Gender, Power and Iron Metallurgy in Archives of African Societies from the Phongolo-Mzimkhulu Region
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Gender, power and iron metallurgy in archives of African societies from the Phongolo-Mzimkhulu region Steven Kotze A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements of Master of Arts. Durban, 2018 Declaration I declare that this thesis is my own, unaided work unless otherwise acknowledged. It is being submitted for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It has not been submitted before for any degree or examination at any other university. Steven Kotze 15 July 2018 i Abstract This dissertation examines the social, cultural and economic significance of locally forged field-hoes, known as amageja in Zulu. A key question I have engaged in this study is whether gender-based divisions of labour in nineteenth-century African communities of this region, which largely consigned agricultural work to women, also affect attitudes towards the tools they used. I argue that examples of field-hoes held in eight museum collections form an important but neglected archive of “hoeculture”, the form of subsistence crop cultivation based on the use of manual implements, within the Phongolo-Mzimkhulu geographic region that roughly approximates to the modern territory of KwaZulu-Natal. In response to observations made by Maggs (1991), namely that a disparity exists in the numbers of field- hoes collected by museums in comparison with weapons, I conducted research to establish the present numbers of amageja in these museums, relative to spears in the respective collections. The dissertation assesses the historical context that these metallurgical artefacts were produced in prior to the twentieth-century and documents views on iron production, spears and hoes or agriculture recorded in oral testimony from African sources, as well as Zulu-language idioms that make reference to hoes. I furthermore examine the collecting habits and policies of private individuals and museums in this region from the nineteenth- century onwards, and the manner in which hoes are used in displays, in order to provide recommendations on how this under-utilised category of material culture should be incorporated into future exhibitions. Key words: field-hoe, amageja, gender, iron, power, museums, collections, Zulu. ii iii Acknowledgements This dissertation was made possible by the kind assistance of friends and colleagues in the various museums and private collections that form part of the research study. The late Yvonne Winters was enthusiastic about the project when I first told her about it, and when Lulu Jakeni took over Yvonne’s position at the Campbell Collections of University of KwaZulu-Natal she went out of her way to help me too. Sharon Crampton and Phumzile Nkosi at Phansi Museum endured more than one visit a few minutes before closing time, while Pam McFadden and Bornwell Masuku at Talana Museum pulled out dozens of boxes filled with newspaper cuttings unavailable anywhere else, in addition to giving me tours of their exhibitions. Returning to visit Nicky and Andrew Rattray at Fugitives’ Drift Lodge is a pleasure I have enjoyed for almost twenty years, and I have found a new appreciation of the collection of artefacts assembled by Peter and David Rattray. My trips to Ondini and the KwaZulu Cultural Museum were made memorable by the irrepressible eagerness and dedication of Zameka Yamile, who has become a colleague of mine on the SA Museums Association committee in KZN, along with Regina van Vuuren. Slindokuhle Ngobese at the Msunduzi-Voortrekker Museum and Mudzunga Munzhedzi at KwaZulu-Natal Museum assisted with giving me access to objects in display cases and very large collections of metallurgical artefacts respectively. My immediate colleagues at the Local History Museums, Mohau Qalaza and Thevan Harry, have given me their constant support & encouragement. I am grateful to Radikobo Ntsimane of the KwaZulu-Natal Museum Services department who introduced me to Bobby Radebe, collector of amageja and an unsung hero who rescued dozens of nineteenth-century hoes from being shipped to China as scrap metal. Bhekani Mlaba, the spear-smith I first met at the Mona market near Nongoma, generously shared his hospitality and knowledge of his craft at his Hlabisa umuzi where I visited him to see his forge in action. With friendliness and quick humour both Bobby and Bhekani imparted their perceptions of indigenous metallurgy in conversations that enriched my understanding of the topic immensely. Gavin Whitelaw kindly shared articles he thought would be useful, and they invariably were, while Carolyn Hamilton invited me to participate in an Archives and Public Culture (APC) seminar in 2017. A draft chapter of this dissertation was vastly improved by the critique it received there, particularly from John Wright who reprised his role as a superb teacher. Although instrumental in the many, many discussions which led to this dissertation, sadly Jeff Guy passed away just as I finally embarked on the work and I frequently felt his absence during