What R ich M eaning D oes the Zulu T raditional B eer & T he Zulu P ots H ave T o T heir C ulture

Traditional beer is an integral part of everyday Zulu life. The Zulu women are the ones who prepare the beer and some have gained a good reputation in the skills of making the sorghum beer in the society.

The beer is made from water, malt, maize and sorghum. It has low alcoholic context, the longer it stands, the more alcoholic it becomes.

To make the beer, maize and sorghum is soaked in water until the grains begin to germinate. The grains are then placed between grass mats. Visiting Durban

Once the grains are dry, they are ground by hand on a flat stone to produce a fairly rough powder. Then the whole thing is cooked like porridge, after which it is left in a big beer pots to cool for a day or two. Malt is poured on top of the mixture, which is then covered to keep it warm while it ferments. This could take up to five days but, in normal warm weather,  the beer could be ready to drink within days.

Traditional Zulu beer is served in big clay pots which are covered a woven grass lid. When served to man it is given to them using two types of pots, the normal size "ukhahlamba" and the small size "umancishana". Men sit in a circle and pass the pot from one another the grass lid may be lifted only by the headman and, until the headman does this, it is considered impolite to start drinking.

Traditional Zulu Pots

Its very rare for Zulu women to go out and by pots for cooking and storing beer. As the Zulu girls grow older and older their grannies and mothers, well especially the grannies teach the women the skill of pot making. This is very traditional because the pots are made from clay and used for variety of purposes in Zulu.

Types of Zulu pots

• Imbiza a big pot

• Umkhele

• Water pots, made specially with a round neck on the mouth to hold water in

• Ukhahlamba