Useful tips

What is the traditional food for Ndebele?

What is the traditional food for Ndebele?

Corn is the staple food in this community. Maize cereals, which are known as isitshwala, are a favourite. Corn and sorghum milk are commonly consumed. They also grow and consume a variety of food crops, fruits and vegetables.

What is the Ndebele culture known for?

South African Culture. The Ndebele are well known for their outstanding craftsmanship, their decorative homes, and their distinctive and highly colourful mode of dress and ornamentation. Esther Mahlangu is an Ndebele woman and an internationally renowned painter and decorator.

What is the traditional of Ndebele?

The Ndebele women continue their tradition of creating elaborate beadwork of all sorts and of painting the walls of their homes (both interior and exterior) with strong, brightly coloured geometric designs.

How do Ndebele celebrate their culture?

Ancestral spirits are important in Ndebele religious life, and offerings and sacrifices are made to the ancestors for protection, good health, and happiness. Ancestral spirits come back to the world in the form of dreams, illnesses, and sometimes snakes. The Ndebele also believe in the use of magic.

What do the Ndebele Colours mean?

There are five main colours represented: red and dark red, yellow to gold, a sky blue, green, and sometimes pink. The colours give an intensified symbolic meaning to the Ndebele. They can mean status or power of the home’s owners, offer prayer, announce a marriage in the home, or can represent a current protest.

What clothes do Ndebele wear?

The main element of Ndebele women’s wear is an apron. Girls wear small beaded aprons, while older girls wear isiphephetu, a beaded apron given to them by their mothers, and isigolwani which are thick beaded hoops worn around their necks, arms, legs and waist.

What do Ndebele people believe in?

How do you serve ugali?

Ugali is usually served as an accompaniment to meat or vegetable stews, greens or soured milk. To eat ugali, pull off a small ball of mush with your fingers. Form an indentation with your thumb, and use it to scoop up accompanying stews and other dishes.