THE NATAL SOCIETY OFFICE BEARERS 1998 -1999 President Vice-Presidents Trustees Treasurers Auditors Director Assistant Director and Secretary to the Council S.N. Roberts Dr F.e. Friedlander TB. Frost M.1.e. Daly A.B. Burnett S.N. Roberts KPMG Messrs Thornton-Dibb, Van der Leeuw and Partners Mrs S.S. Wallis 1. C. Morrison COUNCIL Elected Members S.N. Roberts (Chainnan) Professor A. Kaniki (Vice Chairman) Professor A.M. Barrett A.B. Burnett 1.H. Conyngham MJ.e. Daly lM. Deane TB. Frost Professor W.R. Guest e. Manson Mrs T .E. Radebe A.L. Singh Ms P.A. Stabbins Transitional Local Council Professor C.O. Gardner Representatives E.O. Msimang EDITORIAL COMMITTEE OF NATALIA Editor Associate Editor Secretary lM. Deane TB. Frost Dr W.H. Bizley M.H. Comrie Professor W.R. Guest Dr D. Herbert F.E. Prins Mrs S.P.M. Spencer Dr S. Vietzen G.D.A. Whitelaw DJ. Buckley Natalia 28 (1998) Copyright Natal Society Foundation 2010Natalia Journal ofthe Natal Society No. 28 December 1998 Published by Natal Society Library P.O.Box 415, Pietermaritzburg 3200, South Africa SA ISSN 0085-3674 Cover Picture Briar GhylL Pietermaritzburg, c. 1884. showing original (c. 1868) detached kitchen to rear of house. (Drav.-ing by Dennis Radford, author of the article on p.34 of this issue.) 7'Jpeset by A1.J. Marwick Printed by The Natal Witness Printing and Publishing Company (p(v) Lld Contents Page EDITORIAL................................................ 5 REPRINT .I travelled to other worlds' R. Papini .......... ........................ ....... ... ............................... (, ARTICLES Exotic yet often colourless 1 ~ 1 H : v n Jenkins ... :............................................................... 14 Toponymic lapses in Zulu place names Phyllis J.l'./. Zungu ...... ... .......... .......... ............... .............. ... 23 The pioneer Natal settler house Dennis Radford ... ... ..... ........ ..... .............. .... ..... ............. .... 34 Barracks and hostels Robert Honze ... ... ..... ..... ... ... ..... ..... ....... ............. ........... ...... 45 An environmental manifesto for the greater Pietermaritzburg area Dai Herbert and GmJin White/aw .. ............... ........... .......... 53 OBITUARIES John Mowbray Didcott ...................................................... 64 Keith Oxlee ....................................................................... 66 Ronald George MacMillan ................................................ 69 Christopher Cresswell ....................................................... 70 Derrick John .Jackie' McGlew .......................................... 72 Owen Pieter Faure Horwood .............................................. 74 NOTES AND QUERIES.................................... 75 BOOK REVIEWS .................................... 85 SELECT LIST OF RECENT KWAZULU-NATAL PUBLICATIONS 94 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 CONSERVING THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT. (see p. 53)

Many meetings of the group that produced the Environmental Manifesto for Pietermaritzburg were held in this

building, the Tembaletu Community Education Centre. A derelict former girls' boarding school, it was restored and

renovated in a project which taught building trade skills to many unemployed people. (Photograph: D. G. Herbert)

Editorial Of the two pairs of articles in this issue of Natalia, one is fortuitous, the other a result of editorial planning. The architectural-historical pieces on the early Natal settler house and on workers' barracks and hostels were submitted by their authors unbeknown to each other: but wishing to publish something about the place names of this province, we asked professors Zungu and lenkins to cover Zulu and non-Zulu place names respectively. There is an element of uncertainty about the 'Reprint' section. We know that Carl Faye's paper containing an account of a 'close encounter of the third kind' was offered to the South African family weekly, the Dutspan, which ceased publication in 1957: and it appears to have held the copyright. It would, however, have been too time-consuming and unproductive a task to comb through more than 1 500 unindexed issues of the magazine to find it. If the Dut.span did in fact print the piece, then it is truly a 'reprint': if not, then it will prove to have been a 'previously unpublished piece'! Perhaps its previous publication will be confirmed by someone with a long memory, an interest the paranormal and a scrapbook. The fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country could not go unmarked in his birthplace, Pietermaritzburg, or in this journal. Notes & Queries records the commemorative programme arranged by the Alan Paton Centre at the University of Natal, some memories of Paton as schoolmaster, and some other literary connections with the city. One of the books reviewed is an autobiography set mainly in Pietermaritzburg. All of this ensures that Clio doesn't monopolise the limelight in this issue. Yatalia 29, due to appear in December 1999, will appropriately mark the centenary of the beginning of the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. The price of Natalia has remained at R25 for a number of years, but from the next issue it will unfortunately have to be increased to R30, and South African subscribers will now be required, like overseas subscribers, to pay postage. The insert order form for the next issue gives details. 1.M. DEANE '1 travelled to other worlds' Introduction In Noyember 1912, ANC founder John Dube. trying to organise resistance to the Union's impending anti-African legislation. harangued a gathering of Zululand chiefs at Eshowe for lack of unity in defence of their interests. Among his imprecations was one against 'ridiculous rumours among you about flying bodies coming through space' (Faye 1923: 87). This kind of tantalising pointer to evidence of African sightings of UFOs might well crop up in other official records. but until the recent American publication of the media-savvy isangoma or isazi (seer) Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa's Song of the Stars (1996), nothing in the nature of an account of extraterrestrial contact from a Zulu source has appeared in popular print. Dube's question to the chiefs immediately following the above 'What do your doctors say about these things?' reveals his opinion as to which sphere of culture such matters rightly belong. and indeed considerable claims are made by inyanga Mutwa of contact. both firsthand and from hearsay. Although the formal ethnographic record may yield next to nothing in respect of diviners' utterances regarding the extraterrestriall. one of the earliest indigenous voices - Canon Callaway's main informant Mpengula Mbanda speaks quite plainly of 'the people \",ho. we suppose. are on the other side of the heaven' , which was conceived of as a blue rock encompassing the earth. Vague as he was regarding their location ewe do not know whether they are on the rock", or whether there is some little place which is earth on the other side), Mpengula was unequivocal about the reality of abantu bezulu (people of the sky). 'The one thing we know is this, that these heavenly men exist. Therefore we say there is a place for them, as this place is for us' (Callaway 1970a: 394). Call away himself in his Nun,'ery Tales says that 'so far as [he] know[s]. every where among the people of all tribes, [there is] a belief in the existence of h e a v e n ~ v men' (1 970b: 316, Appendix). Today this tradition finds lavish - some would say opportunistic - expression in the latest offering from the reconstructed and nowadays warmly feted Mutwa2. His of the Stars. subtitled Lore of a Zulu Shaman, consists of transcriptions of his cosmogonic monologues by American admirers. and presents in an eponymous chapter what might be called an . Afrocentric UFOlogy', in the shape of what he calls the . mere outline' of a . great story that tells of the extraterrestrial origins of humankind' (:125). This is just one part ofa heritage of 'amazing knowledge of the cosmos. the solar system, and even dimensions unknown to man' once possessed by black South Africa (: 123). Xatalw 28 (1998). R. Papini pp. 6-13 7 J travelled to other worlds This body of lore exists, moreover, throughout the continent. When in Kenya during the Mau Mau uprising, the urbane and well-travelled Mutwa found that an encounter with a 'gigantic disk' and its bright floating satellite globes left him considerably more agitated than some traditional Africans hard by in their 'skins and long robes' (: 140), He details several other encounters (including an incident in Natal in which a 'hardened policeman' fired on a UFO!), in order to assert that 'black people of all tribes have a long tradition of dealing with things like these flying things from outside the Earth' (: 141). It is only with reticence. however, that they disclose what they know: 'You come across a similar runiform! my1hology though I think they won't tell it to strangers. (: 133). Notwithstanding this, in perhaps the best-known of South African UFO tales, Bevond [he Light Barrier. author Elizabeth Klarer3 implicitly claims that indigenous knowledge of otherworld civilisations was divulged to her. by induna 'Ladam' (Laduma?) during her girlhood on her family's Drakensberg farm: in Natal. His 'prophecy' allegedly included the somewhat startling assertion that Klarer's blonde hair would 'bring the Abelungu (white people) from the sky ... They are the sky gods who once lived in this world, but afterwards ascended . . .' (: 19),4 Though its protagonist was spared any such unsettling revelation. the present account would seem to constitute a like exception to any Africa-wide tradition of secrecy, It was imparted by an old-world, tribal Zulu, Maphelu Zungu, to a white woman. Nimba Lulla McAyre. I have been unable to discover who she was, much less ho\v she came to obtain the account. Nor is it known whether she transcribed it in Zulu or English. and if the former, whether the translation too is her work, or that of the man who preserved the text the long-serving Native Affairs Department interpreter Carl Faye5, in whose papers it is one among several oral histol)' interview transcripts. Nor is there any date on the original typescript or any ready way of establishing when the encounter took place, or when the account of it was transcribed6. The flimsy typescript certainly found its place in Faye's collection thanks to his long-standing relationship with its narrator and protagonist. Maphelu the son of Mkhosana kaSangqwana Zungu, who was cousin to Ngqumbazi , the concubine of King Cetshwayo who bore his successor Dinuzulu7. 