African cultures of South Africa series
Set of 11 books 72-93 pp
[Series ISBN 978-1-77008-451-3]

| The Xhosa people | The Zulu people |
| The Swazi people | The Ndebele people |
| The Venda people |
| The Tsonga-Shangaan people |
| The Tswana people |
| The North Sotho people |
| The South Sotho people |
| The Khoikhoi people | The San people |

English

REVIEW: "These colourful books have a text that is ideal for senior primary but you and I would enjoy it as well... A most useful – and attractive – investment." [Heale, Jay. Book review for BFMR BOOK CHOICE, July 2012.]  Click here for full review.

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The Xhosa people

ISBN 978-1-77008-452-0

[88 pp]

An overview of the culture and history of the Xhosa people, including their traditional way of life, homes, arts and crafts, music and dance, clothing, leaders and important ceremonies, as well as how life has changed for the Xhosa people over time.

This book contains a Glossary and an Index. 

Renée van der Wiel

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Contents

• Fast facts

• Farmers from the north

• Clicks and pops of the Xhosa language

• Clans and chiefdoms

• Where did the name “Xhosa” come from?

• Many brothers and sisters

• Building huts together

• Crops and cooking

• Pots, baskets and pipes

• Taking care of the family

• A girl becomes an intombi

• Boys become men

• “Going to the bush”

• Ikhazi cattle

• Wedding celebrations

• The ancestors and uQamatha

• Umqombothi - Xhosa beer

• Igqirha: Dances and dreams

• The ixhwele and evil medicine men

• The water people of esiKhaleni

• Red-blanket people

• Clothes and make-up for special occasions

• Beads

• Headscarves and pipes

• School people and red people

• The Zuurveld

• Battles with the Boers

• The British and the Zulu

• Nongqawuse and the Great Xhosa Cattle Killing
  Paying tax and finding work

• Transkei and Ciskei

• Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

• Modern-day chiefs

• Music from the past

• Say a few words in the Xhosa language
  Samp and beans

• Important dates in Xhosa history

The Zulu people

ISBN 978-1-77008-453-7

[88 pp]

An overview of the culture and history of the Zulu people, including their traditional way of life, homes, arts and crafts, music and dance, clothing, leaders and important ceremonies, as well as how life has changed for the Zulu people over time.

This book contains a Glossary and an Index. 

Renée van der Wiel

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Contents

• Fast facts

• Chief Zulu

• Shaka

• Zulu soldiers

• The umuzi and the family

• The men in charge

• Huts

• Nomkhubulwana the Sky Goddess

• Storing and cooking food

• Amasi

• Nguni cattle

• Weaving, pottery and carving

• Children and men

• Women, skirts, hairstyles and hats

• Growing up

• Zulu love letters

• Lobola cattle

• Wedding ceremonies and dances

• Nkulunkulu and the ancestors

• A Zulu church

• A sangoma keeps the ancestors close

• The tokoloshe and herbal medicines

• The king and traditional leaders

• First fruits festival and Shaka Day

• Dancing and praise singers

• The Battle of Blood River

• The British take over

• War with the British

• The Zulu kingdom becomes KwaZulu

• The IFP and the ANC

• Ladysmith Black Mambazo

• Say a few words in the Zulu language

• Amasi and mealie pap

• Important dates in Zulu history

The Swazi people

ISBN 978-1-77008-454-4

[85 pp]

An overview of the culture and history of the Swazi people, including their traditional way of life, homes, arts and crafts, music and dance, clothing, leaders and important ceremonies, as well as how life has changed for the Swazi people over time.

This book contains a Glossary and an Index. 

Renée van der Wiel

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Contents

• Fast facts

• Mswati

• Building huts

• The umuti

• Learning from gogo’s stories

• Farming and storing crops

• Jobs in the family

• Useful and beautiful crafts

• Women’s fashions

• Men’s and children’s fashion

• Cattle and marriage

• Swazi weddings

• Musical instruments

• Modern music

• The ancestors

• The sangoma and the ancestors

• The inyanga

• Witches

• The king, the chiefs and the tindvuna

• The king and the queen mother

• The reed dance celebrations

• The incwala festival: The small incwala

• The big incwala

• Final celebrations at the incwala

• Sibhaca dancing

• The Boers arrive in the Swazi kingdom

• King Mbandzeni and the British

• The British control the land

• The Swazi kingdom is split in two

• An independent Swaziland

• Democracy and monarchy

• The Swazi people of South Africa

• Say a few words in the Swazi language

• Pumpkin and mealie porridge

• Important dates in Swazi history

The Ndebele people

ISBN 978-1-77008-455-1

[72 pp]

An overview of the culture and history of the Ndebele people, including their traditional way of life, homes, arts and crafts, music and dance, clothing, leaders and important ceremonies, as well as how life has changed for the Ndebele people over time. 

This book contains a Glossary and an Index. 

Renée van der Wiel

>> Start reading the book online

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Contents

• Fast facts

• The strangers

• The family and their huts

• Work for the boys and men

• Busy women

• Making pots, mats and dolls

• Useful mud

• Ndebele homes - changing styles

• Modern-day patterns and painters

• Initiation: From girls to women

• Initiation: From boys to men

• Proud mothers and men

• Aprons for different ages

• Neck-rings: Jewellery to last a lifetime

• Making the family happy

• The bride on her wedding day

• Songs for clans, kings and children

• Zimu and the ancestors

• Learning to heal

• Battles between Manala and Ndzundza

• The Manala Ndebele and Mzilikazi

• Life during the 1800s

• King Nyabela and the Boers

• The Ndzundza-Ndebele buy back their land

• The Ndebele people and apartheid

• Fighting for freedom

• The queen of Ndebele music

• Say a few words in the Ndebele language

• Roasted pumpkin seeds

• Important dates in Ndebele history

The Venda people

ISBN 978-1-77008-456-8

[88 pp]

An overview of the culture and history of the Venda people, including their traditional way of life, homes, arts and crafts, music and dance, clothing, leaders and important ceremonies, as well as how life has changed for the Venda people over time.

This book contains a Glossary and an Index. 

Renée van der Wiel

>> Start reading the book online

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Contents

• Fast facts

• Moving from central to southern Africa

• The first Venda people

• Villages and chiefs

• King Thoho ya Ndou

• Building huts

• The family

• Jobs in the family - the women and men

• Jobs in the family - the children

• The Lemba people

• Metalwork

• Thumb pianos and xylophones

• From skins to stripes

• Lake Fundudzi

• Boys’ initiation

• Girls’ initiation

• The python dance

• Venda drums

• Bride-wealth

• Weddings - then and now

• Raluvhimba and the ancestors

• Gifts for the ancestors

• Traditional healers: the mungoma and the nanga

• Venda chiefs and their ancestors

• Choosing a chief

• Thoho ya Ndou’s kingdom comes to an end

• Makhado and the Boers

• The Boers take control of Venda lands

• The Venda homeland

• Apartheid ends

• Traditional leaders today

• Venda artist Noria Mabasa

• Say a few words in the Venda language

• Spinach and peanut sauce

• Important dates in Venda history

The Tsonga-Shangaan people

ISBN 978-1-77008-457-5

[80 pp]

An overview of the culture and history of the Tsonga Shangaan people, including their traditional way of life, homes, arts and crafts, music and dance, clothing, leaders and important ceremonies, as well as how life has changed for the Tsonga Shangaan people over time..

This book contains a Glossary and an Index. 

Renée van der Wiel

>> Start reading the book online

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Contents

• Fast facts

• Farmers and flies

• Shoshangane and the great Gaza kingdom

• The Tsonga and the Shangaan

• Building huts

• The family

• The muti

• Jobs in the family - women’s work

• Cooking food and collecting salt

• Jobs in the family - the boys and the men

• Tsonga-Shangaan traders

• Slaves and scars

• Skirts and minceka cloth

• Wood carving

• Teenagers and initiation

• Music and love

• Choosing a wife

• Wives and modern weddings

• Ancestors and witches

• Helping sick people

• Choosing a healer or a doctor

• Church and art: Jackson Hlungwani

• Modern Tsonga-Shangaan leaders

• A chief who is a woman

• The search for a peaceful place to live

• White settlers arrive

• Working on the mines

• Mine dances

• Apartheid

• Artworks that teach our history

• Say a few words in the Tsonga language

• Sweet potatoes with jugo beans

• Important dates in Tsonga-Shangaan history

The Tswana people

ISBN 978-1-77008-458-2

[85 pp]

An overview of the culture and history of the Tswana people, including their traditional way of life, homes, arts and crafts, music and dance, clothing, leaders and important ceremonies, as well as how life has changed for the Tswana people over time.

This book contains a Glossary and an Index. 

