Zulu Tartan

[figheadair]

He's a interesting picture showing Chief Cetshweyo, Zulu leader at the time of Isandwana and Rouke's Drift, wearing a tartan plaid/cloak.



In A.T. Bryant’s Olden Times in Zululand and Natal (1929) he claimed that "Anangwe and the Amahlubi affected the same tartan because they were of the same stock, and close cousins...". His Zululand was the standard reference on Northern Nguni oral historical tradition until the late 1970s. Interestingly no-one else mentions the wearing of tartan by Zulus, including David Rattray whom grew up at Rorke’s Drift and was a friend, champion of and expert on the Zulu culture.

I don’t place must credence in the claim of Zulu tartans as opposed to ‘tartans worn by Zulus’ in the same way that there are images of Native Americans around the same time wearing (imported) tartans. Cheap, hard wearing and brightly coloured, they would have been prized and I think the same would have been true in Africa.