GINGINDLOVU : SEPTEMBER 26, 1999

The Honourable Masters of Ceremonies; members of the Royal House and amaKhosi present; Your Excellencies, members of the diplomatic corps and honourable members of the Consular corps; our religious leaders; the Mayor of Gingindlovu; the Honourable Premier of KwaZulu Natal, Mr LPHM Mtshali and Mrs Mtshali; Honourable Ministers from both the National Assembly and the KwaZulu Natal Legislature; members of Parliament; members of provincial Parliaments; Chairpersons of Regional Councils; their Worships the Mayors, Councillors and Indunas; members of the various clans who comprise the Zulu Nation; our distinguished guests.

I am a Zulu. I announce these words with pride in my heart for I know that I belong to a Nation which has stood for 150 years, weathering the storms of defeat, struggle and humiliation, and which still today stands firm in strength and unity to celebrate the memory of our greatest leader and founder of the Zulu Nation, King Shaka kaSenzangakhona. Year after year, we have gathered on this day at sites throughout our province where our ancestors walked and worked the land. The generations which have gone before are remembered in our celebration of King Shaka Day, as they offer us the inspiration to move forward with a proud sense of who we are.

Today, let us call upon the wisdom and courage of our leaders, amaKhosi and Kings, who have led us for so many years, so that we may find our Nation's destiny in a future dictated by the long history of our Zulu past.

We are here to celebrate our Zuluness which, year after year, changes to adjust to the circumstances, and yet still remains the same. As Zulus, we are patriots who are committed to pledging our efforts to making a better day than today and building a new country, not only for our own sake, but for the sake of the whole of South Africa. We celebrate our patriotism because its deep roots in our past give our Nation the inspiration to lead the way towards overcoming the challenges through which our future is to be built.

We must thank our amaKhosi and their Indunas and people for having made this celebration possible. Their efforts have enabled us to come together once again, as Zulus and as patriots, to find inspiration from our togetherness. Our amaKhosi have raised the resources to make this celebration possible without any assistance from government. In doing so, amaKhosi have given a great example of how, through our culture of self-help and self-reliance, we can provide for our needs. I thank all the subjects of amaKhosi who, through their contribution and efforts, have made this celebration a success. The spirit of sacrifice and dedication which amaKhosi and their subjects have demonstrated in creating this celebration, is the same spirit of sacrifice and dedication which built our Kingdom and made it a legend throughout the whole of Africa. 

It is the spirit of patriotism which characterises our pride and our honour.

I am excited by this celebration which has been held now for more than 10 years. This at first involved only a couple of districts, but the districts which have participated have increased each year. The people have been led by amaKhosi and inspired and led by a scion of King Senzangakhona, Prince Layukona Gideon kaMnyayiza kaNdabuko. Prince Ndabuko was a full brother of King Cetshwayo. When his brother the King was taken away after the defeat of our Nation at Ulundi, he and the then Prime Minister of this Nation, Mnyamana Buthelezi, kept together those Zulu people who remained loyal to the King and the Zulu Kingdom. They paid a high price for their faithfulness to King Cetshwayo and the Zulu cause. It was the two of them who decided to take the young Prince Dinuzulu from Bhanganomo where King Cetshwayo had instructed that his son be kept and protected. The young Prince was taken to Mnyamana Buthelezi's Ekushumayeleni homestead where he grew up. Prince Ndabuko kaMpande was exiled with our grandfather King Dinuzulu, together with Prince Shingana kaMpande, on the Island of St. Helena.

Looking at this history, we are not surprised that the Prince of KwaZiphethe, who today is the KwaZulu Natal Minister of Welfare, is the kind of stalwart that he is. He is a true descendant of Prince Ndabuko. I single him out for this praise, for it is through his inspiration that amaKhosi and other Princes of the Royal House, have for years organised this event and the resources which have each year made it possible.

Our amaKhosi are descendants of great warriors who, through their sacrifice and dedication, supported our founder, King Shaka, and the great Kings who succeeded him, in a constant effort to create and maintain a Kingdom in which prosperity and stability could dwell. The same valour of warriors runs in the blood of our amaKhosi who have always risen to the challenges put to them by history. The challenges of today are different to those of yesterday, but they require the same breed of warriors to be conquered. I know that our amaKhosi are aware of the destiny that history has bestowed upon them to ensure that our Kingdom is protected in this time of peril and uncertainty. Now more than ever, our Kingdom is essential to maintain our Zuluness and to capture the great opportunity offered by destiny to re-achieve the unity of our Nation.

