Abstract

Much of the contemporary lives of Zululand traders is reliant on memory and nostalgia, and the legacy of their past perpetuates not only orally and in written form, but in also in practice. Their past thus bleeds through to their contemporary lives. History and anthropology thus merge in the assimilation of interpreting how people see their lives, and understand their legacy. It is thus that these ‘voorloper’ histories construct who they are and the manner in which they approach their worlds.

This paper is part of a greater investigation which melds the architecture of the trading store, the social histories of the Zululand traders and their various networks, and anthropology in the creation of identity through memory and nostalgia.