Circles of Power and Influence
Neck rings in Zulu culture
Welcome to the second of this year’s MA Quarterly Essay series, and Part 3 of an investigation into the symbolism of neck rings in African ornamental culture.
In Part 1, we examined the occurrence of neck rings in different African cultures. Read Part 1 here.
In Part 2, we used proverbs and poetry to explore African beliefs about the symbolism and aesthetic appeal of the neck with the attendant connotations of power, vulnerability and beauty. Read Part 2 here.
In this essay, we will focus on the the Zulu of South Africa to examine the cultural significance of neck rings their traditional culture. The discussion starts with a brief history the Zulu, reviews some aspects of the chaine operatoire1 for neck ring production in past Zulu society, and ends with an analysis of the relationships and transactions they mediated.
The Zulu: A Short History
In the 17th to 18th centuries, the Zulu kingdom replaced the Mthethwa paramountcy as the dominant nation in southern Africa. The Zulu started as a small clan founded by Zulu kaMalandela, a Mthethwa king who ruled between 1627 and 1709. The kingdom grew under successive kings, all of whom were descendants of Zulu, and finally achieved its fullest expansion with the military exploits and political savvy of Sigidi kaSenzagakhona – or Shaka Zulu as he was better known. Shaka Zulu rose to power in the context of the Mfecane, a period of political upheaval aggravated by drought, overpopulation, slave raids and the conflicting interests of powerful leaders which led to a series of wars between the three Nguni kingdoms: the Mthethwa, the Ndwandwe and the Ngwane. Shaka wrested control of the Zulu clan from his half-brother, Sigujana with the help of another half-brother Dingiswayo. In 1818, however, Dingiswayo was killed by Zwide, a chief of the Ndwandwe. This created a power vacuum which Shaka filled after defeating Zwide.
Shaka was a brilliant military strategist. He further expanded the reach and power of the Zulu kingdom using innovative battle tactics, new weapons, and radical changes to the social structure of the Zulu people. Most notably, he replaced the long throwing spear with the legendary short stabbing iklwa, introduced the use of the bullhorn battle formation which enabled his regiments to surround and utterly defeat their enemies, and further expanded the age-based male military service regiments instituted by Dingiswayo to include female age-based regiments. He also consolidated power by implementing a hierarchy of civil and political officials subordinate to the king. Having established the Zulu kingdom as the most powerful entity in the region, Shaka continued with military campaigns, systematically conquering and incorporating neighbouring chiefdoms into his kingdom. To build a cohesive national identity, he required his new subjects to speak the Zulu language.
The tension and instability resulting from sustained military conquests and Shaka’s own personal conflicts eventually led to his assassination in 1828 and the creation of new states like the Ndebele, the Swazi and the Sotho. The Zulu kingdom persisted after Shaka’s death under Dingane (1828-1840), Mpande (1840-1872), and Cetshwayo (1872-1884) during whose reign the Zulu were defeated by the British. The kingdom was colonized by Britain in 1884.
Neck Rings Among the Zulu
Zulu kings wielded enormous power, controlling all the kingdom’s human and natural resources. Great care was taken to display the wealth and power of the king and the elite so naturally, costumes and ornamentation played a key role. As in other parts of the continent, copper, brass, bronze, gold, iron, ivory, coral, clay, leather, feathers, plant fibers, and other materials feature prominently in Zulu ornamental art. The skin of animals such as the blue monkey (Cercapithecus sp.) was reserved for use only by the king and men of rank. The king controlled who had access to the feathers of special birds like the ostrich, the blue crane, and the long-tailed black finch. Copper was not mined in Zululand but was imported by Thonga-speaking peoples living in the vicinity of Maputo Bay north of Zululand (present day Mozambique). It was brought either in its pure form or as brass blocks or rings and exchanged for ivory tusks, iron, tobacco, and other goods. Copper, brass and tin were mostly used to make neck, arm and leg rings which were highly valued among the Zulu and other Nguni peoples in southern Africa.
Even though neck ring use has been recorded among most southern African peoples, their highest incidence seems to be among the Zulu. It is worth noting that before Shaka’s time, large rings and collars made from copper and brass were used both as jewellery and as currency among the Zulu elite. During Shaka’s reign, and likely as part of his efforts to create a recognizable hierarchy of civil and political officials, Zulu brass workers began melting and reworking the materials into neck and arm rings which were worn by the Zulu elite. The Zulu have two kinds of brass neck rings: the ubedu2, a band or flat ring of solid brass worn by chiefs, and the umnaka which consisted of up to four round brass rings worn in stacks by high-ranking men, the king’s wives, and senior women. Some women wore iminaka (plural for umnaka) stacked so high, it prevented them from turning their heads without turning their bodies.
