Abstract

Many consider the beehive grass iqhugwana archetypically Zulu. Along with the shield and assegai, it is iconic in the tourism culture of “the Zulu Kingdom,” representing the maintenance of an exotic “tradition.”1 I argue that this is not necessarily so, as historical material shows evidence of a continual adaptation and evolution of this form. Furthermore, using the more contemporary example of the decorated buildings of Msinga, I suggest that the recent vernacular environment is a result of a postglobal Africanization, in a geographic area that, due to its circumstances, may have missed out on the globalization phenomenon completely.