All Images are by myself (Andrew P. October) while I would like to give credit to my partner (and the person whose project this was) Hylton White from the Universities of Chicago (IL, USA) and Natal (KZN, RSA), Rolf Gaede who at the time was my colleague at the Technikon Free State (FS, RSA) and with whom I hitched a nine hour drive to the project area, and my head of department at the Technikon Free State, Rudi de Lange, for his support throughout the duration of this project.

All photography and all the travel and accommodation expenses for this project was carried by myself as no sponsorship could be raised. Fuji, Ilford, Kodak and Agfa in South Africa were approached for support but any support was declined. These, along with other images, were exhibited during Macufe, the only all African Arts Festival in Southern Africa in 1997 along side those of the world award-winning photographer and personal friend, George Hallet, and the South African component of the USA collection of "Songs of My People" (I also have a few in this collection which is now owned by the Free State Ministry of Sports, Science, Technology, Arts and Culture and is housed by the Department of Photography and Ceramic Design at the Technikon Free State.

Copies of these images were given to the people depicted in them as a small appreciation for the great support they gave me and for the priceless contribution the community of KwaMakwaza (near Mellmoth in KwaZulu-Natal) has made to the field of documentary photography. A total of over six hundred black and white and colour images recoreded the event which occured over a four-day period.

Oncemore, a very special thanks to Hylton who had spent more than a year in the area doing his PHD in Social Anthropology studying this region of the globe at this time in our century.

THE PROJECT

KwaZulu-Natal, which is a two part word the first of which is Zulu (one of the eleven official languages spoken in South Africa) and means "the place of the Zulu"; the second of which has colonial overtones and comes from the early years when the British ruled this part of the subcontinent. Situated on the eastern coast of southern Africa it is boardered in the north by Mozambique, in the north-west by Mapumalanga*, the west by the Free State* and Lesotho and in the south by the Eastern Cape Province* (*these are of the nine provinces, or "provincial states" which

This region of Africa has long been ruled by the once great and mighty Zulu Kingdom and the land is still referred to as "Zululand" as it was called by the British. Under the Apartheid government the area was subdivided into two regions, Natal (this potion remained "under white South Africa") and KwaZulu (one of the many bantustans established by the Apartheid govenment to act as a dumping gound for Zulu people). Today most of the more "traditional" land is still in existence as these formed part of KwaZulu. However most people living in these areas still migrate between a more western society (often the bigger cities such as Durban and Johannesburg) and these more traditional areas.

The Zulu people are the single largest population group in South Africa and are still "ruled" by a, althought now more symbolic, King and a council of traditional leaders, all of whom now enjoy a political status protected under the new South African dispensation headed by President Nelson Mandela.

What is striking about the area is that it is very symbolic of the mixing of modern and tradional, the new and the old as is clearly depicted in the imagery seen on this site (the wearing of bra's and more western attire during this more traditional ceremony). The aim of Hylton White's research was (in short) to observe three types of communities in this region. He did not set out to study the Zulu culture. His aim was merely to observe how this particular region lived. He studied in more traditional "Chief land" which is still ruled by a Zulu chief, "missionary land" which use to and largely still belongs to different religious groups and churches (large plantation and forestry land) and where these images were recorded, and "modern/western land" such as the urban areas and sprawling townships around Durban (South Africa's primary seaport and the largest city in KwaZulu-Natal).