Johannesburg and the Zulu Cultural Centre

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Arriving in South Africa from West Africa it was evident that an altogether different vibe was in operation. South Africa had instituted Apartheid in 1948 and it effects were fully in evidence in 1968. Coming from the segregated airport the driver murmured the most disgusting racial epithets about Black African passerby on the street. I'd never heard anything like it anywhere and it was truly shocking. Yet that was years before economic sanctions were applied to South Africa. American cars, manufactured in South Africa with right-hand drive, were the norm and a large billboard proclaimed "Alles is Beter mit Groot Groot Coke" in Afrikaans.

Johannesburg was a modern city by then, but with several differences, notably Apartheid. There was no television broadcasting, only radio, television would have been dependent on external sources of programming. A department store we visited sold "radiograms" for home entertainment, that is, console radios and record players.

Sightseeing in the Transvaal Province (know known as Gauteng) focused on Pretoria and a Zulu cultural village nearby. On the way to Pretoria, we visited the cultural village, a type of open air museum. The Zulu cultural village afforded a view of the rondavel (or rondawal), a cylindrical, single-room house with a conical thatched roof. This is the typical traditional style of dwelling used by the indigenous peoples throughout Southern Africa. The ones displayed at the cultural village were prettified and painted in bright colors, though rondavels can be stuccoed and painted white.We went inside one of the the circular one-room dwellings to see the sleeping and cooking areas The centre was characterized as a "Zulu Kraal" (settlement), but I don't know how authentic the presentation was. It was similar to the contemporary Lesedi Cultural Village, also near Pretoria. (Maybe that is where we went, photos of it are very similar to what we saw in 1968.)

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Photos

Johannesburg from Munro Drive.
The tower is the Hillbrow Tower microwave tower under construction. IMG00417P1

Johannesburg from Munro Drive.
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Cart on the Highway
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Ndebele Rondawal
Exterior of a Ndebele rondavel (rondawal) dwelling at a tribal cultural village near Johannesburg. The centre was characterised as a "Zulu Kraal" (settlement), but I don't know how authentic the presentation was. It was similar to the contemporary Lesedi Cultural Village.
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Rondawal Interior
Zulu Cultural Centre. Interior of a Ndebele rondeval (rondawal) dwelling at a tribal cultural village near Johannesburg. The centre was characterised as a "Zulu Kraal" (settlement), but I don't know how authentic the presentation was. It was similar to the contemporary Lesedi Cultural Village.
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Zulu Boma
Zulu boma or enclosed community.
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