Page 53 - Heritage Streets of KwaMashu 2025

• linked to different rites-of-passage ceremonies for young girls, such as when they reach puberty, undergo virginity tests or to celebrate lobola and weddings. The dance is accompanied by drumming (sometimes), clapping and singing, and the music is highly energetic. The dancers’ costumes are traditional skirts made from colourful beads. A requirement of the dance is that the legs have to be raised high but protecting the private part area with a hand to ensure dignified dancing.
• Ingoma YeSikhuze: is another variation of Ingoma yezinsizwa, which originated in the Umbumbulu (eMbombumbulu) region, becoming popular after the arrival of the missionaries. A pattern formation, known as “isifuba” (breast), performed by more experienced dancers, is at the centre of this dance style. It is supported by“isipani” (equal formation), referring to dancers who shadow whatever is done by“isifuba”. The typical costume consists of thigh-length socks with stripes and short skirts (sometimes rugby shorts). The leg is not raised very high in this dance, for which dancers carry shields and traditional sticks which are also used to create formations. Accompaniment is via song and handclapping (“ukukhwahla”). (EMbombumbulu is how it should be correctly called – historically as per oral narration, when the eMbo (Mkhize) people arrived to settle in this area they came across other people and called them “amaMbo mbumbulu” – which missionaries pronounced as “Mbumbulu”).
In a high-energy performance of traditional Zulu dances, they exemplify the spirit of the triumphant warrior, the admiration of the community for its elders, and the joy of the wedding couple with voice, melodies and dynamic movements.
Nowadays the Zulu ingoma is danced at homecoming times, especially at Christmas time, in rural KwaZulu-Natal and seasonally on Sunday afternoons at working and work-seeking men’s hostels in the cities of eGoli (Johannesburg – hostels of George Goch, Jeppe, Thokoza and at Diepkloof hostel) and
Durban (hostels of Kwa Mashu, Dalton, KK, Wemmer). Each Zulu dance style combines choreographed group work and individual improvisation and is danced to call-and-response singing and clapping.
Famous people residing in this B-Section include one of the very first residents from Mkhumbane, music legend Madala Kunene (an exceptional guitarist and artist – often referred to as “Bafo”). The famous AmaZulu FC soccer player, Joel “Fire” Faya is from this area, and the daughter of Africa’s first Nobel Peace Prize Winner and former ANC President Chief Albert Mvumbi Luthuli, Mrs Ngobese. The famous uMkhonto weSizwe (MK Liberation Army of ANC) combatant who was assassinated by the Security Police by a limpet mine bomb at Duffs Roads Train Station during the 1980s, is Vusi Mtshali, also a resident of B-Section. There is only one schooling facility in this area, eThekwini Primary School along Giya Road, which is a neighbor to a unique K-CAP Ekhaya Multi Arts Centre (2003) that was built by Edmund Mhlongo (at B25 Giya Road).
There is also Sikhindi Road which branches off Queen Nandi Drive (named in honor of King Shaka’s mother Nandi of Bhebhe, Langeni). IsiKhindi is an IsiZulu word associated with a short “ibheshu” or isidwaba - just above the knees. Princess Nandi was not a married woman, and as such wore isidwaba esiyisikhindi (a short Zulu skirt), her kraal was also named eMkhindini (near Kwa-Ngcongco, under Mthonjaneni Municipality). Makhosi Mhlathuze (the heir of eLangeni lineage of eSibhambeni Kraal, the main house of Princess Nandi), narrates that when Nandi was expelled by Prince Senzangakhona for demanding to be recognized as ikhanda (the main 1st wife, even without a proper formal wedding ceremony) – she was given a piece of land by the Langeni family of the time. Her kraal was called eMkhindini as an unmarried woman she couldn’t wear a full isidwaba (wayekhindile, ekhindiswe uSenzangakhona ongamphelelisanga njengomfazi). It was also at eMkhindini where she was allowed to talk the way she wanted (ekhininda izindaba zakhe eMkhindini).
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