to this dictate and provided prescriptions for uniforms for each worship activity (Preston-Whyte and Morris 1994:68). Since this time, traditionalist-style dress has become one of the hallmarks of church members. Church followers believe that such dress helps identify them to God as Zulu people and, like other traditionalist-style dress, denotes the age grade and social status of the wearer (Fig. 16). Many of the uniforms feature beadwork done with colors (27) and patterns (28) relating to biblical verses and/or Christian symbols (Preston-Whyte and Morris 1994:66; Mthethwa 1988:37) that help the wearer connect spiritually with God. (29)

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As religious specialists, diviners (isangoma, pl. izangoma) associated with both traditional religious practices and independent churches wear special types of beaded ornaments. Diviners associated with traditionalist religious practices have long worn beads in their hair and strings of beads around their ankles, wrists, and necks; carried beaded flywhisks; sometimes donned horns or bottles containing ritual medicines in beaded neckpieces; and attired themselves in other special items of dress to help them perform their duties (30) and convey their particular place within the religious system. This type of dress can be seen in the photographs of diviners taken a hundred years ago (Fig. 17), as well as on diviners today, and does not seem to vary from region to region. The beadwork of diviners associated with traditionalist religious practices usually consists of white and, sometimes, red beads. As independent churches that combine traditional Zulu and Christian religious beliefs arose, diviners associated with some of these sects began to distinguish themselves by wearing blue and white beads.

[FIGURE 17 OMITTED]

Regardless of the manner in which it is worn, beadwork reveals the vitality of religion as an element of Zulu identity and the variety of religious beliefs, including Christianity, traditionalist beliefs, and various fusions of the two, embraced within this identity.

Discussion

When examining the beadwork of the Zulu-speaking people, it is clear that there is a definite cultural unity to the objects. Indeed, the colors, patterns, and forms used by Zulu-speaking beadwork artists and the combinations of ornaments worn by individuals have become important visible signifiers of the unique variables and borders of identity shared by members of Zulu society. They are commonalities that have been used as a tool both to promote a unified social and political identity among the Zulu-speaking people and to rally resistance to domination by colonial and South African governments. As noted by Barth, "if a person is dependent for his security on the voluntary and spontaneous support of his own community, self-identification as a member of this community needs to be explicitly expressed and confirmed" (1969:36).

Yet within this unified identity there are multiple socio-economic, political, cultural, and religious divisions that are also important to the identity of the individual and speak of the variety of characteristics embraced by Zulu society as a whole. Originally restricted to the king and other high-ranking individuals, beadwork was used to distinguish individuals of the wealthy upper class and to allude to the political influences and kinship ties held by such people. But as beadworking became more widely practiced in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the various styles and combination of elements worn came to concisely communicate complex information about the identities of those who wear these works. Beadwork is used to communicate the location and historical moment in which an individual exists as well as his or her region of origin, generation, gender, age grade, social status, political affiliation, and religious orientation. Moreover, artists have over the years modified beadwork to adapt to new social, political, economic, and religious conditions and have used it to help individuals negotiate their places within these changeable realities.

The beadwork of the Zulu-speaking people is an art form that is both flexible and multifaceted. Embracing many different styles and worn in combinations determined to a certain extent by individual choices and circumstances, beadwork has come to be an important expression of the multiple groups with which the wearer of such works identifies and of the multivocal and dynamic complexity of the society of the Zulu-speaking people as a whole. When seen in totality, the beadwork reveals how the borders of Zulu identity are drawn along with the multiple cultural, socio-economic, religious, and political voices that comprise this identity.

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[This article was accepted for publication in November 2002.]

(1.) The Zulu upper class consisted of the king and his court, military heroes, and highranking local officials, as well as female members of the royal family.

(2.) The glass beads imported to the early Zulu kingdom were probably manufactured primarily in Idar-Oberstein, Germany, and Venice, Italy. In the 1950s the Jablonex Company of Czechoslovakia became the main source.

(3.) The isigodlo consisted of young women who were sent to the king as part of a system of tribute. These young women would stay at the royal kraal for a period, performing duties such as singing and dancing for the entertainment of the royal homestead. When the young women reached their late teens or early twenties, they would be married off and the king would collect lobola. This system not only helped spread the culture of the capitol throughout the kingdom, it also allowed the king to strengthen political alliances through marriage.

(4.) This is especially true for the clans who live south of Durbar and broke away from the kingdom under the reign of King Dingane.

(5.) Some local chiefs even proposed holding their own First Fruits Festivals (Carton 1996:147), events previously the privilege of the king alone.

(6.) This conclusion is based on a survey of museum collections and historical accounts from the period.

