Field Report Changing Zuluness : Capturing the Mercurial Indigenous Vernacular Architecture of the Eastern Seaboard

Many consider the beehive grass iqhugwana archetypically Zulu. Along with the shield and assegai, it is iconic in the tourism culture of " the Zulu Kingdom, " representing the maintenance of an exotic " tradition. " 1 I argue that this is not necessarily so, as historical material shows evidence of a continual adaptation and evolution of this form. Furthermore, using the more contemporary example of the decorated buildings of Msinga, I suggest that the recent vernacular environment is a result of a postglobal Africanization, in a geographic area that, due to its circumstances, may have missed out on the globalization phenomenon completely. 2 South Africa's nine provinces, home to more than 40 million people, exhibit great diversity of landscape, climate, heritage, language, and cultural affinity. Of them, however, KwaZulu-Natal, situated on the country's eastern seaboard, is the only one named after a predominant population group. A densely populated area, ranging from high mountains to open savannah, with tropical to subtropical coastal areas, it is named after its most significant population group, the Zulu, members of the Southern Nguni who speak a Bantu language (fig.1). 3 Although the Zulu predominate in KwaZulu-Natal, the cultural profile of the province is more complex, and it is inhabited by a cosmopolitan aggregation of nationalities. For generations, the Zulu have rubbed shoulders and overlapped geographically with many people of seSotho descent, a different language group with vastly different traditions and Deborah Whelan is an architect teaching at the Durban Institute of Technology in Durban, South Africa. She is also pursuing a Ph.D. program at SOAS, University of London.