The Ndzundza Ndebele: indenture and the making of ethnic identity (original) (raw)
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The perspectives of African informants and researchers profoundly shaped the writings of government ethnologist Dr. Nicholas Jacobus van Warmelo who not only collected information from local African informants but also relied on African researchers who wrote manuscripts in the vernacular that would constitute part of his archive. This study explores the process of producing knowledge on the ‘Transvaal Ndebele’, and provides an analysis of Van Warmelo’s texts and of his researchers’ manuscripts. By looking at the role of local interlocutors, I make a case for African agency in shaping the ‘colonial ’ expert’s conceptions of Ndebele identity. This article provides an account of the co-production of cultural knowledge. Van Warmelo was employed by the South African Native Affairs Department to identify and fix ‘tribes ’, a highly political enterprise, and in the process generated an archive. His work was as much appropriated by the apartheid state for social engineering as by Ndebele interlocutors involved in contemporary struggles over chieftainship.
A question of ethnicity: Ndzundza Ndebele in a Lebowa village
Journal of Southern African Studies, 1990
The insights of such authors such as Mitchell, Barth and Cohen can be usefully applied to understanding the occurrence of ethnicity in small-scale communities within the context of the South African system of ethnic homelands. In this paper, deep-seated divisions between Pedi and Ndebele in a village in the Pedi Homeland of Lebowa are examined. While it is undoubtedly true that these can be understood only in the light of the constraints in resources and political power imposed from above through state policy, account must also be taken of local-level processes. Recent historical events, and the contemporary setting, have led the people concerned-particularly the Ndebele-to constitute themselves as ethnic groups in order to try to secure their hold over crucial economic and political resources. Ndebele sections, but it extended into, and was maintained by, many other aspects of life beyond the purely geographical. Endogamy, for example, served to maintain group boundaries, and esoteric ritual, particularly that associated with initiation, also
Material culture in Southern Ndebele identity making in post-apartheid South Africa
Anthropology Southern Africa, 2020
This paper examines the degree to which belonging to "Southern Ndebele"' identity is expressed through material culture, such as beadwork, wall paintings, architecture and distinctive ways of dressing. Seeing material culture as a signifier and proclamation of Ndebele identity has attracted media attention and generated valuable insight about the expression of belonging to Ndebele identity in South Africa. However, drawing inferences about identity from material culture can obscure details and nuances about identity and belonging and the complex manner in which they relate to material culture. This article argues that the inherently complex and unstable nature of ethnic identities has to be considered when analysing and detecting shifts in material culture and its use as an identity marker in Ndebele communities. Drawing on the long history of association between Ndebele identity and material culture, this paper exposes the dynamics, complexities and nuances about identity and belonging to push beyond narrow interpretations of material culture as markers and expression of Ndebeleness. Based on ethnographic research conducted in the KwaMhlanga region, the paper explores the material production of Ndebeleness within the context of crafting a South African nation in order to illuminate the complexities of formulations of meaning and belonging. Este artigo examina o grau em que o pertencimento à identidade "ndebele do sul" é expresso por meio da cultura material, como o trabalho feito com miçangas, a pintura de paredes, a arquitetura e as distintas maneiras de se vestir. Ver a cultura material como um significante e uma proclamação da identidade ndebele tem atraído a atenção da mídia e gerado um insight valioso sobre a expressão do pertencimento à identidade ndebele na África do Sul. No entanto, fazer inferências sobre identidade a partir da cultura material pode obscurecer detalhes e nuances sobre identidade e pertencimento e o modo complexo como se relacionam com a cultura material. Este artigo argumenta que a natureza inerentemente complexa e instável das identidades étnicas deve ser considerada ao analisar e detectar mudanças na cultura material e seu uso como um marcador de identidade nas comunidades ndebele. Partindo da longa história de associação entre a identidade ndebele e a cultura material, este artigo expõe as dinâmicas, as complexidades e as nuances sobre identidade e pertencimento para ir além das interpretações estreitas da cultura material como marcador e expressão da ndebelidade. Com base em uma pesquisa etnográfica conduzida na região de KwaMhlanga, o artigo explora a produção material da ndebelidade no contexto da criação de uma nação sul-africana, a fim de iluminar as complexidades das formulações de significado e pertença.
African Studies Review, 2014
This study examines the historical development of hostility between the Shona-speaking inhabitants of Buhera district in south-central Zimbabwe and Ndebele speakers who settled in the area after being forcibly removed from various parts of Matabeleland and Midlands provinces between the 1920s and 1950s. It shows how competition for productive farmlands, which became visible beginning in the 1940s, produced and sustained the Ndebele-Shona hostility in Buhera. While other scholars view this hostility primarily from an ethnic perspective, this article argues that ethnicity was just one of many factors that shaped relations between these people.
Baessler-Archiv Band 65, 2018
This article introduces key examples of Ndebele beadwork from the study collection of Berlin’s Ethnologisches Museum. The Ndebele of South Africa are a minority ethnic group that has attracted international recognition for its vibrant mural art, the exclusive domain of women artists. The Ndebele live predominantly in rural villages that were functionalized as tourist attractions during apartheid, catering beadwork arts to a souvenir market. This article traces the connections between Ndebele beadwork, ceremonial dress, dolls and murals as objects of a material culture unfolding on the backdrop of a problematic history.