(7.) While there are several substantial collections of late nineteenth and early twentieth century beadwork in existence, especially at the Mashu Museum of Ethnology, the Local History Museum in Durban, the Natal Museum in Pietermartizburg, and the KwaZulu Cultural Museum in Ondini, most of the items are vaguely dated and only provenanced to either Natal (meaning the southern part of the Zulu kingdom) or Zululand (referring to the northern part of the kingdom). It is, therefore, difficult to determine, on the basis of these attributions, any exact sequential or regional stylistic variations for this early period.

(8.) The name "Inkatha" is derived from the inkatha yezwe, a sacred coil of grass that was said to contain the bodily dirt (insila) from important people from all regions of the kingdom. The practice was started by King Shaka and kept in the royal house, and symbolized the spiritual and national unity of the Zulu nation. The original inkatha yezwe was destroyed when British forces burned King Cetshwayo's capitol at Ondini in 1879.

(9.) Most of the people who were involved in these movements were individuals who had grown up in Christian homes and had been educated in mission schools. Many of these individuals were people who had sought to become full participants in the colonial society. Yet in spite of all of their efforts, the passage of laws designed to subjugate the black population made it clear that whites were not going to give them equality. For example, there was a series of laws enacted in the late 1950s that reserved some types of jobs for whites, forbade black workers from having authority over whites, and made labor unions have separate black and white branches. Faced with this rejection, these intellectuals turned their attention toward stimulating a new sense of cultural and social pride in the Zulu-speaking community.

(10.) Albert Luthuli's Zulu Cultural Society is an example of such a cultural institution.

(11.) The newspaper Ilanga Lase Natal; Magema Fuze's Abantu Abamnyama-Lapa Baveka Ngakona (1922), which was the first history of the Zulu people written in the Zulu language; and the biographical novel uShaka (1937) by Rolf Dhlomo are all examples of publications which were written by Zulu people that addressed their history and contemporary concerns.

(12.) For instance, H. I. E. Dhlomo wrote historical dramas about King Cetshwayo, King Dingane, and the Sotho leader Moshoeshoe. In addition to the themes of these plays, Dhlomo also drew on traditional styles of dramatic presentation.

   Dhlomo believed that it was essential to dig back into
   the past--into history and into the forms of expression--in
   order to create a full unity, the past in the
   present. "Tribal drama," he wrote, "was national."
   Thus it provides models for the national unity in the
   present. It was "national" because it was on a large
   communal scale. It treated matters that concerned the
   people as a whole. Its patrons were the tribe. Its stage,
   communal lands. Its actors, "the people." The old
   forms, because the ancestors were in touch with the
   origin and name of life, must be incorporated in the
   new forms, the past made present in order that all
   things be unified (Couzens 1985:151).

(13.) Under the apartheid system of government, people in all aspects of life were separated from each other on the basis of a set of racial categories established by the government.

(14.) Shaka's Day is a yearly festival at which King Shaka is remembered and the authority of the Zulu kingship is celebrated.

(15.) The Reed (Umhlanga) Ceremony, after not having been practiced since the kingdom lost its independence, was revived by King Goodwill Zwelithini in 1984. The Reed Ceremony recalls the Zulu story of creation when God (Nkulunkulu) created the world, humankind, and the nations of the world by breaking off a reed. At this ceremony, held in the spring, virginal young women dance with reeds to celebrate this creation. It is a time of yearly renewal for the kingdom and the powers of the king.

(16.) The southern people softened the enunciation of their consonants. According to Taylor, the northerners believed that this difference was the result of the tongues of the southerners lying flat (lala) in their mouths (1994:68). This led the northerners to refer to those in the south as the amalala or lala (ibid.).

(17.) These messages are conveyed by proverbs that are associated with bead colors.

(18.) This symbolic use of color in beadwork is a trait that can be found throughout the beadwork of all regions and almost all periods in Zulu art. Mthethwa claimed that this symbolic use of color dates to "the heyday of the Zulu and earlier kingdoms, [when] important military messages would sometimes be coded in beads or grass mats" (1988:34). Bryant, whose 1949 book details his fieldwork in the late nineteenth century, was one of the first Europeans to note this symbolism when he observed that the colors of beads carried a meaning (1949:158-59). The issue of color symbolism in the Zulu beadwork is explored more extensively in Mayr 1907. In this article, Mayr examined the names and symbolism of bead colors as well as the types of ornaments worn by Zulu people. Although Mayr is the only researcher to have actually written about the issue of color symbolism in beadwork during the period 1890-1920, scholars who collected data in subsequent years have reported a similar system of color symbolism throughout all areas of Zululand. Moreover, the symbolic meaning of the colors reported by Mayr are almost identical to those listed by Princess Magogo Constance Buthelezi in her 1963 translation of a piece of beadwork in the Mashu Museum of Ethnology. Princess Buthelezi, the daughter of King Dinuzulu, was born around the turn of the twentieth century. As such, the symbolism of the beads that she noted was probably learned from her mother and other women of the royal court as she was growing up in the early part of the twentieth century. This shows that the symbolic use of colors and a consistency in their meanings could have been found, at the minimum, in the areas between Durban, where Mayr was working, and Nongoma, where Princess Buthelezi grew up. This region represents most of Zululand, indicating that this system could, most likely, be found throughout the kingdom at least as early as the turn of the twentieth century. Although Mthethwa did not explore the issue of the age of color symbolism in beadwork in depth, he did argue, convincingly, that the symbolism of the colors of Zulu beads is embedded in the Zulu language and thus is consistent throughout the whole of Zululand. Still, it is difficult to know if a particular item was part of this specific system, because these types of works could take any number of forms. In order to determine, with confidence, that an item was used for this purpose, its history must be known.

