I have recently been looking into the cultural side of South Africa and have found that they have many different groups of people and tribes, with cultures varying from one to another, however i have decided to focus on 2 tribes, the Bushmen/San and the Zulu people.
I have decided on this because i want the animation to also show the history side of South Africa which is why i am looking at the Bushmen/San tribe because they are the oldest inhabitants of South Africa and the Zulu are the largest ethnic group in South Africa, i will also be looking into the modern South Africa and try to see if i can incorporate the historical and modern world of South Africa for my animation.
Zulu
Below are some key points I have found out about the Zulu people:
• Are located mainly in the Natal Province in South Africa
• Population is roughly 10 million
• Language spoken is Kwazulu (Nguni), Bantu language
• The Zulu people are virtually split in half with about 50% living in cities engaging in domestic work and the other 50% working on farms.
• The Zulu believe they are descendants from a chief from the Congo area.
• In the 16th century the Zulu migrated south picking up many of the traditions and customs of the San who also inhabited this South African area.
• The Zulu believe in a creator god known as Nkulunkulu, but this god does not interact with humans and has no interest in everyday life. Therefore, most Zulus interact on a day to day level with the spirits. In order to interact with the spirits the Zulu must use divination to interact with the ancestors. All misfortune is a result of an evil sorcery or offended spirits, nothing just happens because of natural causes.
• The first noted King of kwaZulu is King Malandela kaLuzamu
• A Zulu king is always succeeded by his elder son in a clan
Below are images of the Zulu tribe which will help me in my development in the history of South Africa and possibly help me to develop a style for the animation.
Below is an image of two Zulu men demonstrating a fight. You can see the big cultural differences in the way of living from the background you can see the accommodation the Zulu people where they live in wooden huts also the clothing is very different.
Traditional male clothing is usually light, consisting of a two-part apron (similar to a loincloth) used to cover the genitals and buttocks. The front piece is called the umutsha, and is usually made of springbok or other animal hide twisted into different bands which cover the genitals. The rear piece, called the ibheshu, is made of a single piece of springbok or cattle hide, and its length is usually used as an indicator of age and social position; longer amabheshu (plural of ibheshu) are worn by older men. Married men will usually also wear a headband, called the umqhele, which is usually also made of springbok hide, or leopard hide by men of higher social status, such as chiefs. Zulu men will also wear cow tails as bracelets and anklets called imishokobezi during ceremonies and rituals, such as weddings or dances.
Below is another image of the traditional African Zulu people tribes clothing also with their weapons shields and spears.
Below is a video of a South African tour guide explaining some of the traditions and customs of the Zulu women for clothing and marriage, also i found the guy very entertaining.
I have also been looking into the Bushmen/San tribe and trying to gather information on the history and culture of the tribe and below are some of the key points i have come across:
The Bushmen/San
The terms "San", "Khwe", "Sho", "Bushmen", and "Basarwa" have all been used to refer to [hunter-gatherer] peoples of southern Africa.
The oldest race of the human race
Rock art
Originally hunters and gatherers
Oldest inhabitants of south Africa, said to have lived there for tens of thousands of years
The term Bushmen/san has some negative connotations to them which are understood to have been imposed by outsiders, however many now accept and use the term Bushmen
They speak a variety of languages which incorporate click sounds.
They live in the desert
They make their temporary homes from wood that they gather
Many make living from growing and selling fruit and working on ranches.
The Bushmen can track their prey by examining the signs they have left behind, in an article by peter Godwin for The National Geographic he says "One young hunter drops to his heels and examines the droppings of a hartebeest; the more roughage, the less efficient its digestion and the older the animal."
The Bushmen tribe are rapidly disappearing
Modern South Africa
I will also look into the modern side of South Africa, the more westernized cities.
Below are some facts and images of Johannesburg
Johannesburg has a population of nearly 3.9 million people and has shown a 20.1% growth since 2001.
Johannesburg is the largest city in South Africa.
The city is one of the 40 largest metropolitan areas in the world and it is one of Africa’s only two global cities.
Johannesburg is one of the youngest major cities worldwide. Johannesburg is 118 years old, and was founded on October 4, 1886
During one century, Johannesburg has been rebuilt four times: first it was a tented camp; then a town of tin shanties; then of four-storey Edwardian brick buildings; then a city of modern skyscrapers
Johannesburg houses the tallest office block in Africa, which is called the Carlton Centre (50 stories) and the tallest tower being the Hillbrow Tower (270 metres, or 90 stories).
Johannesburg is also called Egoli, which means “place of gold”. Forty percent of the world’s gold has been found in the greater Johannesburg region
The altitude in Johannesburg is 2 000m above sea level. The air is therefore thinner
There are over 10 million trees in Johannesburg (2.5 million in parks and pavements, and 7.5 million in private homes)
Forty percent of the population in Johannesburg is under the age of 24
There are 12 river systems which run throughout Johannesburg
Images of Cape Town
What i especially like about these images of Cape Town is how not only do you have the mountains, river and open fields but they also have the buildings incorporated into the scenery which look stunning, which i think shows the natural beauty and modernization of South Africa, I think using scenery's like this throughout could work for my animation because i want to show the historical and modern sides of South Africa.
As well as South Africa having such a rich history i would also like to have some sort of modern influences of South Africa within this project, i think it's only right to include the present South Africa too because i think many people forget that South Africa has some great modern cities which are developing all the time.
Rock paintings
I've now have been looking into rock paintings and the history behind them and came across some facts that could give me direction for my animation such as;
- subject of paintings were mainly humans and animals but mainly elands (Antelope)
- hunters gained powers from the animals they killed
- they would paint the eland so they could harness it's essence to open portals to the spirit world and they would enter a trance
- when they are in the trance, their nose would bleed, they would be in physical pain, their arms would stretch back as the transformation to the spirit world took place
- spirit doctors/shamans
- At the spirit world they would seepowerful visions, of gods place, of magical things...
- Below is a quick video that shows some examples of rock paintings. Also i came across an article that said some of the paintings resembled some sort of animation, like cel-animation but instead of the images being placed on top of each other they were painted side by side and you can see this at 0.19 in the video below.
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