'Maphelu and 1', Faye says, 'knew each other for years'. probably through the agency of Faye's mother-in-law Mrs Eileen Matthews, a granddaughter of Henry Francis Fynn (1803-61). Maphelu, whose birth is estimated by Faye as c.1853; died in about 1946. He had been in the service of Fynn's son, also Henry Francis (1846-1915) when the latter was British Resident Commissioner with Cetshwayo in Zululand north of the Mhlatuze. Consequently Maphelu heard much about the elder Fynn, and knew the izibongo of both mens. Assuredly it was such connections, as well as his patrician birth, that made Maphelu Zungu a Native Affairs Department favourite in Zululand and Natal. such that Faye, when taking down his eyewitness account of Cetshwayo's capture9, prefaced it with an interesting biographical sketch, which is worth quoting at some length for the graphic impression it gives of the text's narrator: 8 I travelled to other worlds In appearance Maphelu was a man of medium Zulu build and height, well-knit and wiry. He was of a restless disposition, had sharp eyes, was quick in movements, had somewhat thin lips for a Zulu, was inclined to speak rapidly and be repetitive and was apt to disregard details, but with all that, was openly friendly. He liked visiting, and would soon be off, slightly leaning forward, his gait typical of that of a Zulu on an errand. In advancing age he had a staff, udondolo, and when out walking he would put this across the small of his back, holding it with both hands crotched backwards. There was always an air of dignity about Maphelu. He had fought at Isandlwana and Ulundi, and his 'gory life' included a coupcount of twenty-two of which Faye is 'certain', and the alleged murder of a missionary, for which he was apparently sentenced to death but subsequently pardoned. Most importantly for an appreciation of the present text however. Faye stresses that Zungu had apparently reconciled himself to the fact of conquest: [He] lived to see the extensive advance made in Zululand by the work of the whites, through their ever-increasing skills, and he had seen the benefits which this had brought to the inhabitants. The old warrior had seen that ... the white man had diligently brought to the Zulus ever so much of the Abalumbi' s (wonder-workers') knowledge, abilities, helpfulness, healing and soothing doctoring, money economy, and much else, and had shown the [Zulus] how to do useful and profitable work for themselves. The white man had as well brought 'quick machines' for doing work, also swift means of communication, all wizardry undreamt -of. It is probably also helpful to mention here, for the benefit of readers sceptical of the account's authenticity, that a variant typescript of Faye's biographical note says 'the old warrior had noticed that ... the white man had quietly brought to the Zulus ever so much of the white man's knowledge, abilities, enlightenment "even flying up into the sky" , (p. 5, my emphasis). Even the title of the piece, such sceptics might argue, is strictly speaking unfitted to the events it relates, and smacks of little more than journalistic attention-grabbing. Those familiar with Zulu idiom might be able to judge whether the narrative rings troe. If it has a contrived feel, they may choose to t::tke Nimba McAyre for another Elizabeth Klarer, seeking to put on her personal cosmology the stamp of the singular brand of authentication afforded by a native voice or witness. Those on the other hand who are content to take the tale in the millennial spirit, may prefer to believe after all, with Mutwa, that indeed 'if you scratch below the surface, all our tribal people have stories about the stars' (:121). 9 1 travelled to other worlds I Travelled to Other Worlds by a Zulu Much it is that I have seen in my time, but this ... this is like a dream. This is what happened. I was on a journey from my home in the lowlands, to visit people in the highlands a day's walking distance. At last I got to the mountains, and edged upwards. In one part of the ascent the path is flanked by a sheer rocky rise, and at the foot of this towering place is flat grassy land, quite wide, crossed by the path. Below this haugh [sic] or shelf is a steep slope with boulders, where there are snakes and rock-rabbits, klipspringers and baboons. There on the shelf I sat down to rest and took out my snuff, and sniff-sniffed whiff-whiffed. I snuffed and looked around. Then I saw something odd, something I had never noticed before. It was a very big rock, smooth and egg-shaped, there right next to the precipice. I asked myself audibly, 'What is this?' So I went to look at it, put my hand on it, and it was very slippery in all directions. like wet clay. but it was quite dry. Then I thought I felt it move, and off I cleared, lest it roll over me. At a safe distance I stopped, to watch. The thing kept moving, slowly slowly, up up it moved. Away I ran at top speed, to the side of the flat ground where the foot-path enters, and there (stopped and) stood. because if it crashed from so high up it might do a lot of damage and leave nothing of me but bits and pieces. As I was running I caught glimpses of my stomach. You see for yourself that it is a nice stomach, serving me well - it is of good capacity (tapping it). With the haste of running. the stomach was wabble-wabbling, yibble-yibbling, and I wondered whether it would ever serve me again for mabele (Zulu beer). Terrible. There I stood, and asked myself, 'Hau, are you then dreaming?' I looked upward. but there was nothing at all to see now - the Thing wasn't there gone, clean gone. I sat down. I looked at myself. and I was still really myself; I looked around, and it was just ordinary broad daylight, the sun was shining. I took out my snuff and tapped some out onto my palm, sniff, whiff, whiff, sneeeff - ah. I said to myself. No, I will go ahead and make my visit to the people in the highlands. So I started, meaning that when I had got to the top of the climb I would hasten onward, where the country was easier. But on getting within full view of the precipice at the side of the flat shelf, there the Thing was again, as I had first seen it. This was scandalous and now I became scared, mature though I be - properly scared: why should this happen to me, of all people? A bearded man in his prime now appeared, coming from the Thing, but from nowhere that I cQ.uld make out, and he walked with a stately gait toward me. It was a person unknown to me, but at any rate a person, so I waited. My heart told me to run for it but I refused, for he was unarmed and I had my assegai. to I travelled to other vv'orlds' He came up to me, and before I could greet him, in the usual way, he said something which sounded like 'wufu-wufu' in his beard. That beat me, and I just looked at him. Then he undid a small neatly plaited grass satchel from a necklace he was wearing, and took out a charm. He broke this in two, and put one piece into his mouth and started chewing. He put the other piece into my mouth. I found myself chewing too, and it was a bit bitter, but I swallowed. What else could I do? He spoke again, and -marvel of marvels - I knew his speech language as well as my own. The . wufu-wufu , was really Zungu, my very family name. He said Zungu, you have been scared. but all this will do you no hurt. I have come here in that (pointing to the Thing). to see something, and my wife is with me, and our two children. All is good. harmless. I came to this spot because I thought it was secluded, and that nobody would notice anything. But now you are here, and you see this (again pointing to the Thing), and I have no choice but to shmv you inside you have lighted on my secret errand. which can no longer be concealed from you. We are on a peaceful mission. Let me show you hmv we are travelling. Come and see inside. \Vith that he walked toward the Thing, and I followed close to him. Just as we started walking, the lower part of the Thing began to raise itself, as a bird raises its wings, until it had mushroomed right out but there was no split to be seen in the spread: the spread was complete, like an open umbrella. I then saw that this base of the Thing was flat and that it was standing upright on its flat. A cleft appeared in the wall, and became a doonvay. He walked in. and I too walked in. and we were both standing on an even floor. The part of the floor where we were standing rose very gently, and above our heads the ceiling opened, and we passed through the ceiling into the upper apartment and stopped there. We had been lifted. I had felt nothing. That upper apartment was very nice and cosy. I was gazing around this, when a doorway opened. and there were the man's wife and two children - a boy and a girl, the lad old enough to herd goats, and the girl to carry water. They sat down. The mother busied herself with decorating a calabash milk-vessel, and the girl put down beads and did'beadworking. During this time the man had been talking to me. He asked, 'Whither were you goingT I told him. 'To people on the highland, on my way from the lowland'. Thereupon he said, 'Seeing you have thus been detained, through you having noticed this carrier of mine, 1 will lift you up in it and take you to near your destination. You will be there by sundown. There is no need for you to have any fear you will feel nothing at all. Merely tell me how long it takes you to walk there, the direction from here, and what the home you are visiting is like, how many huts, the stock-fold, and what is to be seen growing there. Do you now', he asked, 'feel anything?' 