Sacred Ground
Shifting the Zulu Ancestral Home
![The Duality of Home. Dube, A. Unit 14. 2021.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d6b51ca60af8ca5b5d022a9e2c0b62038ec753809c1dd6968044154d14395a50/U14_M1_Dube--A_2021_Image-1-min.jpg)
The Duality of Home. Dube, A. Unit 14. 2021.
Asanda Dube
BArch Hons 2021Supervisors:
Unit Leader: Thireshen Govender
Unit Leader: Jiaxin Gong
Unit Tutor: Sarah Harding
UNIT 14︎︎︎
Rogue Economies - Trade Roots: HOME
"The land provides them with the roots of existence, as well as binding them mystically to their departed. People walk on the graves of their forefathers, and it is feared that anything separating them from these ties will bring disaster to family and community life."
-John S. Mbiti (1969)
-John S. Mbiti (1969)
My Major Design Project entitled 'Sacred Ground: Shifting the Zulu Ancestral Home', looks at whether the Zulu ancestral home could exist outside of the Zulu family's homestead and the possibilities to locate the ancestral ground within an urban site such as Johannesburg. The intentions to untether the ancestral home from the homestead is to engage with the challenges that come with the need to return home should the need arise. This often in times of major life changes or events such as birth, coming of age, marriage and death and other times when guidance is needed from the ancestors. Given the conditions of a globalising world and the ease at which we move and travel long distances due to personal, professional, political and economic demands, it proves challenging to return home to present oneself before the ancestors in times of need.
The traditional practices of the Zulu people are confined to rural areas as they are where many Zulu homesteads were established. As a result, Zulu people have had to alter and compromise when performing these traditional ceremonies within these sites so as to not offend or cause tension with other cultures through the practices and rituals which may be seen as offensive. However, this project does not seek to compromise as a means to appease all of the other cultures in its surrounding, instead it seeks to propose an ancestral ground within the urban context that draws from the values of the Zulu ancestors, while allowing other cultures to engage should they wish.
![Ancestral Blessings. Dube, A. Unit 14. 2021.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7c3a7631492c04cbdab85377d4d3a8d936352cd2cc2a481a6109a5f754bd4e0b/U14_M1_Dube--A_2021_Image-3.jpg)
![Alternate Ground. Dube, A. Unit 14. 2021.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b10da1bb14334e86335eef60d1e5be58ea49a754f2b21bfd9b466993e4906b50/U14_M1_Dube--A_2021_Image-5-min.jpg)
![My Ancestors, My Guides. Dube, A. Unit 14. 2021.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/51f14b32efb06e437a58d1d317adcc334538927a66a5c09f757ad634412dc824/U14_M1_Dube--A_2021_Image-7-min.jpg)
Keywords:
Home, Ancestral, Tradition, Sacred
Home, Ancestral, Tradition, Sacred
Copyright © 2022 Graduate School of Architecture, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. All Rights Reserved.