can tell you that the greatness i f our Zulu past lives on into today ai J wc IN THE SPIRIT OF will survive into tommorow to con- tinue shaping history and to mat ; i j,.. sub-continent a place where all \ ill b» KING free." Zulu South Africans had a prt n>u, heritage to carry into the new , outf, King Goodwill talks of the past for which they were si ugg. ling... nothing would persuade th« mto anIN a dserie ths ofe ceremonie futurs recentle oyf helBlackd Welcomins g White guests to the abandon their heritage and to feel to celebrate the founding of the Zulu function King Goodwill said it was in ashamed of their past. nation by King Shaka, hundreds of that King Shaka permitted the However, there were some >ent thousands of people converged on settlement of Whites and befriended upon betraying their heritage. venues throughout KwaZulu, them. "They are like witches, preyin ; on and the Transvaal. He thought it was remarkable that in our humanness, preying on our 2 ilu In an address in Durban, His Ma­ the long and sometimes bitter history ness, preying on our stature as pe< ale, jesty King Goodwill Zwelithini ka of , on no single occasion belittling our past and making us Bhekuzulu, King of the Zulus, said was Durban ever besieged by Zulu ashamed of our present." he said, they had gathered to rejoice in King armies. "They can only be described in the Shaka's memory. "There is no history of warfare bet­ language we use when we talk of \ ith As a direct descendent of King ween Whites in Durban and the great disgust about the ugliness of wi :h- Shaka he was deeply aware of the Zulu nation, whose sovereign domains craft... . Black brotherhood which made every included Durban," he said. "I am referring to those who tr\ to African in South Africa brother or sis­ "The Boers put Durban under siege, create clashes between Zulu pec >le ter to every other African. not Zulus. In the days when King and our commitment as Black South "In our Blackness we should always Shaka mustered 20, 40, 60 thousand Africans in the struggle for liberatio'.. be aware that the different cultural troops whenever he chose to do so, the "It is only when witchcraft ent rs groups in this country have, since anti­ expulsion of Whites from Durban that healihy and brotherly compt i- quity, shared more in common with would have been a minor matter. tiveness turns to betrayal a id each other than they have ever differed "He welcomed Whites and permit­ meanness... with each other," he said. ted them to settle around the Bay of "Politics should not divide us. \ e "Being Zulu, or Pedi, or Shangaan Durban. I welcome the Whites who are should stand shoulder to shoulder w h or Tswana or Sotho or Xhosa simply here today as our fellow South Afri­ each other striving after the sai ie makes us different expressions of the cans... " things, even if we dispute among *t same fundementa) Blackness which The King continued: "OurZuluness each other the best way of achievi ,g has drawn us together as people so today is the greatest tribute that we can our ends... we should compete n distinct from other cultural possibly pay to King Shaka... there is brotherly love to serve the nation." groups." in us the valour, the insight and the Those who hoped to build a future i y King Goodwill said that he believed statesmanship which has led us to be a destroying the past would fail, he sai 1. that "somewhere in the great distant bastion of strength in the Black strug­ Those who venerated the past aid past" all their paths were directed to­ gle for liberation. carried into the future the great cornt r- wards being in South Africa. "The events which King Shaka set stones of the past to place in the foun i- It was "a great march of history di­ in motion did not end when he died... I ations of the future would succeed. recting us one and all to a common destiny... " Being Zulu was being Black and to all who were Black, every one of the country's illustrious historical figures should be remembered and com­ memorated. Every Black, Zulu and non-Zulu was entitled to rejoice in the remem­ brance of King Shaka. "In the great future which awaits us we will not only take pride in our own individual cultures but we will also take pride both in others as they re­ joice in their cultures and in the things we can share together across cultural differences," he said. "Culture is not a fence which divid­ es people, culture is a bridge which spans differences between man and man and between woman and King Goodwill Zwelithini ka Bhekuzulu and' M G Buthelezi at the King Shaka sDay woman." celebration in Durban.

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