'No', I said, 'I feel nothing'. He said, 'You see, you feel nothing, and we are up in the air. Let me show you'. With that he went to the side of the apartment, and something parted. He looked dmvn. and beckoned to me, saying, 'Come and see, and have no fear; this is for 11 ! travelled to other worlds seeing with the eyes only, and cannot make an open hole: it is like a window that is fixed firmly'. I went and looked. How surprised I was! There, below, like a picture. was the country, a big expanse of it 10'\'land and highland. hills and herding cattle, and the smaller boys herding goats separately. Some of the bigger boys were playing stabbing the insema bulb [a traditional boys' game], hurled down a slope, bounding and bouncing like a buck whilst the competitors, in a row, threw their imitation assegais of sharpened thin sticks, others with leafy branches. I saw eveI)thing, and recognised homes I knew. I said I was satisfied, and the view-giver closed. Turning. I noticed that the man's small daughter was talking to herself as she was doing her beadwork talking in the speech I knew. I listened. She picked up a bead. and said, 'My heart is black because of you, and I don't like you any more'. Then she picked up a red one. and said, 'My heart is now red like blood, for you have made me cross'. So she was saying as she strung each bead. The green one: 'Now my heart is quietened, for I see the green grass. and the cattle are grazing'. A blue one: 'Now my heart is (quietened) glad again, for I see the blue on a clear day'. A straw-coloured bead: 'Here my heart is pleased, the grass is yellovving, and we shall reap, and we shall go out and cut thatching grass and make our homes snug'. A white one: 'Oh, I see only happiness!'. Then the man spoke to me, saying 'You have been hearing my child as she strings beads. Now we are above cloud, and you have felt nothing'. We went to the viewer. and it opened. There below, I saw a wonder: no land, everywhere white, all crimply, different from what clouds are like from the earth. Away away up the dome of the sky was the half-moon, still aloft, all by itself there, as though flung on the sky and just stuck there. The sun was shining, but was obscured now by cloud. The viewer closed. The man said, 'Now I shall take you down, to be in good time for your visit'. He said soon after. 'Come now to the seeing place, and direct me, for we are over the highland (homes) and homes are clear to the eye. I indicated to him, and we got near the home I wanted to visit. The viewer closed, and soon he said, 'We are down on the earth'. I had felt nothing nothing. He said. 'Come. and stand with me here on the alighting place'. Next we were on the ground. the two of us. I had been half a day's foot journey without having waked at all, and here I was right close to my destination, and I saw people of the home I was visiting - but they took no notice, as if they did not see us. The man said, 'Come back, forget not your assegai', and we went back. 'Where did you leave it?' he asked. I looked, but I saw no assegai. He put out his hand, and said. 'But here it is', and then I saw it, and he handed it back to me. 'Farewell', I said to his family, and we went out, he and I, to the ground. On the ground he asked, 'When are you likely to go back to your horneT I replied, 'There is elsewhere I shall be going, but I shall pass here on the morning of the fourth day from today, homeward'. I took him by the hand, and said 'Thank you' . 12 I travelled to other worlds Then we parted, and I stood there watching him go, but somehow he just disappeared, as on the Thing. I took my way home, all in wonder. I had seen far more than swallows see from the air, perhaps as much as the vultures that vanish from sight up in the sky. REFERENCES Call away, Henry. 1970a. The Religious System ofthe AmaZulu. Cape Town: C. Struik (Pty) Ltd. Call away. Henry. 1970b. Nursery Tales, Traditions and Histories of the Zulus. in their own words/ a translatIOn mtoEnglish and notes. Westport, Conn.: Negro University Press. Faye, Carl. 1923. Zulu Referencesfor Interpreters and Students. Pietennaritzburg: City Printing Works Ltd. Fave Papers, National Archives, Pietennaritzburg Depot. A141. (Box 7: ' "I Travelled to Other Worlds", By a Zulu, As Told to Nimba Lulla McAyre'; 'Notes & Drafts, "When the British took Cetshwayo", as told by Maphelu Zungu kaMkhosana, set down by Carl Faye'; 'The Taking of Cetshwayo, Told by Martin Oftebro '; 'The Taking of Cetshwayo Zulu. Told by Chief Zimema Mzimela-Mnguni of Mthunzini, & Recorded by Carl Faye'). Filter, H. and S. Bourquin. 1986. Paulma Dlamini: Servant ofTwo Kings. Killie Campbell Africana Library, Durban, and University of Natal Press, Pietennaritzburg. Klarer. Elizabeth. 1980. Beyond the Light Barrier, Howard Timmins Publishers. Madela, Laduma. 1997. Zulu mythology as written and illustrated by the Zulu prophet Laduma Madela. Ed. Katesa Schlosser. Kiel: Schmidt & Klaunig. Mutwa. Vusamazulu Credo. 1996. Song of the Stars: The Lore of a Zulu Shaman. Stephen Larsen, ed. Station Hill Openings, Barrytown Ltd. NOTES I. Notably, in the most recent publication by Katesa Schlosser (1997), who has documented extensively the mythographies of the late Ceza lightning-doctor Laduma Madela, there is nothing in all Madela's rich theogony which could be construed as UFO-related. 2. Mutwa's image has had quite a makeover since the days when the liberation movement blacklisted him as a reactionary force propagating 'false consciousness'. He has become the de facto spokesman for all things mythical and antiquarian in the African renaissance, and his controversial writings have come to inspire many, including young South African filmmakers. (For a recent example, see the Weekly Mail and Guardian 9 15 October 1998, Friday supplement, p4). 3. In Beyond the Light Barrier, set in the mid-'50s, a humanoid alien named Akon from the planet Meton near Alpha Centauri, fathers a son on the author as one of 'only a few. chosen for breeding purposes fl'om beyond [i\kon's] solar system, to infuse new blood into our ancient race' (:135). Mutwa mentions having recently met and prayed with Klarer 'to the extraterrestrials on behalf of the people of Africa'. He finds 'nothing unusual or so unearthly about Madame Klarer's story. There have been many women throughout Africa in various centuries who have attested to the t.1.ct that they have been fertilized by strange creatures from somewhere' (: 152). 4. Some might feel that this introduces an unsavoury ambiguity into a book whose underlying sentiments may be told from the author's assertion that her hybrid offspring 'will not be born in this planet, where a racialistic outlook submerges all sane and intellectual thought' (: 127). A milder dose of etlmocentrism also enters into the present account. Although no direct reference is made to the physiognomy or 'ethnicity' ofthe aliens, their shipboard domestic pursuits (notably beadwork) reflect directly the culture ofthe narrator. S. Faye was sworn in as Interpreter before the Natal Supreme Court in 1919, and two years later entered in the Union Civil Service List (Faye 1923: 6, 90, 9). Having at the age of seventeen met lames Stuart, the archetype of the Zuluphile he himself was to become in the course of his career, he became right-hand man of Chief Native Commissioner, Harry Lugg, in the 1930s, and at all important functions interpreted for the royal house and leaders ofthe Zulu establishment. 6. The title is followed by 'World copyright reserved by Outspan', but there is no further detail, and no date setting the somewhat daunting task of searching an un-indexed weekly magazine published from 1927 to 1957, throughout which entire period the piece may (or may not) have actually appeared in print. 13 / travelled to other worlds FUlthennore it can only be inferred from the occurrence of the name Zungu in the text that he was its author. Nowhere in the document is it explicitly stated, but in view of the man's status, and his relation with Faye. the assumption seems fair. 7. Maphelu's father Mkhosana was therefore closely linked to the royal house, and it was at his homestead kwaNdasa (Place of Thriving) in the Ngome Forest that an English search party at last caught up with and captured Cetshwayo following his flight after the Battle of Ulundi. Maphelu was present and gave Faye an account of the event, titled "When the English Took Cetywayo The Story of Mapela Zungu" (Faye Papers Box 7). 8. Faye makes much of Maphelu's 'oldentime Zuluness': he mentions his first encounter with 'the "magic" of amakhandlela, candles', and how '[when] once Mapelu stayed as a guest at my home, occupying a com.fortable outbuilding of brick, with all the facilities he needed ... (h)e had no wish to sleep on a bed "upon the air", as he said, and preferred a mattress on the floor, near the fireplace'. 