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Natural History

The Abundant Herds: A celebration of the Nguni cattle of the Zulu people

With oil and watercolour paintings, and sepia drawings by internationally acclaimed artist, Leigh Voigt, it examines the vital role played by cattle and cattle-related imagery in the oral tradition of the Zulu people - how cattle terminology forms part of the total way in which the Zulu think about their world. Throughout the ages, the well-being of the herds and the well-being of men have been so closely connected that cattle have become a part of the spiritual and aesthetic lives of the people. This perception of them has given rise to a poetic and complex naming practice. The fine and subtle nuance of the Zulu language captures the delicate interrelationship between cattle terminology and the natural world where the colour and pattern of a hide or the shape of a pair of horns, is metaphorically linked to images in nature: 'The eggs of the lark' is a creamy beast spotted with fine rust speckles; a deeply dappled animal, 'the gaps between the branches of the trees silhouetted against the sky'; a dark beast which shows a flash of white beneath its flank when its walks, 'the hornbill takes to flight'; and, the upright points of a young steer's horns, 'what stabs the rain' - a traditional but also dynamically inventive variety of terms which descriptively bind colour-pattern or horn-shape to the names of animals, birds, plants and the everyday objects familiar to pastoralists.

While these terms form the core of a fascinating system of classification, cattle imagery also abounds in Zulu oral history and poetry; in tales, proverbs, riddles and the 'praises' of individual beasts, celebrated by their owners for their fertility, their vigour and their character and which subtly reflect the changing fortunes and social concerns of the Zulu people.

Although cattle terms continue to be used today among peasant farmers in rural communities throughout Africa, for the younger generation, the urban dweller, this knowledge is fast fading. Despite the resurgence of interest in the economic importance of Sanga-Nguni cattle in South Africa today, there is a real danger that a precious branch of indigenous knowledge will ultimately disappear. The aim of this work is not only to record something of this heritage for posterity but also to celebrate the richness of Zulu linguistic versatility and the creative imagination of the Zulu people.

THE CONTENTS:

Preface: Marguerite Poland

Introduction: David Hammond-Tooke

Chapter 1: Cattle in Zulu Life – David Hammond-Tooke
An overview of the history of Sang-Nguni cattle and their economic, social, political and spiritual importance to the Zulu people, both past and present.

Chapter 2: The Poetry of Naming: Marguerite Poland
A discussion of colour-pattern terminology, its provenance and its metaphorical associations with various natural phenomena such as birds, animals and plants. This chapter also includes a discussion of the metaphorical terms used to refer to the shapes of horns.

Chapter 3: Cattle in the Oral Tradition: Marguerite Poland
An examination of the role of cattle and cattle-related imagery in the oral tradition of the Zulu people, including examples of the izibongo or praises of cattle. Veld-lore connected with cattle and with animal husbandry is explored and described.

Postscript: The Status of Sanga-Nguni in South Africa today: Marguerite Poland

Appendices:

Appendix I:
Classification of terms according to colour and colour-combination.

Appendix II:
Classification of term with regard to metaphorical content.

Appendix III:
Terms indicating gender or status.

Appendix IV:
Terms for horn-shapes.

Appendix V:
Xhosa terms.

THE AUTHORS:

Dr Marguerite Poland grew up in the Eastern Cape and attended Rhodes University, the University of Stellenbosch and the University of Natal. A distinguished writer, she published ten children's books before turning her attention to adult fiction. She has published four novels Train to Doringbult (1987), Shades (1993), Iron Love (1999) and Recessional for Grace (2003). She has also received the Percy Fitzpatrick Award (1979 and 1983) and the Sankei Honourable Award for Children's Books for the Japanese translation of The Mantis and the Moon (1984). In May 2005, at the Literary awards, she was presented with a Lifetime Achievers Award in English, by the South Africa Minister of Arts and Culture. The Abundant Herds is based on the research she conducted for her doctoral thesis (Department of Zulu, University of Natal 1997).

The late Professor David Hammond-Tooke was Professor Emeritus of Social Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand. He conducted extensive research among South African groups, especially the South Nguni and North Sotho, and his theoretical interests included kinship, local government, religion, folklore, indigenous symbolic systems, historiography and comparative ethnography. He authored numerous books, including The Bantu-Speaking Peoples of Southern Africa (editor) (1974), Boundaries and Belief: The Structure of a Sotho Worldview (1981), The Roots of Black South Africa (1993), and Imperfect Interpreters: South Africa's Anthropologists 1920-1990 (1997). He published widely in international journals and was for many years the editor of African Studies. He occupied chairs of Social Anthropology at Rhodes University and the University of the Witwatersrand.

THE ILLUSTRATOR:

Ms Leigh Voigt is an internationally acclaimed artist, known particularly for her paintings of birds and wildlife. She has illustrated eight books and has exhibited in South Africa, Europe, Great Britain, Canada and the USA, where her work is represented in numerous private and public collections. Lulu Phezulu: Leigh Voigt's African Album, her autobiographical account of life in the bushveld, which she both wrote and illustrated, won the prestigious BookData Booksellers' Award in 2000.

SPECIFICATIONS:
144 pages, hardcover with dustjacket, 275 x 280 mm (landscape), 43 oil paintings, 107 watercolours, 6 sepia drawings, 8 archival lithographs, 23 photographs and a map

ISBN: 978 1 874950 69 1

Price (excl. shipping): R: 295.00 Ł: 21.85 $: 36.88 €: 26.82

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THE CONTENTS:
Preface:	Marguerite Poland
Introduction:	David Hammond-Tooke
Chapter 1:	Cattle in Zulu Life – David Hammond-Tooke An overview of the history of Sang-Nguni cattle and their economic, social, political and spiritual importance to the Zulu people, both past and present.
Chapter 2:	The Poetry of Naming: Marguerite Poland A discussion of colour-pattern terminology, its provenance and its metaphorical associations with various natural phenomena such as birds, animals and plants. This chapter also includes a discussion of the metaphorical terms used to refer to the shapes of horns.
Chapter 3:	Cattle in the Oral Tradition: Marguerite Poland An examination of the role of cattle and cattle-related imagery in the oral tradition of the Zulu people, including examples of the izibongo or praises of cattle. Veld-lore connected with cattle and with animal husbandry is explored and described.
Postscript:	The Status of Sanga-Nguni in South Africa today: Marguerite Poland
Appendices:
	Appendix I: Classification of terms according to colour and colour-combination.
	Appendix II: Classification of term with regard to metaphorical content.
	Appendix III: Terms indicating gender or status.
	Appendix IV: Terms for horn-shapes.
	Appendix V: Xhosa terms.