In the southern African context, a homestead (Xhosa umzi, Zulu umuzi, Swati umuti) is a cluster of several houses (singular indlu; plural Xhosa and Zulu izindlu, Swati tindlu) characteristic of the Nguni-speaking peoples of Africa. Each homestead is normally occupied by a single extended family.

A South African homestead with a kraal in the foreground (Photo by Richard Jones)

"Nelson Mandela was born in the Transkei region of South Africa, in the small village of Qunu - a collection of beehive-shaped huts with thatch roofs, known as rondavels. His mother had three huts and Mandela lived with her and his three immediate sisters. One hut was used for sleeping, another for cooking and the third for storing grain and other food. Everyone slept on mats on the ground, without pillows. His mother, as a married woman, had her own field to tend and her own cattle kraal - an enclosure for cattle made from thorn bushes." From Cool Planet by Oxfam

[edit] See also

• Compound (enclosure)
• Kraal
• Boma (enclosure)

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