9. Faye clearly understood this event as having great symbolic importance for Zulu history, as he took down two further accounts - one, on 6 May 1927, from an eyewitness on the 'other side' - the Zulu linguist Maltin Oftebro, youngest son ofthe Norwegian missionary Ommund Oftebro CuMondi'), and a friend of Faye's: the other on 6 July 1928 from Chief Zimema Mzimela-Mnguni of Mthunzini (Faye, Papers Box 7). It is worth noting that another Zulu account of this episode has appeared recently, from one of the King's handmaidens, Paulina Dlamini (Filter & Bourquin). ROBERT PAPINI Exotic yet often colourless The imported place names ofKwaZulu-Natal Place names are bound up with the history of a country. Sometimes their etymology and literal meaning are significant: for others, the origin the reason for the name, or who gave it is more important. Then there are some for which none of this information is available, but which exist simply as symbols. Some names are fixed in public awareness by one moment in their history: Isandlwana, Majuba, Trustfeed. Place names seem immutable. and yet they are surprisingly slippery. They come and they go: they change in form; places may have more than one name: and the same name may be given to more than one place. Before considering some aspects of place names in K\vaZulu-Natal. a brief explanation of naming categories is necessary. The term "geographical names". or "toponyms. covers both natural features and those created by people, the latter including everything from cities down to streets, squares and bridges. In South Africa. there is an official advisory body to the government called the National Place Names Committee (NPNC), currently within the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. which since 1939 has supervised the official approval of names in five categories: towns and suburbs. post offices. railway stations and railway bus halts. The names of features in municipal areas such as streets and parks are the responsibility of local government. There are, of course, many features that fall outside these categories. such as airports. border posts, hospitals, dams, nature reserves and highways. which are named by various government departments. The names of natural features are recorded by the Department of Surveys and Mapping in consultation with the NPNC. Some of the most colourful names which most immediately reflect fashion and mood are those given to privately owned entities such as farms and buildings, and settlements spontaneously named by people but not submitted for formal approval. This article looks at some names of to\\/ns. suburbs and settlements. railway stations. post offices and topographical features. and includes names that have not been submitted to the NPNC. Successive European visitors and settlers have left traces of their languages and countries of origin. 1 Though not much trace of the Portuguese remains. they did make their mark with part of the current name for the province. Natal was given its name by Vasco da Gama on Christmas Day, 1497. It was long thought, following Eric Axelson, that da Gama actually gave the name to territory to the south of the present border of the province. but Brian Stuckenberg has recently argued that the lVata/1a 28. (1998), Elwyn lenkins pp. 14-22 15 Exotic yet ({[ten colourless fleet had probably reached the vicinity of Hibberdene.::: The Voortrekkers kept this name when they called their republic Natalia on 16 October 1840. Some Portuguese names have shifted. Don Stayt records, 'When survivors of the wreck St. Benedict in April 1554 reached the Tugela River on their long journey to Mozambique they called it S1. Lucia. The name, however, was transferred to the estuary further north by Manuel Teresreco when he surveyed the coast in 1575.' The name Oro Point comes from the name meaning 'The Downs of Gold' which was first given to St Lucia and then also moved, this time to Kosi Bay. Among the Portuf,,'llese names that have not survived are Pescaria (,The Fisheries'), given to what is now Durban by the St. Benedict party. Terra dos Fumos (,Land of Smoke'), given to Tongaland by Manuel Perestrelo, and Rio dos Peixos for Cwebeni (Richards Bay). White settlers and missionaries gave names to new places, hitherto unnamed, and to places that already had Zulu names. On the aesthetics of replacing the original names. Revd Charles Pettman, best known for his dictionary of South African English. Ajricanderisms, had this to say in 1914: Travellers and others have often remarked upon the sameness and baldness of much of our South African nomenclature: it is characterised generally by a want of nice and accurate discrimination, by not a little repetition .... and also by a considerable amount of real ugliness, testifYing to a lack of originality, a paucity of idea. and to an a] most entire absence of poetic or aesthetic fancy on the part of owners of the soil - some of the native names would have been vastly preferable. 3 After the Portuguese came the Dutch. The spelling of most Dutch names was changed to conform to Afrikaans orthography in the 1940s, such as Wasbank for Waschbank. Though to be found all over the province, they are particularly prominent in the north. The lown of Utrecht was originally called Schoonstroom after the farm on which it was laid out in 1855. A year later it was renamed after the town in the Netherlands. The original meaning of Utrecht, 'Outside meadow', was irrelevant to the symbolism of this change, which was initiated by the local church congregation. There are distinct differences between the sort of names that Afrikaners and English-speaking settlers gave. One is that places named after people in Afrikaans usually have a generic element added, such as 'drif in Dejagersdrif. 'berg' in Biggarsberg and 'burg' in Pietermaritzburg, whereas English-speakers preferred to use the personal name on its own, as in Durban and Stanger, and sometimes\vith the possessive. as in Gillitts (though they also created compound names, such as Pinetown and Fynnland). The Afrikaans practice in fact conforms to the modern rules of the NPNC, based on the international guidelines of the United Nations, that place names based on personal names should include a generic element in order to avoid confusion with an individual. Unfortunately, adding a generic does contribute to the monotony that Pettman complained about, since South Africans do not choose from a very wide repertoire and end up with something unimaginative, whether it be 'drif in Afrikaans or 'dale' in English. 16 Exotic yet often colourless Another distinctive feature of Afrikaans names is complexity of meaning, such as the use of abstract nouns to convey a statement (notably Vryheid), and names that tell a story, such as Weenen, Berou, Hongerspoort, Wondergeluk and Toggekry (meaning something like 'Got it after all'). Afrikaans nomenclature is also more like Zulu than English in being more descriptive of the landscape. such as Kloof Kranskop and Boomlaer. English-speakers were very fond of repeating place names from Britain. Sometimes this would be prompted by a perceived similarity, at other times by nostalgia; less charitably, one might ascribe this practice to arrogance or lack of imagination. From Ireland came Dargle and Donnybrook, and Scotland provided many - Balgowan, Ballengeich, Kelso, Glencoe and Dundee. At least two Welsh names can be found: Cymru itself, near Mtwalume, and Llewellyn, a station near Mount Currie. England is the origin of scores, all with their evocative associations, some well known, others obscure: Malvern, Henley, Sarnia, Mersey, Kearsney. One name from the old country that did not endure was Beaulieu, which the settlers found . embarrassing' and changed to Richmond. The Commonwealth is marked by Ottawa and Malta. An American connection is to be found in the names of mission stations founded by Americans. Adams Mission was named after Dr Newton Adams, and Groutville was named after Rev. Aldin Grout of the American Missionary Society, who established his mission in 1844. German missionaries and settlers brought German place names. New Gennany was established in 1848 with its name in German, Neu-Deutschland, which was subsequently translated as Gennany and later became known as New Germany. Others that followed include New Hanover (1850) and Wartburg, and personal names (Otto's Bluff and Ahrens). Clausthal was named by Bernard Schwikkard in 1852 after his wife's birthplace in Hanover. It is now commonly called Clansthal, which illustrates how place names can be corrupted. Marburg, though intended by a German mission for Gennan settlers, was settled in 1882 by a party of Norwegians, who then gave a Scandinavian name to Oslo Beach. The Netherlands, already mentioned, is also represented by New Guelderland, settled by eighty Dutch settlers brought out by T. Colenbrander. Roman Catholic missionaries brought Genazzano from Italy, and French Protestant missionaries created the name Mont-aux-Sources. British names commemorate missionaries and clerics (Colenso), pioneers (Dunn's Reserve, Curry's Post), the sponsors of the 1850 settlers (Byrne, Estcourt, Lidgetton), military men (Richards Bay, after Sir Frederick Richards of the Royal Navy), officials and public figures (Bulwer, Port Shepstone, Escombe, Harding, Frere - the list is long). Royalty gave their names to three of the eight counties of Natal, Victoria, Alfred and Alexandra, and Marina Beach is not nautical, but was named after the Duchess of Kent in the 1930s. A couple of places bear a celebrity's given name, which is odd, considering the fonnality of Victorian protocol, but perhaps they were adopted because they are so distinctive: Pomeroy (Sir George Pomeroy Colley) and Melmoth (Sir Melmoth Osborn). Ladysmith, everyone knows, is named after Sir Harry Smith's wife, but the Aliwal Shoal is not connected with him in the way that Aliwal North commemorates his victory in I n d i a ~ it was first 17 Exotic yet often colourless recorded by the master of the ship Aliwal in 1849. In one odd instance, a postal agency was named after two people, Denny Dalton, the surnames of two Australian prospectors who had a profitable gold mine 84 km from Vryheid. It is surprising how people's names incorporated in place names can become misspelt over a period of time, in various places such as signboards and the usage of different government departments. In the late 1980s the NPNC rectified the spelling of the names of two passes in the northern part of the province. Lang' s Nek had become known as Laing's Nek, even though it was named after William Timothy Lang, who purchased the farm at its base in 1874. Another pioneer was Thomas George Collings, who trekked with his wife from Oudtshoorn. They were the first whites to use the pass that was named after him. However. it was variously spelled as Collin' s Pass and Colling' s Pass, and this has now been standardised as Collings Pass, \vithout an apostrophe. Nowadays naming places after people is frowned upon in South Africa, because it is realised that the names can become controversial following a change of regime. Africans as well as whites have done it in the past, and the result is a colourful record of our but perhaps the time has come to avoid being needlessly divisive. Indian languages are hardly represented in South Africa. One name with an Indian element (now obsolete in the home country) is Bombay Heights. There is one purely Indian one. but that was previously spelled incorrectly and had to be corrected in 1994: it is Luxmi, a post office in Pietermaritzburg named after the goddess of wealth. Generally, residential areas formerly reserved for Indians bear English names such as Reservoir Hills, although the situation with street names is very different. Research by Varijakshi Prabhakaran has revealed that although the Indian suburbs of Durban have English names, they include '306 street names of both Hindu and Muslim religious origins and of various [Indian] linguistic groups'. 