(19.) Even with knowledge of all of the proverbs associated with bead colors, without an understanding of the relationship between the young woman and man, it is impossible to know with certainty the meaning of a piece of beadwork. This is because colors often can have both a positive and negative meanings, depending on particular circumstances.

(20.) Vilakazi's 1962 observations about white beads and courting are quite similar to those recorded by Bryant in his 1949 account The Zulu People. This strongly suggests that this ritual has changed little over time. Vilakazi's description of this courting practice is more detailed than is Bryant's.

(21.) The unidentified older man related this story to the author during the course of a casual conversation after a formal interview with beadwork artists in Mtubatuba in May of 1997.

(22.) Sometimes a young man would even give his ucu to his grandmother to wear so that she could share in this status (Brindley 1982:89).

(23.) In a traditionalist Zulu home, when a woman first marries into a homestead she is considered to be something of an outsider and is subservient to her husband's family. She is required to behave according to the hlonipha ("respect") customs. Hlonipha rules restrict woman's dress, action, and speech (Krige 1936:30). Those dealing with dress require a woman to cover her body from the armpits downward, cover her shoulders and head, and wear a band of beadwork (umnqwazi) around her hair or hat to shield her eyes. Those dealing with action oblige a woman to keep her eyes downcast in the presence of her in: laws, prevent her from being seen by her In-laws on the fifth day after her wedding (qubuzela) or directly after giving birth, and forbid her from walking in front of her mother-in-law's home, eating in the presence of her in-laws, and chewing food while standing. Those dealing with speech prohibit a woman from using the surname of her in-laws or words in which the sound of the family name appears. Instead, she will use different words for the objects in which the sound of the family name appears. A woman's seniority increases with the length of time she lives at her husband's kraal, as she gives birth to children, and if her husband marries more wives. As her seniority increases, a woman is released from the hlonipha restrictions on action, but must always abide by restrictions on speech.

(24.) When a young man and women get married, the family of the groom gives the family of the bride a number of cattle. This exchange is called lobola. Cattle are given to the bride's family to compensate them for the loss of a productive family member. Further, lobola is done as a spiritual act. Cattle are associated with the ancestors, so the exchange of cattle serves as an act combining the family lineages and consoling the ancestors for the loss of a member of the family. Under this system, when a young man and woman decide to marry, the two families meet and negotiate the number of cattle that will be paid as lobola. The number of cattle exchanged during lobola usually is dependent on, among other factors, the prominence of the woman's family, the tenacity of her father's haggling, and the wealth of the man's family. More recently, some families have started to pay lobola with money. Nonetheless, other families want lobola to be paid in cattle, because money may soon be spent, but cattle will continue to reproduce.

(25.) These early observations include the 1855 diary of Catherine Barter and the writings of A. T. Bryant.

(26.) By 1997, some people who were members of European-based Christian sects would wear beadwork at national festivals or other such events as political and social statements.

(27.) For example, in the beadwork of the followers of the Nazareth Baptist Church the pink beads refer to Matthew 5:3, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven," and the yellow beads signify "heaven as a house must appear in yellow, but being a house of God it appears as a yellow cross" (Mthethwa 1988:37).

(28.) Crosses and fish are examples of Christian symbols that are frequently embedded in the beadwork patterns by members of the Nazareth Baptist Church.

(31.) The act of making beadwork is also considered an act of worship among the people of the Nazareth sect (Morris and Preston-Whyte 1994:67). Isaiah Shembe emphasized the religious value of hard work. Following this tradition, the current leader of the church, Amos Shembe, encourages women to make works of art using traditional techniques for their own use and to sell to others (Morris and Preston-Whyte 1994:67) as part of their devotional activities.

(32.) For more detailed information about color symbolism in the beadwork of Zulu diviners see Boram-Hays 2000, especially pp. 173-76, 339.