AmaKhosi remain the backbone of our Kingdom and must lead our people to find unity, peace and reconciliation. We have a glorious future awaiting us in which the Zulu Nation will have to make a great and patriotic contribution to make South Africa a new country of prosperity and stability. There are people who wish to undermine the role that amaKhosi have to play in building this future. The new dispensation for local government which is imposed upon us from the national level, will have a very negative impact on the powers and functions that amaKhosi exercise within the structures of the State. It will be our responsibility to ensure that this transformation does not affect the role that amaKhosi must continue to play to lead our Nation, and that they remain the backbone of our Kingdom. It is only in such a fashion that the delicate unity of our Nation, which we are so carefully trying to craft, will indeed result in the celebration of our Zuluness within the whole of South Africa, rather than in its destruction.

Throughout its history, the Zulu Nation has fought determinedly for the recognition of our traditional institutions, from the colonial era through apartheid and even today, for we recognise that it is our cultural heritage which gives us identity and lends form to the concept we have of who we are and where we come from. Generations of Zulus have fought and struggled, worked and suffered, for the sake of our Nation. From the days of King Shaka, our greatest military leader and statesman, the Zulu Nation has been nourished and fed with the aspirations, blood and sweat of our people. That battle is ongoing even today as we can see, only this time we have to use the great weapon of our revolution of goodwill to fight it through peaceful means. 

The original vision of King Shaka, which first gave the impetus for our Nation to grow, centered upon the concept of unity and strength. King Shaka understood that the prosperity of a nation is linked intrinsically to the stability of society. Stability can only be created and maintained through a consensus on the needs and aspirations of a people, by the people themselves. King Shaka sought to integrate the various Nguni clans inhabiting the province and focus their efforts on the task of nation building.

As his mighty army conquered each previously isolated and impoverished clan, King Shaka found ready allegiance among the people of a region which he stabilised under a common administration. Word spread quickly of the power and strength of the Zulu Nation which offered the opportunity of a life far better and far more prosperous than would otherwise be possible.

It is little wonder that even those whom he conquered would immediately take up arms to fight for the Kingdom and for the King. It became a great honour which Zulu warriors longed for, to fight and to die for the Kingdom which King Shaka created in this Region.

The society which King Shaka established was organised and ordered according to the concept of a well-regulated people, with discipline and stamina, who understood the value of working together in harmony and co-operation. This was the vision which forged our Nation; a nation of prosperity, stability and ever-increasing strength. Zulus were then patriots ready to build a better future and to defend their Kingdom. The same spirit of patriotism must now inspire a united Zulu Nation to provide leadership to make South Africa a better place for all. It is a dream which the Zulu people need to achieve with their brothers and sisters of all races, not only in this Province but throughout South Africa.

King Shaka recognised the wealth of opportunities brought from outsiders into his own society.

He knew that their different perspectives, cultural heritage and talents could be integrated for the benefit of the Zulu people and that, through interaction, we would grow. Our Zuluness and our patriotism has never been exclusive, but have always sought to be all-inclusive. Therefore when the first European settlers and missionaries began to arrive in the Kingdom, King Shaka welcomed their presence and extended a hand of friendship. We found an immediate kinship with these people based upon a mutual desire for prosperity and stability in this region. The missionaries and first settlers proved to provide an invaluable contribution to the development of our Nation, without which we would perhaps not be where we find ourselves today. 

However, history collapsed the path of prosperity, and the brilliant progress of the mighty Zulu Nation was suddenly interrupted. When the colonial authorities began to spread into our Kingdom, my maternal great-grandfather, King Cetshwayo, followed the inspiration of King Shaka and trustingly welcomed newcomers into the fold. It soon became clear, however, that the agenda of the colonial powers differed vastly from that of the settlers who preceded them.

There was no understanding of goodwill or unity by the colonialists. They saw the might of the Zulu Nation and trembled in fear, deciding then and there that the Zulu people must be crushed. 

It is somehow difficult for us to grasp the sense of dread some feel in the face of unity, power and nationhood. It is alien to our culture that brothers should be separated in thought, or divided because of personal greed. Yet, as we welcomed the colonial powers, the seeds of our division were sown from within. We now have the opportunity to show that the force of our unity may become a power for good on which South Africa can rely without any fear or concern.

Under pressure of the divisions sown by the colonial powers, our people were divided in the inevitable Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, in which brother often fought against brother. The wounds inflicted by internal conflicts and a manipulative colonial conqueror have yet to fully heal.

Although they are many, many decades old, some wounds continue to bleed and remain just below the surface. However, the time has come for us to heal. For 150 years, the Zulu Nation has been at war with itself. Our divisions continued as the development of society created new juxtapositions. People were divided between rural masses and city dwellers, and those who respected and those who were antagonistic to our ancestors' culture. The masses of our people who are living in abject poverty, particularly in rural areas, often experience great disdain. They experience this disdain not only from strangers but even from their own kith and kin. This is another divide that our people have to battle against, for we are one people whether we are urban or rural dwellers.