4 The military were responsible for names such as the many 'Forts', most of which have gone now, and names for obscure topographical features that were rendered suddenly significant in some campaign, such as Advance Hill, near Colenso. The 45th Cutting and the suburb in which it is located, Sherwood, are two reminders of the 45th Regiment, later known as the Sherwood Foresters, who formed the garrison there from 1843 to 1860. Camperdown has an obscure military connection, named by John Vanderplank after the British naval victory over the Dutch in 1787. Other naming systems to be found in the province include those derived from shipwrecks. Wrecks gave their names to Ambleside and Fascadale (places near Port Shepstone named after wrecks of 1868 and 1895 respectively), the Annabella Bank, once a hazard at the mouth of Durban Bay (after a wreck of 1856), and the Tenedos Reef and Fort Tenedos (after a naval vessel damaged on the reef in 1879). A whole informal naming system has been developed by the mountain climbing fraternity for the peaks, cliffs and rock shelters of the Drakensberg, some features of which have become official. Other naming systems, which are rather rare in the province, are Biblical names such as Berea, and classical names, represented by Verulam, named after the Earl of Verulam, a sponsor of British settlers, whose title came from Verulamium, the l8 Exotic yet often colourless Roman town at St. Albans, and Halcyon Drift a hamlet near Mount Currie, in which a classical name is incongruously linked with a very South African feature. Some namers, and the meaning of some names, are unknown. Nobody knows who gave European names to two of the region's best-known geographical features, the Valley of a Thousand Hills and the Drakensberg. According to R.O. Pearse, the name Drakensberg 'was in use well before the Voortrekkers came to Natal in 1837'." A name of unknown origin is Normandien, a pass and postal agency near Newcastle. There are two celebrated names of disputed meaning. Wyebank and Winklespruit. Wyebank could have been named after the River Wye in England, or the 'Y -Bank'. an incline on the railway. or it could come from the Afrikaans '\-vye' Cwide'). The origin of Winklespruit is hotly contested. It could come from the store Cv.:inkel. as some people think the Zulus would have called jt)6 \vhich Sydney Turner set up on the beach in 1875 to sell the contents of the wrecked schooner TOl1fD that he had bought the rights to salvage: or it could be derived from the periwinkles to be found in the lagoon. During the rule of the National Party government this became one of the place names that were a focus of conflict between English and Afrikaans. the other disputes being over the name Voortrekkerstrand. which was given to the post office at Munster on the South Coast. and the rival claims of Arniston and Waenhuiskrans in the Cape. While the origins of some well-known places are forgotten, there have also been names. and even settlements, that were stillborn or shortlived. The site of Port Edward was bought by T.K. Pringle. who called it Banner Rest where he planned to 'lay down his banner'. There he laid out a township which it was proposed to call KenningtoR after his name, Ken, but when it was established in 1924 it was renamed in honour of Edward, Prince of Wales. Winder was a name originally proposed for the new town of Ladysmith, after a trader, George Winder, but Lt Governor Pine would not allow it as he had already decided to honour the wife of the Governor of the Cape Colony. Springfield was the original name for Winterton, \vhich also had to give way for the honouring of a VIP. named after the Empress of France, was to have been a port that the New Republic planned to establish at St. Lucia, but nothing came of it. In the 1960s Westlands and Morelands were alternatives suggested for renaming Cato Manor (just as Sophiatown was changed to Triomi), but they did not stick. Two settlements of the immigrants of 1849-1851 that are ghost towns today are York and Byrne. Blackburn was a hamlet on the south bank of the Umhlanga River, north of Red Hill, that sprang up when a bridge was erected there in 1872, but it is gone today. A town that has died in recent years is Burnside, which was still flourishing in the 1950s while the coal mine operated there. Countless names that were given in one language have been replaced by names in another. This is most obviously the case with Zulu names which were replaced by the 'official' names put in place by Afrikaans- and later English-speakers. In many cases. the old names have not fallen into disuse, leading to a system of dual names which is well known and recognised informally. Most Natalians know that Thekwini (or Thekweni) is Durban. Where a new town was established with a nonZulu name, Zulu-speakers have often developed their own version, such as Efilidi 19 f",xotic yet often colourless for Vryheid. Since there are many dual place names in African languages and English or Afrikaans in South Africa, and certain pairs in English 'and Afrikaans are already recognised by the NPNC, thus creating a precedent, it will be incumbent on the NPNC in the future to develop a policy on the recognition of these names that is feasible. acceptable to all the people of the country, and in keeping with United Nations guidelines on multiple naming. In addition to English replacing Zulu. English replaced Afrikaans when Houtboschrand gave way to Curry's Post. However, there have also been instances of the power of colourful Zulu outweighing effete English names. An attempt at the time of Captain Gardiner's map of 1835 to call the Umbilo River the Avon failed: and although the township known as South Barrow, on the south bank of the Umkomaas RiveL kept that name from 1862 to 1924, it was eventually superseded by Umkomaas. The township of Ixopo. founded in 1878. was renamed Stuartstown after the resident magistrate. Marthinus Stuart, was killed at the Battle of Ingogo, but it later resumed its Zulu name (albeit in a form which is currently disputed). Naming patterns since 1977 Place names are not simply part of the early history of the province. Names for all sorts of ne"y entities continue to be given. and occasionally names are corrected or changed. Some of these are officially recognised and recorded by the NPNC, while others are recorded by other government agencies or remain unofficial. Names approved by the minister on the recommendation of the NPNC include existing names. such as those of suburbs. approved for the first time or given to new entities, particularly post offices. The last published list, which covers the period 1977 to 1988. gives useful data on naming patterns in that period. In the twelve years 1977-88 the Minister approved 1 274 names, of which 111 \vere in Natal and KwaZulu. The propOItion of names in English. Afrikaans and other languages compared to names in African languages in the province was fractionally more than the national proportion, namely forty-seven per cent to fiftythree per cent. Of the non-African names, eighty-two per cent were English, eleven per cent Afrikaans. and seven per cent 'other' (which includes made-up names). The history of development in the region during that period is reflected in the number of names approved for entities in a particular town. Richards Bay received two (Birdswood and Brackenham), and so did Pietermaritzburg (Lotusville and Mysore Ridge). far the largest number for a single town went to Newcastle, which received twenty-two new suburbs, racially segregated residential areas and post offices. The kinds of names chosen for Newcastle reflect the tastes that dominated the national scene at that time: seven 'parks'. two viBes'. a 'rand'. an ugly coinage (Ferrax), Lennoxton. Schuinshoogte, Vlam. and a string of bland cliches: Bergview, Fairleigh, Fernwood, Rickview, Riverside, Signal Hill, Sunny Ridge and Sunset View. The 'parks' are where the commemoration of people is to be found. in names such as BarI)' Hertzogpark and Viljoen Park. The rest of the province saw its share of similarly nondescript names: Ashwood, Brookdale, Forest Haven, Palmview, Waterberg Wood, Westmead. Local colour was added to the conventional elements in Caneside and Mangrove Park. Ballitoville 20 Exotic yet often colourless bucked the trend by officially shedding the 'ville' part. 'Modern' coinages comprised Arbex, Con marine, Durmail and ProspectoR Indian names could be spotted in Lotusville and Shastri Park, and Afrikaans, true to form, produced a picturesque complex name, Meer en See.8 The next published list of place names in the province is one published in 1992 by a non-governmental organisation. the Human Rights Commission. Entitled The Tl'.'O South Africas: A People's Geography. it was an attempt to identify and map the 'African. Indian and Coloured townships in South Africa'. 9 The list is probably incomplete. especially when it comes to informal settlements. In Natal and K waZulu, thirty-one per cent of the 143 names are in English, Afrikaans and other languages, and sixty-nine per cent in Zulu. Most of those with non-Zulu names are townships that were assigned to Indian and Coloured people, but there are a few notable African ones as well, such as Limehill (once notorious as a 'dumping ground') and Taylor's Halt. The landmark year of 1994 saw the publication of a comprehensive list of informal settlements in KwaZulu-NataL painstakingly collated from information gathered for a research project on the subject that was undertaken by the Steering Committee on Informal Settlement Development in Natal. 