Zulu

History

The fatherland of origin of the Zoulous seems to be in the area of the modern Tanzania. Their presence in South Africa goes back to the XIVe century. Just like the Xhosa S which settled in South Africa during the migratory waves bantoues former, the Zulus assimilated many sounds of the languages san and khoï, those of the first inhabitants of the region. So the Zulu and the xhosa preserved many consonants with clicks (sounds which one meets only in South Africa), in spite of the extinction of many languages san and khoï.

The Zulu, like all the indigenous languages of South Africa, was a oral Langue until the arrival of European missionaries, who transcribed it by using the Latin alphabet. The first document compiled in Zulu was a translation of the Bible, published in 1883. In 1901, John Dube, a Zulu of the Native , created the Ohlange Institute, the first indigenous educational establishment of South Africa.

Culture

John Dube is also the author of Insila kaChaka (1933), the first novel written in Zulu. Another writer pioneer of the Zulu was Reginald Dhlomo, author of several historical novels on the chiefs of the Zulu nation to the XIXe century: U-Dingane (1936), U-Shaka (1937), U-Mpande (1938), U-Cetshwayo (1952) and U-Dinizulu (1968). Benedict Wallet Vilakazi and, more recently, Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali, also contributed a significant share to the Zulu literature.

On the musical level Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu, a white worker and a Zulu student, changed the face of the South-African music at the time of the apartheid, while recording, of 1979 with 1985, a series of albums where mix Western music and Zulu music .

Phonetism

One of the phonetic characteristics of the Zulu, the Xhosa, and the sesotho (close language) is the use of click S. the three basic clicks in Zulu are: