IDNO

P.48918.ACH2

Description

A group of women dressing each others hair in elaborate cylindrical structures and decorated with beadwork, outside a hut at Laduma’s Kraal, Swartkop. [JD 19/10/2009]

Place

S Africa; South Africa; KwaZulu-Natal; Swartkop; Laduma’s Kraal [Natal; Zwartkop]

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

Hartland, Ethel (Miss)

Collector / Expedition

Hartland, E. Sidney [The British Association South African Meeting, 1905]

Date

26 August 1905

Collection Name

Unmounted Haddon Collection

Source

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

The print was found in envelope now marked C157/2/4/. This envelope was found in drawer 2 of the green cabinet. The entire cabinet was previously numbered as “batch 143” and is now re-numbered C157/ by the transcriber.

Related Archive: The cover page (proof copy) of a book “Specimens of Bushman Folklore” collected by the Late W.H.I. Bleek and L.C. Lloyd. Published by George Allen and company, London and two pages of photographs annotated in Haddon’s handwriting- “Stow- the native Races of S. Africa” were found with the set. See archive reference.

Bibliographical Reference: ‘Travel Notes in South Africa.
by E. SIDNEY HARTLAND.’ (Read at Meeting of 6th May, 1906.) in FOLK-LORE, A QUARTERLY REVIEW, MYTH, TRADITION, INSTITUTION, & CUSTOM
The Transactions of the Folk-Lore Society, VOL. XVIL— 1906, pp.479-480.
The following rough notes record some of the scenes witnessed during the recent visit of the British Association to South Africa,
and some of the information obtained from the natives and from British officials in the Native Department of more than one colony.
A Zulu Wedding.
On the 26th August, under the guidance of Mr. H. C. Lugg, of the Native Affairs Office, a party of anthropologists visited the Chief Laduma's kraal. It is in the native location of Swartkop. From Swartkop station, a short distance outside Maritzburg, we walked up the hill. When we got to the top we found ourselves overlooking an amphitheatre of hills, with Laduma's kraal on the
hill-side a few yards below us, and on the hills beyond were two other kraals. The kraals, as we saw in passing through the country, and as we were also told, are usually placed near, but
not on, the tops of hills. Laduma's kraal, like all other kraals here, had the cattle-enclosure (which is properly the kraal) in the centre, and the huts stood round it. In this case, however, the huts were few in number, and they did not extend beyond the upper half-circle, leaving the lower open. Formerly the circle of huts would have been enclosed with a stout palisade or fence of mimosa against surprises, but since the British pacification the use of the fence has been discontinued as unnecessary. Formerly, too, the kraals consisted of a much larger collection of huts, the chief gathering his tribesmen together for the sake of defence. Now the tribesmen swarm off more readily to other spots under the immediate rule of lesser chiefs ; consequently the kraals are reduced in size. Laduma's cattle-kraal was surrounded by a dry wall of rough stones, the lower side of which was partly broken down. The entrance was on the upper side near the chief's hut. Just outside it, on the right, a fire was built, and there were pots and preparations for cooking. The chief was in fact that day entertaining members of his tribe from a distance on two oxen given to him the day before by the Governor.
The first sight that greeted us was that of a mother washing
her child.... Behind another hut women were dressing the elaborate cylindrical structures of hair on one another's heads.” [Source: www.archive.org, JD 19/10/2009]