10 It contains 230 names, of which 118. or fifty-one per cent, are in English. Afrikaans and languages other than Zulu. Although these settlements are occupied almost entirely by Africans, this proportion of non-Zulu names is higher than it was for all the official names approved from 1977 to 1988. An explanation could be that many of the names by which the informal settlements were recorded are simply descriptive of their situation. such as Duffs Road Station. Effingham Quarry, Clare Hills Dump, Stanger Municipal Dump and Stop 8, and the researchers have used English for this. Cold official designations are also given in English, such as Block AK, Buffer Strip, DD Section, and Ixopo Transit Camp. Included in this number are also all those that have alternative names in Zulu, it being a feature of informal settlements that many of them have several names. 11 The names of these settlements reflect a naming process that had been taking place over several decades. Many of them are not originaL but take their name from existing nearby places, of which farms or the names of the farmers are typical: Brooks Farm, Glade Farm, Nenes Farm, Ngcobo's Farm, Pakkies Plaas. Missions (such as Reichenau Mission and Springvale Mission), a factory (Sarmcol), and the names of well-known places such as Mountain View and Plessislaer are used. Hence old names have been given a new lease on life. as illustrated by the Dutch spellings of Valsch River and Welbedacht. A feature which is common among informal settlements in South Africa is the transfer of place names from elsewhere, even when they are names which most people would think had unpleasant associations. In KwaZulu-Natal there are at least two like this: Soweto, situated near Inanda, and White City (which is a section of Soweto in Gauteng as well as another township at Saldanha Bay). situated near Nongoma. It is difficult to tell the origins of some of the names without undertaking field studies to obtain oral evidence, but a couple that obviously show that they were 21 Exotic yet often colourless named by their inhabitants are Tin Town (also known as Gamalakhe) near Port Shepstone, and Zig-Zag, a community of 200 people near Pinetown. The names of informal settlements have not been submitted to the NPNC unless they are part of existing residential areas that have been submitted. However, developments in the 1990s are contributing to the official recording of these names elsewhere. Both the Central Statistical Service and the Independent Electoral Commission are mapping and recording all residential areas, and these developments are monitored by the Department of Surveys and Mapping as part of its ongoing updating of the official maps of the country. The SA Post Office has declared its intention of ensuring that every citizen gets an address, and it is making rapid progress in establishing post offices all over the country which will make this possible. This is reflected in the lists of names which have been submitted to the NPN C for official approval since the beginning of 1994. I :2 . The recent lists of the NPNC also reflect in other ways the transition that the country is experiencing, It will be recalled that the NPNC currently has jurisdiction over the names of towns and suburbs, post offices, railway stations and railway bus halts. New legislation is expected to alter these, particularly extending jurisdiction to the names of natural features, and giving the Commission (as it will be called) powers to be more proactive over issues such as recording names regardless of whether they have been submitted, and reviewing undesirable names. Clarity over the role of provincial and local governments in the recognition of place names will also be ensured. In the meantime, almost the only category of name that has been submitted since 1994 is that of post offices, which are being set up at an unprecedented rate. The SA Post Office works closely with the NPNC to ensure that the precepts of the NPNC and the United Nations Guidelines are observed, ensuring that local communities are consulted and invited to suggest names for their new post offices. The result is that the new names reflect local demographics rather than ideology, as happened in the past. There has been a drop in the proportion of new names in English, Afrikaans and languages other than African languages since 1988: of the sixty-one ne'" names approved for K waZulu-Natal between March 1994 and January 1998, they represent thirty-nine per cent. Of those, the proportion of English names has dropped slightly from eighty-two per cent to seventy-six per cent, and the proportion of Afrikaans names has also dropped, from eleven per cent for 1977-88 to eight per cent. Among the new post offices are several with bilingual names: Buffelsdale, Tugela Mouth, Umvoti Slopes, KwaPett, and perhaps Folweni could be included here. since it is derived from the Africanised form of the Afrikaans word 'voor', meaning 'furrow'. The old favourites among generic terms seem to be dwindling: there is only one 'ville' (Copesville), one 'view' (Landview, in Pietermaritzburg) and. remarkably. no 'park'. The most interesting development arises from the new policy of the Post Office to locate post offices in shops and shopping centres. Previously, the NPNC applied a strict rule that official place names could not have a commercial connection because that provided free advertising, but it has had to concede that although the names of 22 E,xotic yet often colourles.s' shopping malls and shops may be regarded as commercial. it makes sense to the public that the post offices bear the same name, Some of these names are quite peculiar. and might not have found favour with the language purists of the NPNC in the old days. but the new spirit of tolerance in the country has found its way here as welL And so there are South Africans whose address in future will be a box number at Four Three or Hyper by the Sea - a far cry from the cosy Paddocks and lnglenooks that the residents of the province created for themselves in the past. ~ O T E S The historieal inionnation in this article is drawn largely from Where on Earth? by Don Sta)1. 2 Bnan Stuekenberg. 'Vasco da Gama and the Naming of Natal", in NatalIa 2"7 3 Reverend Charles Penman, !Votes on South African Place Names, p. 37. 4 Varijakshi Prabhakaran. A Study of Indian Names for Streets in Durban, Nomina Afhcana. p. 5. 5. R.o. Pearse. Barrier o(Spears, p. i. 6. The word I(li) vlnkili is given as an alternative to the Zulu word isitolo for 'shop' in both the English and LlIlu DlctiOnwy by Doke. Malcolm and Sikakana and the Zulu-English Dictionary by Doh and Vilakazi. 7. Department of National Education, Gfjic/al Place Names In the Republic of South Africa. Approved !9T 1988. 8. For an analysis of national trends during this period. see E.R. Jenkins. PT Raper and LA Moller. Changing Place Names. pp. 63-68. eSandhvana. iGoli> eGoli, etc. For example. a speaker might say Ngihlala eThekwini (1 live in Durban): Ngiya eMgungundlovu (I am going to Pietermari tzburg). In the official names of schools, post offices. etc .. the first letter of the word is also capitalised, e.g.: UMngeni. AManzimtotL ITheku, EThekwini. UMlazi. ONdini. UThongathL UMuziwezinto, EZinqoleni. AManzimtoti. ISiphingo. ONgoye. ULundL UMlaza, UThongathi, UMkhomazi etc. There are many examples where the etymology of the place name is obscure or totally lost. The following examples are cited. Toponymic lapses caused by incorrect pronunciation Ndwedwe instead ofSondoda There is a high ridge in the MaQadini area near Inanda which is now known as Ndwedwe. where the present Ndwedwe police station is situated. The original name of this ridge was Sondoda (father of men), but because the foreigners could not pronounce Sondoda, they simply named the ridge Ndwedwe not even keeping the vowel sounds of the original. This name soon appeared on signposts and in all government records and compelled the people to use the strange and meaningless word. In former times. Africans were very ready to accept things which were nonAfrican. They did not mind if a name had no significance for them as long as it was non-Zulu or non-African. Proof of this will be found in the names of elderly people today. which are mostly of European origin. Pupils used to report their schoolfellows for calling them by their home names (igama lasekhaya) on the school premises and the culprits were often punished. Consider the names of elderly African people throughout Africa which are of European origin. It is only now that people are realising the importance of their African names and taking pride in calling themselves by such names. Below is a discussion of a few examples of place names, most of which are found in the South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal. They have been wrongly written, but for years people did not mind using them as they were. It did not matter to them because they were written by people whom they regarded as being more enlightened than they. 27 Toponymic lapses in Zulu place names EZingolweni or Ezinqoleni This place is inland from Port Shepstone, to the west. It was the home of the Cele clan and was originally known as KwaCele, a place belonging to Chief Cele or a place occupied by the Cele clan. Later, white people arrived in this area and constructed a railway station. It was a terminus, and many railway carriages and trucks coaches were parked there. When the Cele people saw these, they named the place Ezinqoleni - the place of many wagons or coaches. Because the cartographers, or \vhite people generally, failed to pronounce the -nq- 'click' sound in EZinqoleni, they adapted the place name to Ezingolweni, which has no significance or meaning to a Zulu speaker, whereas EZinqoleni