The brass workers, due to their affiliation with powerful kings, enjoyed high status in Zulu society as evidenced by the fact that they worked at the royal homestead unlike blacksmiths who worked secretly in remote wooded areas. The brass was melted in a hearth dug in the soil and fed by two bag-bellows pumping air into the embers through eland’s horns. The neck rings were cast in cow-dung channels and worked into shape by hammering and abrasion.
Circles of Power and Influence
Neck rings were gifted by the king either directly or, in the case of soldiers, through his induna i.e., military captains who were always given a supply of brass armlets and collars to award to those they considered deserving of the distinction. Sometimes, whole regiments wore neck rings. It is reported that the Isiphezi, the first regiment of fighting men formed by Shaka, and the Izimpohlo, a regiment formed around 1816 and made up of men born between 1785 and 1795 all wore neck rings. Neck rings could only be removed with the king’s permission and so posed a constant threat of injury by chafing and burning, or suffocation, even reportedly causing the death of one of Shaka’s wives. Recipients of these rings kept fat and hide handy to lubricate skin or pad the area between skin and metal to reduce chafing.
Thus, neck rings among the Zulu were a symbol of power, wealth, and prestige since their possession indicated royal favor and endowed the wearer with high social status. They also introduced an element of vulnerability since they came with significant threat of injury or death if not from complications imposed by their abrasive presence, then from the fall from honor that their retraction would signify.
While the still Zulu maintain many aspects of their traditional dress, and neck rings still feature prominently in traditional ceremonial garb, they are nolonger as prominent owing perhaps to weakened traditional leadership, and the associated health risks. It is hard to imagine anyone willingly subjecting themselves to injuries as occurred among Zulu nobles under Shaka’s rule for the prestige alone.
References
Afolayan, Funso. Culture and customs of South Africa. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2004.
Allen, Calvin R. "Shaka Zulu’s Linkage of Strategy and Tactics: An Early Form of Operational Art?." MA diss., US Army Command and General Staff College (2014).
Chanaiwa, David Shingirai. "The Zulu revolution: state formation in a pastoralist society." African Studies Review 23.3 (1980): 1-20.
Eldredge, Elizabeth A. "Sources of conflict in southern Africa, c. 1800–30: The ‘Mfecane’reconsidered." The Journal of African History 33.1 (1992): 1-35.
Falola, Toyin. Key events in African history: A reference guide. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002.
Gump, James. "Origins of the Zulu kingdom." The Historian 50.4 (1988): 521-534.
Hickel, Jason. “Death in an Age of Wild Ghosts.” Democracy as Death: The Moral Order of Anti-Liberal Politics in South Africa, 1st ed., University of California Press, 2015, pp. 146–74. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt13x1h4b.12. Accessed 26 May 2024.
Kennedy, Carolee G. "Prestige ornaments: the use of brass in the Zulu kingdom." African arts (1991): 50-96.
Maggs, Tim* & Miller, Duncan. "Sandstone crucibles from Mhlopeni, KwaZulu-Natal: evidence of precolonial brassworking." Southern African Humanities 7.12 (1995): 1-16.
Mayr, Franz. "The Zulu Kafirs of Natal. V. Clothing and Ornaments (continued)." Anthropos 2.4 (1907): 633-645.
Miller, Duncan. "Indigenous metal melting and casting in Southern Africa." South African Archaeological Bulletin 65.191 (2010): 45-57.
Walker, Ellen Jeanine. "Iron age decorative metalwork in southern Africa: an archival study." (2016).
A Chaîne operatoire (operational sequence) describes the different stages of tool production from the acquisition of raw material to the final abandonment of the desired and/or used objects.
Among young Zulu men, wining the Ubedu (a delicacy made from cow hearts and lungs) during age-grade fights is still considered a mark of honor. The winner is respected as the one who “eats the Ubedu”. See Jason Hickel’s “Death in an Age of Wild Ghosts. Democracy as Death: The Moral Order of Anti-Liberal Politics in South Africa” for more.
Good research. 👏