Zulu guide · The cattle
The eleven cattle, and what each one means
Izinkomo eziyishumi nanye
Zulu lobola is customarily eleven cattle. They are not eleven of the same thing: each has a name, a person it honours and a moment it belongs to. Six are the cattle of the ancestors. Five more were added in colonial Natal.
Tap a cow to turn its card.
- The original six, the cattle of the ancestors
- Added in colonial Natal under Shepstone
Did you know?
How six became eleven
Before colonial rule there was no fixed number. Families asked what they chose, and six named cattle carried the meaning of the marriage. In 1859 Theophilus Shepstone, known as uSomtsewu, fixed lobola in Natal at eleven cattle for an ordinary daughter, fifteen for a chief's daughter and thirty for a princess.
The five he added are mostly cattle slaughtered at the wedding, plus imvulamlomo, which today is paid in money.
The six cows at the gate
Before anyone speaks of eleven, the negotiators arrive with six. Standing outside the gate of the bride's home, they call the family's praises and announce that they have come with six cows to ask for a hand in marriage. They never say which daughter. The six cows do not need to be there, alive or in money.
Once inside, they are asked to repeat what they said. Get the praises wrong and they pay a small fine. Then they are asked the colours of the six cows, and both families write them down. When the bride's family later comes to see the cattle, they ask to see cows of exactly those colours, or another small fine is due.
The six cows are a conversation starter: a way of opening the talks in the language of the ancestors.
Then and now
Some people argue the added five serve little purpose, and that the number eleven is now used to ask more of a groom's family than tradition ever did. Few families still give isiqondo or umncamo, even while asking for all eleven.
In some parts of KwaZulu-Natal, families now also ask for isicelo (umcelo) before cattle are discussed: a cash request that can reach R 30 000 or more. The father and mother may each ask for their own isicelo, usually with the father's larger, for example R 15 000 and R 10 000. It is not part of the original custom, but it has become the norm in some areas.
Others see eleven as the custom their parents and grandparents followed, and the fairest common ground between two families. Both views are honest. What matters is that both families understand what each cow means before they agree.
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