records the history of the area . . \/Boginnvini or Ezimbokodweni Ezimbokodweni is the name of a river, and a town on the upper South Coast. The place name UMbogintwini, is lexically meaningless to a Zulu-speaking person as compared to EZimbokodweni. Ezimbokodweni means a place where many small round stones used for grinding corn and mealies, are obtained. Even an uninformed person would locate the river because of the great number of smooth, round stones found in it. The average non-mother-tongue speaker of Zulu could not easily pronounce the place name Ezimbokodweni: so the name UMbogintwini came into being. To such speakers the lenis voiced velar -k- in EZimbokodweni sounded very much like a -g-. UMbogintwini is easier to pronounce than EZimbokodweni. It must be noted that Zulu has four variants of the phoneme -k-. (i) [k'] e.g. EZimbokodweni [ezimbokodweni] (ii) [k] e.g. EZimbokodweni [ezimbokodweni] (ii) [kh] e.g. Ezimbokodweni [ezimbokhodweni] (iv) [g] e.g. EZimbogodweni [ezimbogodweni] and (v) [t'] instead of [d], hence EZimbokotwini or Mbogintwini instead of EZimbokodweni The Status of the !k/ in Ezimbokodweni: The first [k'] is ejected and is the one which is incorporated in EZimbokodweni.The second one is a radical [k] where a speaker is influenced by a neighbouring language or dialect. For instance, the first [k'] features prominently in the speech of people living on the South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal and in the Eastern Cape. The ejection becomes more prominent as one enters the Eastern Cape Province. For instance, President Mandela's [k'] is stronger than King Zwelithini's. The l ~ t t e r would pronounce Ezimbokodweni as Ezimbokhodweni. This is caused by linguistic proximity. Zulu land is closer to Swaziland, where Ezimbokodweni might be pronounced as eZimbokhodweni. The third [kh] normally occurs in the speech of the SiSwati speaking community, where a [k'] which occurs in nasal compounds Ink'] is pronounced as [nkh]. To a non-Zulu speaker, all these variants of -k- are perceived as a voiced velar [g]. 28 Toponymic lapses in Zulu place names LjHkomaas or Umkhomazi UMkomaas should be written UMkhomazi. The name of this river and town originates from the cold sea breeze experienced by people living near the mouth of the UMkomazi river. The name refers to amakhaza, a cold breeze. There has also been the suggestion that there is an association with umkhomakazi, a whale cow. Whichever derivation is correct, the place should certainly not be called Umkomaas. which to a Zulu-speaking person is meaningless. CH/aas River or Umlaza River To a Zulu speaker, Umlaas, which is the name of a river near Lamontville township and the Durban International Airport, is regrettably meaningless. The correct name, on the other hand, contains some history of the Zulu nation. It is said that during King Shaka' s military expeditions to the South coast of what is now K waZuluNatal, he felt thirsty and longed for a river where he could get water to quench his thirst. He then saw this river and hurried to it eagerly. On drinking the water, the king remarked 'Hhawu! kanti akumanzi namanzi yokhu, umlaza (umyaza) nje'. (' Ah! This is no water at all, it is as bad as whey'). From that day onwards, the river was known as UMlaza. Later on, people replaced the final -a of UMlaza with an -i , hence UMlazi. This was a linguistic problem caused by pronunciation. The last syllable of a Zulu word is always pronounced with low tone. Thus, to a non-Zulu speaker, the -za of UMlaza might sound like -zi. (The parenthesis in the words quoted above recognises the fact that King Shaka spoke a Yeyeza dialect where -1- is pronounced as -y-.) Amanzimtoti or Amanzimtoti The origin of this place name has been discussed in a number of documents, and so will not be included in this article. It is, however, recommended that the name should be written according to the most recent (1993) orthographic rules. with both A and M capitalised. Umzinto or Umuziwezinto During the post-Shakan period two clans who did not see eye to eye resided in the UMzini wezinto!UMzinto area. These clans were constantly fighting, and they were, unfortunately, also subordinates of one chief. They fought over a proposal that they should amalgamate and fall under one chieftainship. In the area was a prominent inyanga (traditional doctor) who used to strengthen the regiments with traditional medicines cal1ed 'izintelezi' before they went into battle. Both clans consulted the same man but they were not aware that they were treated by one and the same inyanga who was playing a double game. Elderly people noticed what he was doing, and remarked that the homestead of this man was no good at all. It is said that his home was situated on a hilltop and was surrounded by a forest. They used to say that 'umqhathi omkhulu ile nyanga, iyishaya emuva iyishaye phambili'. (,The great cause of fighting is this inyanga. He runs with the hare and hunts with the hounds. ') There was an old woman who used to warn people by saying 'Ubobheka umuzi osegqumeni, umuzi wezinto'. CLook at that homestead on the hilltop. It's a homestead with weird things'). It is said that he used to make his izintelezi with the 29 Toponymic lapses in Zulu place names male parts of young boys. Hence it was common for boys to vanish after being sent to this inyanga or when they had been herding cattle near his homestead. They were sometimes found dead, with their private parts removed. The inyanga' s muthi was for strengthening the regiments, but the notoriety of this homestead spread like wildfire and people from far and near knew of 'Umuzi wezinto', hence, EMziniwezinto. Through failure to pronounce this somewhat long name, to a non-Zulu cartographer the name ended up being UMzinto. There are however a few possibilities for this. Jenkins et aI, (1996:29) advise that 'names should be user friendly. easily pronounced and remembered'. But there is also a sociolinguistic factor. Words are sometimes clipped when they happen to be long. The cartographers retained the first part umuzi- of the compound word umuziwezinto, and only included -nto from the second part. ISipingo or ISiphingo or KwaSiphingo It is said that during the Shakan period, the Luthuli people hid themselves in the forests where we now have Durban's Bluff area, also known as ISibubulungu. They \\"ere hiding away from King Shaka who suspected that there were amankengane (foreigners) who resided in this area. The Luthuli people lived on wild fruit and were afraid of giving themselves up to King Shaka who was then residing at K waKhangela amankengane. The name of the Luthuli chief was Siphingo, hence the place name iSiphingo. Usually, when a place is named after a person, we prefix kwa-. hence KwaSiphingo. A neighbouring place occupied by the Cele clan is called K \vaMakhutha. a name derived from the Cele leader. So, why not call the place K waSiphingo in order to mark the history and existence of the Luthuli people in the Bluff area? It would be linguistically more correct and consistent. l'mtentweni or EA1tetweni or Emthethweni A Zulu word for law is umthetho. A place close to Port Shepstone is called Umtentweni. This place name is meaningless to a speaker whose home language is Zulu. The correct name means a place of the law or where laws are effected. To follow current orthographic rules, the spelling of this name should be Emthethweni, not EMtetweni. This is an old orthography where aspirated Zulu sounds did not exist in written script. Jenkins et a1. (1996:42) confirm this statement when they write: Orthographic reforms in the case of the Nguni languages mainly affected two aspects: the writing of aspiration and word division. In earlier publications on Xhosa and Zulu, aspiration of stops was not indicated and many constituent morphemes were written separately. The present orthographies recognise aspiration and prescribe conjunctive word division. LVqamana or lnkamana Another strange place name. though outside the scope of this study, is Inqamana. There is a school in the Vryheid area known as INkamana High School. It is named after a neighbouring mountain shaped like an inqama (ram). The cartographers or non-Zulu-speakers who could not pronounce the click sound -q- came up with iNkamana which is meaningless to a Zulu person. 30 Toponymic lapses in Zulu place names There are many other Zulu place names whose etymolof,'Y is similarly obscured or totally lost A few more examples, with the correct spelling and pronunciation in the first column, are: uThongathi Tongaat uThukela Tugela Umkhuze Mkuze Embangweni Empangeni Oumeleng (1991: 14-15) states that Names belong to our cultural heritage and should be preserved along with other monuments and belong to the environment without which interaction would be much more difficult. . .. Names have a social value. If one removes the names or changes them for new ones, society loses its spatial frame of reference, and is affected. Place names are mirrors of the society. Algeo (1988: 173) expresses his disappointment with some Australian name:; which lack originality: One of the regrettable features of Australian place names is the lack of originality and imagination. Many of these read like a catalogue of London suburbs, English provincial towns and U.S. cut-offs. They represent a source of dullness across the Australian maps. The dullness condemned by Algeo was originally not a feature of Zulu place names although nowadays some of them have a dullness brought about by toponymicallapses. Many Zulu names which were not tampered with have meaning relating to features of places. Jenkins et a1.