The 19th century saw great changes occurring in the political organisation as well as the demographical distribution of the people living within southern Africa. These changes would lead to the creation of the ikhanda (plural amakhanda) settlement form which was unique in both its organisation and demographic composition. In recent years there has been a renewed interest in the study of settlements within southern Africa, with the main settlement model, the Central Cattle Pattern (CCP) coming under continued criticism. The aim of this study was to create a structural model for the organisation of an ikhanda settlement by drawing from ethnographic, historical and archaeological sources. This model was then compared with homesteads (imizi) within Kwa-Zulu Natal in order to determine whether an ikhanda can be distinguished from an umuzi, archaeologically. This study identified a number of differences which would potentially enable archaeologists to distinguish between amakhanda and other settlements. This model indicated that an ikhanda was organised into three structural sections namely the central enclosure, regimental housing and isigodlo; each of which was used for very specific purposes. Additionally, this study was able to identify and explain the functionality of previously unexplained features observed in the original excavations at uMgungundlovu. Despite sharing many similarities with settlements constructed according to the CCP model, the ikhanda’s unique organisation and function illustrate the limitations of using the CCP model as an umbrella term for all southern African settlements. The simultaneous existence of CCP-based imizi alongside amakhanda undermines the static nature that southern African settlements are believed to have had; indicating that superficial physical appearances may actually hide significant social, demographic and structural differences. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria,2015. / Anthropology and Archaeology / Unrestricted

Thesis (MSc. (Animal Production)) -- University of Limpopo, 2016 / A study was conducted to determine the effect of shredded Colophospermum (C.) mopane wood inclusion as roughage on performance of fattening Nguni heifers weighing 200 ± 5kg. The four diets used were isocaloric and isonitrogenous but with different shredded C. mopane wood inclusion levels of 5 (F95M5), 8.5 (F91.5M8.5), 10 (F90M10) and 15 (F85M15) %. The heifers were randomly allocated to the treatments in a completely randomized design. A quadratic equation was used to determine the shredded C. mopane inclusion levels for optimal productivity of the heifers. Shredded C. mopane wood inclusion level had effect (P<0.05) on intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR). Diet DM, OM, CP, NDF and ADF intakes per metabolic weight and FCR of Nguni heifers were optimized at different shredded C. mopane wood inclusion levels of 11.0, 13.7, 8.0, 15.0, 14.0, 14.0 and 15%, respectively. However, shredded C. mopane wood inclusion level did not affect (P>0.05) diet in vitro digestibility, carcass weight, dressing percentage, meat pH, meat shear force values and meat colour intensities except for red colour intensity of rump steak. It was, thus, concluded that shredded C. mopane wood can be used as roughage without adversely affecting diet intake, FCR, and live weight of Nguni heifers. However, diet intake and FCR were optimized at different C. mopane wood inclusion levels.

MSCAGR (Animal Science) / Department of Animal Science / In order to realize many of the potential advantages of AI, storage of semen is necessary. Semen storage is only possible using a system that decreases and/or halts the metabolic processes of the spermatozoa, allowing no significant loss of fertility. Numerous factors affect the success of spermatozoa storage. This study was designed to compare the effects of egg yolk, soybean milk and coconut water in Tris extender using different storage methods for Nguni bull spermatozoa storage. Bull semen was collected from two adult Nguni bulls approximately four years old and kept under similar managerial conditions. Using electro-ejaculator, semen was collected from each bull into a graduated semen collection tube. Macroscopically evaluation of the sample was performed immediately after collection. Only the semen free from contamination was processed. The kinetic properties namely: total spermatozoa motility, and progressive spermatozoa motility were analysed using CASA. Semen sample was stained and spermatozoa morphology and vitality also analysed using CASA. The extended semen was then split into three groups. The first group was stored at room temperature (25 °C). The second group was cooled to 4 °C and stored in the refrigerator. The third group was also cooled to 4 °C for 2 h in the refrigerator, then held in LN2 vapour 5 cm above the surface of LN2 at ~ -80 °C for 10 min and then plunged into LN2 for storage at -196 °C. Different colours of straws and plugging powder were used for identifying each extender. After 3 days of storage at room temperature, in the refrigerator and in LN2, the extended semen was split into three portions and assayed for kinetic properties using the first portion. The second portion was assayed for spermatozoa morphology and the third portion for spermatozoa vitality. The results from the fresh semen extended with all three extenders (TEYE, SBME and COWE), and analysed immediately after dilution at room temperature (25 ºC), showed no significant difference (P > 0.05) in the mean values of the kinetic and morphologic properties and viability, on spermatozoa TM, PM, AR, AT, CT; BT and LS. After three days of storage, there was no significant difference (P > 0.05) in the kinetic morphologic properties and viability of semen stored at room and refrigeration temperature regardless of the extender in use. There were, however, significant differences (P < 0.05) in the TM, PM, AR and DL of the frozen semen samples. For the short storage period of semen used for AI, from this study, it is recommended that semen should be kept at room or refrigeration temperature regardless of the three extenders used. However, for long storage of frozen semen TEYE is recommended. The egg yolk-based extender provided greater preservation of motility and bull spermatozoa integrity during the freezing process than did SBME and COWE.

Submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Zululand, 2005. / This dissertation seeks to take up the challenge of contributing to such an understanding of chieftainship by looking at the chieftainship succession disputes in the Cele clan of Phungashe and AmaNgwane clan of Bergville in the Province of KwaZulu -Natal, South Africa. The incorporation of indigenous political structures within the wider South African state has a long history, starting from the movements of people from one area to the other, the formation of smaller chiefdoms and bigger chiefdoms and to the rise of the Zulu kingdom. The entire process of Zulu state formation has been through a series of succession disputes which exist among many clans even nowadays. Also, the role of successions runs from the arrangements of indirect rule at the latter part of the nineteen-century to the pivotal role played by traditional leaders in the homeland administration and after 1994, the recognition of the institution, status and role of traditional leadership in the country's first democratic constitution and the enactment of the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act. No. 41 of 2003 which makes provision for the establishment of the Chieftainship Dispute Resolution Commission.

Compared to natural selection, the use of artificial insemination (AI) and other reproductive technologies rapidly increase the rate of genetic change in any population. In order to achieve success with AI, the semen used to inseminate cows must be of the highest possible quality. When semen is frozen, generally only about 50% of the spermatozoa survive the cryopreservation process. Thus, any factors possibly affecting the survival of spermatozoa through the numerous freezing-thawing steps should be studied, in order to identify the optimal conditions for the survival of spermatozoa. The discovery of protective agents within egg yolk and glycerol was a major milestone in sperm cryopreservation. These agents protect bovine spermatozoa during cooling and freezing procedures and result in increased survival rates. Cryopreservation of spermatozoa has become the most common technique for the preservation of male fertility of genetically superior sires even after their death. Using cryopreserved sperm to artificially inseminate females has become standard practice in commercial dairy cattle herds and the application of this reproductive management tool is also expanding to beef herds worldwide. The use of glycerol as a cryoprotectant for bovine spermatozoa is credited as the reason for the success in bovine semen cryopreservation. The purpose of this research was to quantify the effects of different cooling periods, as well as different glycerol equilibration periods on the post-thaw motility percentages and recovery fractions of semen collected from Boran and Nguni bulls. The research was subdivided into two experiments. In each experiment different cooling and glycerol equilibration times were researched. The first experiment involved shorter cooling times (30, 60, 120 and 240 minutes) with each cooling time followed by several longer equilibration times (4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 h). In the second experiment the cooling and equilibration times from the first experiment were reversed. This resulted in longer cooling times (4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 h) with each cooling time having shorter glycerol equilibration times (30, 60, 120 and 240 minutes). An egg yolk-Tris two-step extender was used in both the experiments. The general trend for the glycerol equilibration periods studied in Experiment 1 was that the resulting overall average post-thaw motility percentage and average recovery fraction increased with longer periods. There was a breed difference when comparing the average post-thaw motility percentages after 4, 5, 6 and 8 h (p<0.05), while the average post-thaw motility percentages also tended to differ after 7 h of equilibration. The general trend observed for equilibration periods used in Experiment 2 was that the average post-thaw motility percentage increased as glycerol equilibration period increased up to 120 minutes, but after 240 minutes of glycerol equilibration, there was a slight decline. The differences in average post-thaw motility percentage after the respective glycerol equilibration periods were not statistically significant. The results of each experiment were used to create a matrix that can be used in practice. The matrix using results from Experiment 1 demonstrated that a cooling period glycerol equilibration period combination of 240 minutes and 7 h resulted in the highest (not significantly different from most other combinations) average post-thaw motility rates. The matrix formed from the results of Experiment 2 demonstrated that an 8 h cooling period combined with a 60 minute glycerol equilibration period yielded the highest (not significantly different from most other combinations), average post-thaw motility percentage. / Dissertation (MSc(Agric))--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Animal and Wildlife Sciences / unrestricted

