Social Groups
Zulu
African Peoples
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The Zulu are the largest single ethnic group in South Africa, speaking isiZulu, a Nguni Bantu language, and concentrated historically in the KwaZulu-Natal region. Zulu society is closely associated with the centralized kingdom built under Shaka Zulu in the early nineteenth century, which reorganized regional clans into an age-regiment military and political system; the Zulu monarchy survives today as a constitutionally recognized traditional institution alongside the post-apartheid South African state. Zulu cultural practice includes lobola (bridewealth) marriage exchange, ancestor veneration, and a strong regimental and clan-based social organization that predates and outlasted the kingdom itself.
Facts
Group TypeSourced to the subject's own account Typical RegionSourced to the subject's own accountSouthern Africa (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) 1 Primary LanguageSourced to the subject's own account Subsistence ModeSourced to the subject's own accountHistorically mixed agropastoralism (cattle-keeping combined with cultivation), organized under a centralized chiefdom and later kingdom structure. 1 Disputed
Population Estimateapproximately 10 to 12 million 1 Sourced to the subject's own accountSouth Africa's census records ethnic self-identification inconsistently across survey years, so widely cited totals for the Zulu population range from about 10 million to over 12 million. Sources
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