Life & Style News Letter

From the Editor

I had an interesting evening in Ballito with a group of British tourists last week. They had all come to South Africa to walk in the footsteps of their long gone countrymen who crossed great swathes of Natal and Zululand on foot in 1879 to fight the Zulus. Many of these soldiers died in Zululand to be buried beneath piles of whitewashed stones, a long, long way from home. It was a war that would have enormous consequence - a modern British army would be smashed by "a bunch of howling savages armed with sticks..." as the Zulus were referred to in the initial stages of this campaign. More British officers were killed at Isandlwana than at Waterloo and over a thousand British soldiers lie there still.

The great Zulu victory at Isandlwana had its counterpoint at Rorke's Drift where a small band of British soldiers, many of them sick or injured hospital patients,  successfully defended their post against "an unstoppable Zulu army..." gathering no fewer than eleven VCs for valour in the process. This was more than would ever be won again in a single action in history which I suppose contributes to the continued interest in the Zulu War. 

And then there was the story of two British officers who lost their lives saving the colour of their regiment from falling into the hands of their enemy. Lieutenants Melvill and Coghill would be the first to receive the VC posthumously through an edict of King Edward V11 which adds to the tale.

Every year, thousands of mainly British tourists come to South Africa to visit the places where these events took place. The group we joined for dinner last week was here to do just that.

Leading the tour was my old mate, author Ian Knight, who I last chatted to at the Deepcut Barracks in Surrey last year where we were both presented with the inaugural Buthelezi medal for having contributed a little to the general understanding of this conflict. It seems that interest in the Zulu War remains strong despite current financial turmoil, because the Holt's Battlefield Tour this year is one of the biggest yet and they were all dashing off to Zululand to catch a glimpse of real Zulu culture and tradition.

They could have stayed here and saved themselves the trouble because this weekend, Zulu culture and tradition came to Ballito.

Much to the bewilderment of many curious onlookers, a gathering of Sangomas arrived on the beachfront to perform a transcendental ceremony led by a man called Mathebula with a pretty white goat in tow. Well, it was originally white as prescribed by tradition for effective communication with the ancestors, but Mathebula had enhanced its beauty by adding a little colour of his own. The goat was now bright pink with the letters ND emblazoned in dark blue lettering on its flanks. This was no doubt to ensure that the ancestors would be able to identify it more easily. Oblivious to its impending fate, the goat nibbled contentedly at the grassy embankment while a cooking fire blazed away in the nearest concrete dustbin.

Mathebula and his colleagues had come down from rural Maphumulo, a relatively short bus ride, but theirs is an entirely different world. There they sat in their quiet dignity, clad in the symbolic attire of a bygone age, an incongruous reminder in the midst of wealthy Ballito of the words of a man called Jesus.

 "In my Father's house, there are many rooms..." South Africa is indeed a house with many rooms.

Welcome to this week's edition read by tourists, sangomas and other interesting people in the Republic of Life & Style.