Zulu Folk Tales

by Jerry O’Brien from Insider

Once upon a time ...

South African storytellers of old would say that the tales they shared with their listeners were not of their own creation. Instead, the stories came to them on the wind, they said, from a place somewhere behind a mountain, overtaking them as they rested by the side of the road during a long journey. More than mere modesty, this myth of the origin of storytelling itself ascribes to a force beyond humankind: the human impulse to tell stories, to share wisdom, to continue a legacy—ultimately, to prove that we are here. Stories arrive from elsewhere, as a gift—but a gift that arrives to one who is willing and prepared to receive.

This sense of connectedness, of rootedness, is at the heart of Zulu folk tales. And this quality ties to their anonymity. The concept of individual ownership of a story is alien among the Zulu, who believe that attribution belongs to a collective genius. For centuries, the Zulu storyteller—usually a grandmother or an older aunt—would meet her audience personally, gathering with all the members of the homestead. One of the great advantages of the oral tradition, in any society, is its flexibility. The teller adds her own sense of drama, of atmosphere, of style with each retelling, making every event unique.

It takes a village to raise a tall tale

In some South African tribes, cultural anthropologists have found that the teller is assisted by as many as six tribe members, who might add sound effects (birdcalls, the sound of the rushing wind) or actually perform dialogue, making the telling quite similar to our radio dramas of old and to the contemporary radio program A Prairie Home Companion. The men, women, and children in the audience are permitted to participate, too, and even allowed to interrupt the story narrative with questions, giving the teller the opportunity to insert digressions. Some of these insertions to the main story would be very familiar to the audience and would prompt great feelings of anticipation and satisfaction. Remember when Johnny Carson, in his Tonight Show monologues, would say it was really cold? The studio audience and those of us watching at home were ready to shout, “How cold was it?” We’d expect a funny line to follow (“It was so cold that ...”), and it would. The narrative principle is exactly the same.

Zulus speak one of the southern Bantu languages, and common among this language group is the understanding that iintsomi—fictitious tales like those about mythological figures—cannot be told during the daytime. The day is the time for food-gathering and other essential work activities. To tell these stories during the day would jeopardize the welfare of the group. In fact, Zulus believed that anyone who violated this prohibition would grow horns.

An ambitious mission to preserve oral traditions

The gradual European conquest and eventual colonization of southern Africa had dramatic effects on all aspects of native life. The Zulu felt these changes with particular harshness in the wake of the British battle victories of 1879, which destroyed the Zulu state, led to the confiscation of their land, and in time shackled them with apartheid. With the loss of land, family members migrated to cities to find work, which in turn deprived storytellers of their audiences. Centuries of oral tradition were jeopardized with extinction.

It was in this setting that a new generation of storytellers emerged—academically trained writers who collected the old tales, scouring the former Zulu lands for storytellers and recording their stories before they disappeared. Notable among these is A.C. Jordan, who was born in Mbokothwana Mission in 1908. Jordan was inspired to rediscover his own South African storytelling heritage after lecturing on classical Greek mythology. His 1973 book, Tales from South Africa, is an invaluable collection.

Common themes of Zulu folktales

Zulu folk tales display nature as an active force, regenerative, vindictive, or ennobling, depending on the behavior of the protagonist. In many of the tales—as in the European folk tales of the Brothers Grimm and the Scandinavian fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen—a youth of humble origin seeks the hand of a beautiful princess and must pass through a series of difficult tests before winning the approval of the king and the love of the princess. In other tales, devious servants put on the clothes of the royal family and temporarily become great, before ultimately being punished and sent back to their proper social status.

In “The House in the Middle of the Road”—retold by Verna Aardema in Behind the Back of the Mountain: Black Folktales from Southern Africa—a widow named Unanana leaves her two small children with a young girl named Nontando while she goes out to hunt for wild potatoes. Unanana shares with the girl a magic saying—“These are the children of Unanana. They are protected by her magic power.”—that will protect them from attacking animals. In turn, a baboon, a leopard, and a lion come by and are sent back by the magic saying. As one part goes:

Unanana was no sooner out of sight than a baboon came along. He said, “Whose fat children are those?”

“They belong to Unanana,” said Nontando. “They are protected by her magic power.”

“They are beautiful,” said the baboon. “If they were not Unanana’s I would carry them off.”