Renée van der Wiel

>> Start reading the book online

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Contents

• Fast facts

• African farmers move south

• The Bechuana become the Batswana

• Chiefs and chiefdoms

• Life in the Tswana towns

• Family life in the lolwapa

• Working together, living together

• Jobs for the boys and the men

• Women and girls working hard

• Harvest time

• Making leather

• Wearing leather

• Totems - symbols of the people

• The headman and his kgotla

• The pitso: An important meeting with the chief

• Musical instruments

• Initiation for girls and boys

• Weddings

• Bogadi: Cattle, cousins and wives

• Modimo and the ancestors

• Witches and the ngaka

• Throwing the bones

• Making rain

• The missionaries bring a new way of life

• Battles with African enemies

• The Boers arrive

• The British and the discovery of diamonds

• Mining and the Union of South Africa

• Sol Plaatje 1876-1932

• Bophuthatswana

• Democracy in Botswana and South Africa

• The Royal Bafokeng Nation

• Changing traditions

• Say a few words in the Tswana language

• Chakalaka

• Important dates in Tswana history

The North Sotho people

ISBN 978-1-77008-459-9

[88 pp]

An overview of the culture and history of the North Sotho people, including their traditional way of life, homes, arts and crafts, music and dance, clothing, leaders and important ceremonies, as well as how life has changed for the North Sotho people over time.

This book contains a Glossary and an Index. 

Renée van der Wiel

>> Start reading the book online

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Contents

• Fast facts

• The first North Sotho people

• North Sotho chiefs and the Pedi king

• Trouble in the Pedi kingdom

• The kgoro

• Wives’ huts and courtyards

• Building huts

• Painting huts and making crafts

• Women’s work

• Feeding the family

• Jobs for the girls and the boys

• The men and the rakgoro

• Solving problems

• Initiation for boys - bodika

• Initiation for boys - bogwera

• Initiation for girls

• Initiation today

• Before getting married

• Wedding celebrations

• Chiefs and their wives

• Dinaka and kiba music

• God and the ancestors

• Finding out the future

• Medicines and witches

• Traditional clothing

• A new North Sotho style

• Protecting the Pedi kingdom from the Boers

• Sekhukhune becomes king

• The end of the Pedi kingdom

• Apartheid and the Lebowa homeland

• Democracy and traditional leaders

• The Lobedu people and their Rain Queen

• The Rain Queen’s “wives” and children

• Modern Modjadji

• Say a few words in the North Sotho language

• Sorghum bread - mpunyane

• Important dates in North Sotho history

The South Sotho people

ISBN 978-1-77008-460-5

[88 pp]

An overview of the culture and history of the South Sotho people, including their traditional way of life, homes, arts and crafts, music and dance, clothing, leaders and important ceremonies, as well as how life has changed for the South Sotho people over time.This book contains a Glossary and an Index. 

Renée van der Wiel

>> Start reading the book online

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Contents

• Fast facts

• The Basotho farmers

• King Moshweshwe

• The king and the chiefs

• Villages

• Sleeping huts and kitchens

• Building huts in the grassland areas

• Building huts in the mountains

• Growing food

• Cooking, helping and herding

• Making music while herding cattle

• Transport - Basotho ponies and donkeys

• Baskets and pots

• Men and the khotla

• Totems

• Remembering the ancestors

• The ngaka and the thokoloshi

• Communicating with the ancestors

• Changing fashions

• Blankets and hats

• Boys’ initiation

• Girls’ initiation

• Bohadi: Gifts for the wife’s family

• Weddings and wives

• War dances and the knee dance

• More Boers arrive in the South Sotho kingdom

• The British arrive - and leave again

• Basutoland

• The Kingdom of Lesotho

• South Sotho people in South Africa

• Apartheid and democracy

• Keeping the culture, and decorating homes

• Say a few words in the South Sotho language

• Ginger beer

• Important dates in South Sotho history

The San people

ISBN 978-1-77008-462-9

[93 pp]

An overview of the culture and history of the San people, including their traditional way of life, homes, arts and crafts, music and dance, clothing, leaders and important ceremonies, as well as how life has changed for the San people over time.This book contains a Glossary and an Index. 
 

Renée van der Wiel

>> Start reading the book online

Order this series now >>

Contents

• Fast facts

• The first people of South Africa

• Huts and caves

• Herders and farmers arrive

• Click and pop sounds

• Hunting and gathering

• Finding honey

• Clever hunters

• Bows and arrows

• Poisoned arrows

• Hunting and gathering along the coast

• Making fire and finding water

• Animal skins and beaded jewellery

• San bands

• Meeting, and the giving of gifts

• Bows and shakers

• Fun and games

• A god called /Kaggen

• /Kaggen and the eland

• A boy becomes a man

• A girl becomes a woman

• Getting married

• Healers and their special dance

• Trance dances to catch the rain animal

• Rock art

• Making paints and rock engravings

• The Dutch settle at the Cape

• Settlers bring wars and diseases

• The Boers and the British take over the land

• The San in the 1900s

• The San and democracy

• The ‡Khomani of the Kalahari

• The “secret” San of the Drakensberg

• San soldiers from Angola and Namibia

• The people of Platfontein

• The /Xam

• The motto on South Africa’s coat of arms

• Say a few words in a San language

• Playing the n‡a game

• Important dates in San history