the time it has taken me to complete it. Garth Walker helped design a poster presented at the Museums and Galleries History Group conference at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford in October 2016. Although Richard Street and Ian Wolstenholme proofed a draft of the dissertation, any errors that persist are my responsibility alone. My two supervisors, Anitra Nettleton and Justine Wintjes, have offered exceptional guidance, hawk-eyed vigilance on any sloppy text I produced and completely thorough responses to every draft submitted. Finally, and most importantly, my wife, Renée Street, was a crucial audience for my ideas and problems, while giving gentle, insistent reassurance over the last six months, and, with Francis and Phoebe, tolerated my frequent trips away to visit museum collections in Zululand and weekends spent writing. iv South African National Society 2017 Killie Campbell Bursary Funding for this M.A. degree was provided, in part, by a financial award on the part of the South African National Society in the form of the 2017 Killie Campbell Bursary, which is hereby gratefully acknowledged. In particular, the consistent kindness shown towards me and support for this project by SANS President Ian Smith, and Chairperson Hardy Wilson, has been a wonderful source of encouragement. v Contents Page number Declaration i Abstract ii Ethics Clearance Certificate H16/08/49 iii Acknowledgements iv Funding acknowledgement v List of figures, appendices and tables vii Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Literature review and methodology 7 Chapter 3: The social and economic context of hoeculture food production in the Phongolo- Mzimkhulu region 22 Chapter 4: Hidden in plain sight: Collections of locally forged hoes as evidence of contributions by women to the agricultural economy of Natal and the Zulu kingdom 51 4.1 Durban Local History Museums 53 4.2 Msunduzi-Voortrekker Museum, Pietermaritzburg 57 4.3 Talana Museum, Dundee 60 4.4 KwaZulu-Natal Museum, Pietermaritzburg 63 4.5 KwaZulu Cultural Museum, Ondini 68 4.6 Fugitives’ Drift Lodge, Rorke’s Drift 71 4.7 Phansi Museum, Durban 75 4.8 Campbell Collections, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 78 Chapter 5: Making a case for hoes: Exhibitions of metallurgical artefacts in museums of KwaZulu-Natal 83 5.1 Durban Local History Museums 86 5.2 Msunduzi-Voortrekker Museum, Pietermaritzburg 88 5.3 Talana Museum, Dundee 90 5.4 KwaZulu-Natal Museum, Pietermaritzburg 93 5.5 KwaZulu Cultural Museum, Ondini 94 5.6 Fugitives’ Drift Lodge, Rorke’s Drift 96 5.7 Phansi Museum, Durban 98 5.8 Campbell Collections, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 99 5.9 Analysis 101 5.10 Mkhumbane Museum 104 Chapter 6: Conclusion 118 References 162 vi Figures and Tables Page number Figure 1: A married woman going to work in the garden (Shooter 1857) 36 Figure 2: Detail of South Africa’s parliamentary mace 49 Figure 3: Map of the Phongolo-Mzimkhulu region 52 Figure 4: Durban Local History Museum’s hoes NN 89.147 56 Figure 5: Msunduzi-Voortrekker Museum hoe 51.1912 60 Figure 6: “Iron Age” display case, Msunduzi-Voortrekker Museum 60 Figure 7: Talana Museum hoe 04/1843-4 63 Figure 8: Detail of Talana Museum hoe 04/1843-4 63 Figure 9: KwaZulu-Natal Museum Cat. No. 80/378-3 67 Figure 10: KwaZulu-Natal Museum Cat. No. 82/43 67 Figure 11: KwaZulu Cultural Museum C3234 70 Figure 12: Fugitives’ Drift Lodge collection, a hoe that belonged to Sithela Mpanza 75 Figure 13: Phansi Museum collection, a hoe that belonged to Mkhipheni Mazinga 78 Figure 14: Campbell Collections MM1944, field-hoe found near KwaBulawayo in 1952 82 Figure 15: Iron hoe from the original Campbell family collection MM110 82 Figure 16: Hoes arranged inside an iqhugwane hut display at Talana Museum 90 Figure 17: The facsimile interior of an iqhugwane hut at Talana Museum 91 Figure 18: A man making hoe shafts in northern Zululand, 1920 111 Figure 19: View of The Field (2016) by Matlhogonolo Charity Kelapile 114 Figure 20: Detail of The Field (2016) by Matlhogonolo Charity Kelapile 116 Table 1: Ratio of local field-hoes to spears in eight KZN metallurgical collections 118 Appendices Appendix 1: Interview with Sihle Bobby Radebe 122 Appendix 2: Index of locally forged field hoes of museum collections in the present study 147 vii 1 Introduction Despite an abundance of wild animals and plant species in southern Africa, for a variety of reasons, none are ultimately suitable for domestication as sources of food. Although there is evidence for multiple centres of domestication in the world, the earliest farming is generally situated in southwestern Asia during the Neolithic Revolution (Garrard 1999: 71), which marked the start of pronounced cultural and economic changes in human society beginning approximately fifteen to twenty thousand years ago (Watkins 2010: 621). Agriculture appeared in Africa relatively late compared with other continents as crops first cultivated in the Mediterranean climate of the northern hemisphere were not suited to a rapid or simple transfer from northern Africa through equatorial regions of the continent.