This Old House: Zululand

Front view of the main family house.

The compound where I live is pretty typical of a rural South African family. The main family house has three rooms: kitchen, living room, and one bedroom. Like most houses that I know in America, there is the formal front door and then the back door that everyone really uses. There are two one-room houses behind the main family house: one serves as bedroom (mostly in the summer when it is warm enough), and the second as a second kitchen / storage room. It is used as a kitchen when mama is making traditional Zulu beer or helping someone in the village cook for a large function. On one side of the main family house is a one-room house dedicated to the ancestors. Anything for ceremonies is stored here (like traditional clothes and weapons), as well as heirlooms from deceased relatives. It isn’t supposed to be used for anything else, but if you have a big family and perhaps are short some space (because you are subletting to an American for several years), it’s difficult to keep it empty.

The back door where visitors come and go.

I know that my family, for example, also stores maize in the house after the harvesting season. On the other side of the main family house is a two-room house built for my half-brother Musa (son of the first wife of my deceased host father). It is his whether her moves back to the area or not, and it is where he stays when he occasionally comes to visit. If there were more sons, they would all have houses built for them as well, but since every other child born to my host father was a female, only one extra house needed to be built. Lastly there is my rondavel, which I have been assured, was empty before I and the previous volunteer moved in. In fact, my host sister told me that originally the family was asked if they would store several hundred, school textbooks while the secondary school underwent major renovations. Then, when the school was told that they would be hosting a volunteer for two-years, the principal asked if the space could house a person rather than some old, dusty books. Clearly it worked out well, but I have to laugh at the idea that one day you think some books are being delivered and the next thing you know an American shows up.

The back houses: on the left a bedroom, on the right a kitchen.

One of the uses of the outside kitchen is for brewing
traditional Zulu beer: umqombothi

The house of the ancestors.

My host brother Musa's house, should he ever choose to live there.

Home Sweet Home!

A new addition being added on to the main family house!

In the last five to six weeks, the main family house has gotten a major upgrade! Another bedroom is being built onto the back of the house. Before I left for Namibia, mama had two men come to make the concrete blocks. Sand and concrete powder was delivered in big piles and then the men came with a mold to form the blocks. They were laid out in the garden to harden over the course of several weeks. The actual construction began while I was away on vacation and has continued slowly but surely since I returned. There doesn’t seem to be a regular construction schedule, the two guys just show up when they can, but this past week the roof went up and things seem to be closer to the finish than to the start, so that is a good sign. The inside walls still need to be plastered with something that makes them smooth, and the floor inside still needs to be laid.

A door to the new room was carved out in the kitchen.

I’m sure there are

other things as well, but I can only see the most obvious things that need to be done. All in all, it is good news for my host sisters, as it will mean the six of them no longer need to share one bedroom during the winter months when they are all home and it is too cold to sleep in the outside house. And it was exciting to see some home-remodeling, Zulu-style.