Page 11 - Heritage Streets of KwaMashu 2025

when coded could be equal to 6 of protons, 6 of electrons, and 6 of neutrons all required to complete a living being (hence a ‘number of “man” (human) and also a number of a beast’ – again denoting that life comes in duality of positivity and negativity (meaning, a man can be good and could equally be evil (lowering him/herself to the level of a beast). This is all about naming!
The street names of Kwa-Mashu in this context become a very important heritage thesis. Kwa-Mashu survived apartheid as a “location” place, a dormitory created as a labour reservoir where to “locate” cheap Bantu/African labourers (hence the name, eLokishini = Location). Today, the “location” has become a potential place of thriving life and business opportunities for entrepreneurs.
Research into indigenous African knowledge is a fairly new field that aims to connect the knowledge of local communities on one hand and professionals in disciplines including science and community development on the other.
“Indlela ibuzwa kwabaphambili” is a Zulu proverb meaning “those who have gone before are the ones who can show the path...”. And this is only achieved through research. The street paths/names of Kwa Mashu are surely reminding us to revert back to those who came before us and try to understand the meanings embedded in the names, they left us, so that we will better understand who we are, where we come from and the knowledge, we are missing by deserting our subtextual, proverbial, symbolic, and parable isiZulu language.
Zulus: The Zulus, were, until a century or more ago (up to about 1816), a comparatively insignificant clan (within the Nguni clan family). They were known as the aba-kwa-Zulu (they-who-are-of-Zulu, i.e. the offspring or family of Zulu).
The earlier stages of Zulu history must be sought in the earlier story of the Nguni group of Bantu clans. For the stories of Zulu origins and that of Nguni origins is one.
The first of the Nguni to move away from the central Africa were the Embo and Lala clan-groups (collectively known as Tekela Ngunis from their particular dialect of Nguni speech.
For the first part of their journey (perhaps somewhere about the year 1525), the two parties may have marched together, but later ·on they parted company, only, at long last, to come together again and settle alongside each other in Natal. The route they chose was, first of all, from the Vaal region in a north-easterly direction; thereafter due east, towards the northern parts of modern Swaziland and Delagoa Bay. This, the first half of their journey, took them through a country that was perhaps already sparsely populated by Suthu Bantu. And about here, it would seem, the separation between the two groups took place-the Lalas proceeding forward towards the Delagoa Bay (Maputo) coastlands; the Embos continuing to stay still a while amidst the Suthu people, and so, in course of time (perhaps through intermarriage) to become, in some slight degree, ‘Suthu-ized’.
Post 1900 - Many of the younger men (of 20 to 30 years of age), who had previously remained in their kraals, now commenced to leave their homes to work for money in the labour centres of Durban and Johannesburg, as well as on the farmlands of Zululand.
HERITAGE STREETS OF KWA-MASHU 7