Yet now we have the opportunity to lay the ghosts to rest and to tell our ancestors to find peace, for we have begun walking on a path which may in the end unite us as a proud and unified Nation. We dare not allow anyone to make our Nation depart from this path, nor dare we allow anyone to cause this path to move away from the cause of our Kingdom, for if we did, our ancestors would forever curse us and God would judge us harshly. Our ancestors have bestowed upon us the destiny which we are to complete.

Even when we were attacked again and again by the colonial forces, King Cetshwayo retained the hope that an understanding could be reached which would allow us to live in harmony within the Kingdom. As King Shaka before him, he knew that prosperity depended entirely on the hope of stability. It was for this reason that King Cetshwayo travelled to London to make representations to Her Majesty Queen Victoria. But his efforts were futile and his time there served only to give the Secretary of Colonies, Lord Kimberley, the opportunity to undermine his support at home, ensuring that King Cetshwayo returned with his stature greatly diminished, his people divided and the Kingdom split. After the Zulu defeat at our Kingdom's capital, Ulundi, the King was arrested and imprisoned. The seeds of division which had been sown were slowly germinating and our Nation first tasted defeat. In accordance with the age old principle of 'divide and rule' the colonial powers believed that they had crushed the Zulu Nation.

Our history is intrinsically intertwined with the history of our country and our struggle has always been the struggle of every oppressed South African, denied their dignity, feared for their humanity and constantly attacked because the scent of nationhood cloyed at the clarity of the colonial mind-set. It is from within the Zulu Nation that the original spirit of the liberation movement was born. It is from within our own institution of amaKhosi that the leaders took their original direction.

We have much to be proud of as a people. The mere fact that we stand here today to celebrate the occasion of King Shaka Day is an expression of the continuation of the Zulu Nation. This year we stand at the dawn of a new millennium and we must map the way forward with courageous steps. We have proven ourselves still strong, still disciplined, still fighting. It is time now to channel the unique spirit of the Zulu Nation into a new effort of nation building, taking example from the original vision of our founding King, King Shaka kaSenzangakhona. The obstacles we face today are clothed in different forms, yet they present just the same challenges which we, the Zulu people, have historically overcome. Now we have the responsibility to take on these new challenges. We must put our house and our Kingdom in order. The history of our Kingdom is marked by many instances in which brave amaKhosi and members of the Royal House had to take the reins of the Kingdom to steer it through difficult waters towards a safe harbour.

The challenges facing South Africa require our leadership and the pledge of allegiance to a new spirit of patriotism, unity, social discipline and general goodwill. Just as the conquered peoples swore allegiance to King Shaka's dream, so must we persuade all those in South Africa who are conquered by the epidemic of criminality and corruption, laid low by abuse and violence, hatred, intolerance and distrust, and defeated by poverty, unemployment and ignorance for lack of education, to now swear allegiance to a new and better South Africa. It is time to fight for South Africa and to take up arms in a revolution of goodwill. The arms we bear are not weapons of destruction, but the weapons of knowledge, goodwill, hard work and love. In a revolution of goodwill, there can be no losers. It brings about a win-win situation.

It is true that we can achieve nothing unless we work together, and that prosperity and stability are but two sides of the same coin. Every member of the Zulu Nation has a responsibility to give an example to the whole country, so that each South African may discover and claim a new patriotism based on a sense of unity and goodwill which is intrinsically Zulu. We understand this task. We know its importance. If we can walk according to the path travelled by our ancestors who have gone before us, we can bring to South Africa the greatest change it has ever seen.

The path of our ancestors is one of courage, determination and cultural pride. This must be our path too.

On an occasion like this, through our Zuluness we celebrate the mystical union which binds together our generation of Zulus to those of our ancestors and to those of our posterity for many years to come. In this mystical unity, the baton through which our destiny is fulfilled is passed from one generation to another. I trust that the new generation, which is now trying its courage, will be able to prove to be of the same breed of warriors of those who once conquered for us a Kingdom, and those of my generation who brought freedom, liberation and the promise of unity to our land.

There was an abuse of our ethnicity by the oppressors in this land. Some thought that we could resist this abuse of our ethnicity by disowning it. We are as much proud of being descendants of these great Zulu forebears as we are of being the indigenous sons of Africa as Africans. We are as proud of being South Africans as any other South African is proud. We, however, do not believe that we have to prove to the world that we are South Africans by trying to get out of our Zulu skins by abandoning our Zuluness. For more than 24 years we in this Region have been speaking of Ubuntu-Botho precisely because we identify with all our brothers and sisters of other ethnic groups, and as South Africans we also identify with all other South Africans of whatever extraction. We are all these things. We do not bury any of these things by abandoning our Zulu heritage.

I salute the new generation which under the guidance of our elders may become the pride of the Zulu Nation. I salute the Zulu Nation as the pride of Africa and I salute our Kingdom. I salute South Africa as the great fatherland to which we all belong and to which we all must pledge our efforts, our courage and our dreams.