ROYAL PARTY IN ZULULAND

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25139, 21 March 1947, Page 7

ROYAL PARTY IN ZULULAND

“WAR DANCE” BY 5000 NATIVES CAPE TOWN, March 19. The greatest “war dance” in the history of Zululand was given to-day for the Royal party by 5000 youths, girls, warriors, and old men, says Reuter’s correspondent at Eshowe. the capital of Zululand. For the last two weeks 100,000 Zulus have been gathering for the display and the dancers have been rehearsing for months. The witch doctors had to search for many hundreds pf- Zulu warriors before staging the final rehearsal of the great “Ngoma Umkosi” dance. The dancers were hiding in the forest, because they did not want to show their dance before the “Royal Black Elephant”—the Zulu name for the King—saw it.

Surrounded by guards, armed with razor-sharp assegais, Bhekuzuia A. Solom, who is heir to the paramount chieftainship of the Zulus, slept midst the assembled host. Before dawn he was inspecting the dancers, fearsome in their war paint and monkey tails and carrying assegais and hidecovered shields. Cyprian A. Solom Ka Diniulu, aged 22, the heir to the Zulu throne, wore a European stjjje uniform of his own design. It was plum coloured, with gold and scarlet 1 collar and cuffs. He said that the Zulus had given a new title to the King—lnkosi Yambandie Onke—meaning Most Highest Among Men. The 5000 dancers were arranged in age groups from the old men—"those who die within” —to young men—the “Polecats.” The dance ended with a great stampede of warriors waving their shields and assegais as the two “horns” closed in on either side of the Royal dais.