( 1996: 12) mention that: All over the world, as one people or political hegemony supplants another, so old names are replaced by new ones. Place names are politically good indicators of the successive governments and ideologies of a country. Successive place names have been rubbed out and replaced as indigenes, explorers, and settlers recorded their languages. Sometimes the Zulu version of a name 'vas preserved by the white travellers and settlers, but in most cases they changed or ignored them in order to record their own existence. lenkins et aI, justifiably endorse this practice by stating that: It is only natural that when people come to power they should seek to right old \vrongs by changing place names as has happened all over the world. not least in Europe after the collapse of communism. This happened with a number of original Zulu place names, leading to parallel names ',vhich are sometimes caused by resistance to change. lenkins et al (1996: 17) mention that 'the natural conservatism of ordinary people merges imperceptibly with truculence. In the naming practices of people, we see how deeply names are embedded in their culture'. 31 J'oponymic lapses in Zulu place names Parallel names According to South Africa's policy of muitilingualism, people have a right to insist on the varieties they use in their daily conversations. Thus we find Zulu speakers maintaining their own Zulu place names, even though newer English or Afrikaans names have emerged. Below is a discussion of some parallel names in K waZuluNatal. particularly those around the greater Durban area and on the South Coast. The reason for focusing on the South Coast area is that place names from here have been sorely neglected in the history of the Province of KwaZulu-Natal. f.7'l7eh1.'ini or Durban The place name EThekwini originates from a Zulu word itheku, which means a man or beast with one testicle, or a lagoon, enclosed bay, harbour (refer to Doke & Vilakazi 1972:789). It is said that it was King Shaka who gave the name itheku to the Durban bay, being quick to observe that the bay was shaped like itheku of a man. Indeed, people looked at the shape of the lagoon or enclosed bay and saw that it resembled a single male testicle, and also called it itheku. When the English settled there, they first called it Port Natal and later named it after Sir Benjamin D'Urban. or The Zulu place name ongmates from KwaKhangela amankengane (view the foreigners in the sea), a name given by King Shaka. To 'khange1a' means to look at behold. vie\v, (Doke & Vilakazi 1972:379). KwaKhangela applied to King Shaka's outpost on Durban Bay \vhich is now known as 'Ccngella'. To a Zulu person Congella has no significance. King Edward Hospital is the closest place to King Shaka's kraal in this area and is also known as KwaKhangela by most Zulu speakers. KwaKhangela (Congella) is the place name, whereas King Edward is the name of an institution situated at or near the place. Many Zulu people refer to the hospital by the name of the place. E.g. Umkami usebenza esibhedlela KwaKhangela (My wife works at King Edward Hospital); Ingane ilaliswe KwaKhangela (The child was admitted to King Edward Hospital). EThusini and the University ofNatal Further up hill from K waKhangela was a trading centre where copper was bartered for local material. This place was known as EThusini - a place where ithusi (copper) and brass articles were sold. When the University of Natal was built in this area, new names emerged (Howard College, University of Natal, and the suburb Glenmore). The use of these newer names however, depended on the population group preponderating in the locality concerned. The University of Natal used to be a predominantly white university but this is changing. Some of its students and lecturers now tend to use both names interchangeably. It is not only the African people and students who strive to preserve the former name, but non-Zulu-speaking people are also interested in knowing and preserving the history of the area, and proud to say 'Ngifundisa eThusini' Cl lecture at eThusini/the University of NataL Durban'). 32 Toponymic lapses in Zulu place names River and Palmiet River The University of Durban-Westville began on Salisbury Island, in Durban Bay. Its present hilly inland location is known to many Zulu-speakers as UMphongokazL meaning a huge barrel. This name is derived from the river in this area. The cartographers gave this river a completely new name, the Palmiet. The name UMphongokazi was virtually erased because of the migration and labour laws. The inhabitants who occupied it before 1963 were transferred to new townships like KwaMashu and UMlazi. It was only this year when I gave a lift to an old lady, Mrs Ntimabane, and went via the University of Durban-Westville, that I learnt of UMphongokazi, although I have been at Durban-Westville for the past 16 years. As we crossed the PalmietJMphongokazi River she remarked that they used to do their washing at the UMphongokazi River, and even pointed out a place where her father used to work in the quarries. She also showed me the place where her home had been, saying 'Sasiwasha lapha eMphongokazL ubaba esebenza kule nkwali. Ekhaya kwakuyilaphaya' eWe used to do the laundry here in the UmphongogazL my father worked in that quarry. Our home used to be there'). Other parallel names found in KwaZulu-Natal are Umtshezi and Estcourt, Umnambithi and Ladysmith, Emangwaneni and Bergville, Entunjambili and Kranskop, Umsinga and Tugela Ferry, Income and Blood River, KwaDukuza and Stanger*, Kledeni and Buxedeni. (*The town of Stanger, named after a colonial surveyor-general, has recently been officially renamed KwaDukuza Editor.) Africanisation The Africanisation of foreign names is very common. Esayidi, Port-Shepstone When the South Coast railway was built, the English-speakers referred to the 'siding' which they would call Port Shepstone, after Sir Theophilus Shepstone. People Africanised this word siding into the place name ESayidi. Mr Nhlumayo, an inspector of schools who lives at Gamalakhe, a few kilometres south of this area, gave another version of the origin of this name. He says that although the English people referred to the place as a 'siding', the Afrikaans-speaking community referred to it as Suid Port, hence Esayidi. Emvungeni or Uvongo Mr Nhlumayo also supplied information about another obscure place name - the place between Port Shepstone and Margate known as Uvongo. He said Uvongo is meaningless to the inhabitants of the area. Its real name is Emvungeni, meaning at a place where there is buzzing or humming of bees. According to Doke and Vilakazi (1972:844), imvunge means 'a low murmuring sound, humming'. Mr Nhlumayo says the name comes from the large swarms of bees that were once found in the area. Ebhambayi, Bombay, Phoenix Settlement The Phoenix Settlement near Inanda is commonly known as EBhambayi by the African community. Originally this area was allocated to the Indian community and it is well known that M.K. Gandhi lived there. The name of the Indian city of 33 Toponymic lapses in Zulu place names Bombay (itself an Anglicisation - it was officially changed to Mumbai in the early 1980s) became attached to the place, and was in turn Africanised to Ebhambayi. Zulu speakers found a Zulu word closest in pronunciation to Bombay - bhamba means to strike with a heavy object. r.Tadini. Harding The Southern Natal town, named after colonial Chief Justice Sir WaIter Harding. is pronounced by most Zulu-Xhosa speakers as EYadini. It is very common for illiterate Zulu-Xhosa speakers to replace -h- or -hh- with -y- (Zungu. 1989:81) The phoneme -h- is replaced either by -rh-. -y- or -kh-. Refer. for example. to amahewu (a drink made of skinned maize porridge fermented). which is pronounced amarhcwu. or ihembe (a shirt. from the Afrikaans 'hemp') which becomes iyembe. or hamba (walk) which is pronounced khamba by most Zulu-Xhosa speakers. Conclusion The Place Names Society is deeply concerned about incorrect renderings. misspelling or erroneous forms. A Place Names Conference held in Pretoria in 1994 agreed that each ethnic or language group should set up a committee which would look into its language problems, and affiliate under the Place Names Society, and the Society would try to see that all errors were rectified. It is hoped that a concerted effort will be made to remedy a number of these lapses in place names in KwaZuluNatal. It is clear that very many Zulu place names are linked with the history. flora. fauna and occupations of the areas concerned, and thus reveal something of the culture of the people who speak Zulu. REFERENCES A.lgeo. J.. The Au.slralianness o(Auslralwn Place Names, (New York. l\merican Names Society, 1988) Doke. \tc. and Vilakazi. B.W .. Zu.lu.-English Dictionary (Johannesburg. University of the Witwatersrand Press. 1972) .knkins. E.R. Raper. PE. and Moller. L.A .. Changmg Place Names (Durban. Indicator Press. 1996) '\yembe. \\'.C.M. 'Toponymica\ Variation in Zulu School Names', (MA University of Durban-Westville, 1994) Unpublished dissertation. Oumeling. F.L 'The importance of names'. Paper delivered at a training course in toponomy. Pretoria. 1991. Lungu. P.J. 'Some aspects ofUkuhlonipha in Zulu society' in Language Matters. Department of Linguistics. University of South Africa, 1997. Zungu. PJ.. 'Nhlangwini. A Tekela-Nguni dialect and its relationship to "Standard Zulu" and other Nguni dialects' (\1.4 . ., University of Natal. Pietennaritzburg, 1989) Unpublished dissertation. PHYLLIS 1. NONHLANHLA ZUNGU The pioneer Natal settler house Our chief source of knowledge of the 19th century house in Natal must undoubtedly be the writings of Brian Kearney.l although others, like Marilyn Martin,2 have touched upon certain aspects of its history. As it stands, though, it still lacks the definitive. comprehensive study which I believe is its due. The main motivation for this article, in addition to making a modest contribution towards the above-mentioned study, is the realization that little seems to have been published on the early history of the Natal house: nothing comparable. for example. to the relevant chapters in Ronald Lewcock's well-known work on the early settler houses of the Eastern Cape. 3 This lack was forcibly drawn to my attention recently when, in the process of supervising a dissertation on the domestic work ofWilliam Street-Wilson,4 it became very difficult to establish accurately what the possible local colonial antecedents of his work were prior to his arrival in Durban fr