Aspirations of the Zulu Home

Tracing Cultural Ideologies that Define the Zulu Home in Contemporary Africa

Mvelo Manyathela

BArch Hons 2021

Supervisors:
Unit Leader: Thireshen Govender
Unit Leader: Jiaxin Gong
Unit Tutor: Sarah Harding

UNIT 14^︎︎︎
Rogue Economies - Trade Roots: HOME

It is often we find migration into metropolitan contemporary environments warrants a change in the spatial, cultural and political workings from the traditional workings which one migrates from. As described by French philosopher, Paul Ricoeur, in his book titled, History and Truth, contemporary environments, like cities, which often practice universalised ideas (either spatial, cultural or political) often bring upon a subtle destruction of traditional cultures.  

I have sought to understand the spatial, cultural and political differences between these two environments and the emerging tensions through a Zulu male, who is seen as the custodian of his culture and traditions, seeking to establish the identities of the Zulu home, which encompasses a set of values, rituals, roles and specific spatial characteristics, within the setting of the contemporary city of Johannesburg.

This establishment and the understanding of it, is worked through use of traditional Zulu proverbs which reveal a set of values and aspirational themes that begin to frame the identities home. This use of the Zulu proverbs aims to reconcile the tensions that emerge between the Zulu home and its establishment in contemporary Johannesburg.  

The proverbs are tested within spaces like Madala Hostel which acts as part of an arrival space to many young Zulu migrants with the aim to understand the relationships held between proverbs, practices, architectures and further speculate the values and identities that emerge, from the contemporary setting, informing the relationship between new, adapted and reworked practices, architectures, and proverbs.

Keywords:
Proverb, Culture, Tradition, Migratory

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