This book is a catalogue of Frank Jolles's collection of Zulu beer vessels supplemented by other Zulu beer vessels found in private and public collections in South Africa and the United States. It gives a detailed account of style developments of Zulu beer vessels from the nineteenth into the twentieth century. As background information, a history of the KwaZulu Natal region in the nineteenth century sets the context for the styles it documents.
The historical record provides data that helps us understand Zulu geographic movement and how these patterns were disrupted by Theophillus Shepstones's demarcation of space between blacks and whites in the region. This exercise essentially hindered and altered their ability to exercise their chosen way of life. Needless to say, it also impacted the production of material culture.
With this setting in mind, the book categorizes and interrogates the significance of beer vessels within Zulu communities. Beer vessels...