An elephant with one tusk arrives and, immune to the magic saying, gobbles up the children as Nontando climbs up a tree for safety. When Unanana returns with her potatoes, she hears what has happened, so she sets out with a knife and a bowl of amasi (similar to cottage cheese) to recover her children. As she hunts the one-tusked elephant, the baboon, leopard, and lion help her. She finally finds the elephant, who gobbles her up whole:

When Unanana reached the stomach of the beast, she found trees, plants, people, dogs, and goats that had been swallowed. And sitting under a bush, all huddled together, were her own children. She fed them the amasi, for they were very hungry.

Then Unanana took her knife and cut a great slit between the rib bones of the elephant. The beast fell dead, and people and dogs and goats rushed out of the opening.

In honor of her bravery, the people whom Unanana saved “kept bringing gifts to the house in the middle of the road. So Unanana and her children became very rich.”

We can only imagine the different voices the storyteller would use for the characters, her sense of drama, her playfulness, her rich descriptions and expressive body language. How wonderful it must have been for Zulu children to experience collective storytelling—how tragic that their living heritage was torn from them. Fortunately, thanks to the lifelong work of A.C. Jordan and many others, we have a link with an ever-receding past.

Once upon a time ...

Highlights of South Africa’s National Parks

by Bob Hammerling

South Africa is home to some of the world’s most exciting wilderness and wildlife, and the nation is extremely dedicated to keeping it safe, with more than 20 national parks covering approximately 4% of the country’s landmass. We’ve chosen a handful of essential national parks and game reserves for you to experience: Read on to learn more about what makes some of them so unique.

Kruger National Park

South Africa’s first and finest

First set aside as protected land in 1898, Kruger is South Africa’s oldest national park, and still its most notable.

Covering an area of more than 7,500 square miles, Kruger National Park is the size of a small country, and provides an unparalleled introduction to South Africa’s wildlife. Within its borders, you’ll find six unique ecosystems, which are home to a staggering amount of life, including 336 species of tree, 147 mammals (more than any other park in Africa), and 507 species of bird.

A birdwatcher’s paradise

Kruger National Park is home to more than half of the recorded species in all of South Africa, including the “Big Six” (an appellation invented for famous birds found in Kruger National Park alone): the kori bustard, martial eagle, lappet-faced vulture, pel’s fishing owl, saddle-billed stork, and southern ground hornbill.

There’s no such thing as a bad time of year for birdwatching in Kruger, but, the ideal time for a birder to visit is between November and April, when approximately 200 species of migratory birds from Europe, Asia, and North Africa make the game reserve their winter home.

Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve

Located in the heart of Zulu territory, these wildlife-rich lands were originally protected by King Shaka as the royal hunting grounds for himself and his warriors. Today, the land is set aside for an opposite purpose: The conservation of some of Africa’s most precious species.

The last refuge of the Wild Dog

The African Wild Dog was hunted nearly to extinction by farmers who considered them a nuisance—only a little more than 400 of them survive today in South Africa. Spotting a pack of Wild Dogs is one the rarest safari experiences you can enjoy—and Hluhluhwe-Umfolozi is one of the best places to find them, owing to the efforts of dedicated park researchers who observe and do their best to propagate the species. Keep your eye out for packs of these highly social predators as you travel, and don’t miss the chance to observe their surprisingly intelligent behavior.

Saving the white rhino from extinction

If you spot a white rhinoceros during your travels in South Africa, be sure to take a moment and thank the conservations of Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve.

In the late 19th century, only 20 white rhinos remained in the world—all of them located in the boundaries of what would soon be protected as Hluhluwe-Umfolozi. After a few decades of dedicated conservation efforts, the species had replenished and it was time to commence “Operation Rhino:” an ambitious effort to translocate the mighty animal—with the use of helicopters, strong trucks and even stronger tranquilizers—to other parks throughout South Africa and neighboring countries. To date, more than 20,000 white rhinos live in the world today.

Entabeni Game Reserve

The Big Five in a small package

Entabeni is a private game reserve, covering a comparatively small 85 square mile area. On our Big Five Bush Safari pre-trip extension, you’ll embark on six separate game viewing drives over a period of three days, showing off the park’s five distinct ecosystems at different times of day to give you the complete safari experience.

This gives you plenty of chances to spot the Big Five—cape buffalo, elephant, lion, rhino, and leopard—as well as hundreds of other species.

Fall asleep to the sounds of the bush

You’ll be staying in a comfortable thatched-roof tented chalet located directly on the grounds of the game reserve, allowing you to make rare finds on early-morning expeditions—perhaps you’ll glimpse nocturnal predators at work—and to stare up into the unpolluted starry sky at night. You might even have the chance to spot animals from the comfort of your lodge.

• South Africa & Eswatini: Kruger National Park, the Garden Route & Cape Town