Although the complexity of prosody is widely recognised, there is a lack of widely-accepted descriptive standards for prosodic phenomena. This situation has become particularly noticeable with the development of increasingly capable text-to-speech (TTS) systems. Such systems require detailed prosodic models to sound natural. For the languages of Southern Africa, the deficiencies in our modelling capabilities are acute. Little work of a quantitative nature has been published for the languages of the Nguni family (such as isiZulu and isiXhosa), and there are significant contradictions and imprecisions in the literature on this topic. We have therefore embarked on a programme aimed at understanding the relationship between linguistic and physical variables of a prosodic nature in this family of languages. We then use the information/knowledge gathered to build intonation models for isiZulu and isiXhosa as representatives of the Nguni languages. Firstly, we need to extract physical measurements from the voice recordings of the Nguni family of languages. A number of pitch tracking algorithms have been developed; however, to our knowledge, these algorithms have not been evaluated formally on a Nguni language. In order to decide on an appropriate algorithm for further analysis, evaluations have been performed on two stateof- the-art algorithms namely the Praat pitch tracker and Yin (developed by Alain de Cheveingn´e). Praat’s pitch tracker algorithm performs somewhat better than Yin in terms of gross and fine errors and we use this algorithm for the rest of our analysis.<./p> For South African languages the task of building an intonation model is complicated by the lack of intonation resources available. We describe the methodology used for developing a generalpurpose intonation corpus and the various methods implemented to extract relevant features such as fundamental frequency, intensity and duration from the spoken utterances of these languages. In order to understand how the ‘expected’ intonation relates to the actual measured characteristics extracted, we developed two different statistical approaches to build intonation models for isiZulu and isiXhosa. The first is based on straightforward statistical techniques and the second uses a classifier. Both intonation models built produce fairly good accuracy for our isiZulu and isiXhosa sets of data. The neural network classifier used produces slightly better results for both sets of data than the statistical method. The classification model is also more robust and can easily learn from the training data. We show that it is possible to build fairly good intonation models for these languages using different approaches, and that intensity and fundamental frequency are comparable in predictive value for the ascribed tone. / Dissertation (MSc (Computer Science))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Computer Science / MSc / unrestricted

Bibliography: pages 131-146. / There is presently considerable debate as to the forms of relationships established between hunter-gatherers and their non-forager neighbours and whether relationships which are documented as having been established significantly affected these hunter-gatherer societies. In southern Africa, particular attention has been paid to the effects of such contact on hunter- gatherer communities of the south-western Cape and the Kalahari. The aim of this thesis has been to assess the nature and extent of relationships established between the south-eastern San and southern Nguni and Sotho communities and to identify the extent to which the establishment of these relationships may have brought about changes in the political, social and religious systems of south- eastern hunter-gatherers. General patterns characterising interaction between a number of San and non-San hunter-gatherer societies and farming communities outside the study area are identified and are combined with archaeological and historiographical information to model relationships between the south-eastern San and southern Nguni and Sotho communities. The established and possible effects of these relationships on some south-eastern San groups are presented as well as some of the possible forms in which changes in San religious ideology and ritual practice resultant upon contact were expressed in the rock art. It is suggested that the ideologies of many south-eastern San communities, rather than being characterised by continuity throughout the contact period, were significantly influenced by the ideological systems of the southern Nguni and Sotho and that paintings at the caves of Melikane and upper Mangolong, as well as comments made upon these paintings by the 19th century San informant, Qing, should be interpreted with reference to the religious ideologies and ritual practices of the southern Nguni and Sotho as well as those of the San. Other rock paintings in areas where contact between the south-eastern San and black farming communities was prolonged and symbiotic may need to be similarly interpreted.

Narrative therapy provides an opportunity for children to identify what is important to them. The aim of therapy in this research is to open up space for Nguni speaking children, who in their culture, are not allowed to express their feelings freely. The researcher has found that stories allow children an opportunity to realise that they are all human and that we have come through a process where we have to acknowledge that our existence today is largely dependent on the fact that we are not denying our stories as Nguni speaking people. From looking at the results of study, it would appear that these children have benefited from the therapy sessions. From three clients a sense of pride and self-worth was often evident at the end of a session and the overall comment made was that each one felt far better than when they had started the sessions. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (specialisation in Guidance and Counseling)

This thesis utilizes the theory of feminism in all its implied branches in an attempt to critically review the subtle and sometimes deliberate subjugation of women in general and South Africa in particular. This occurs, in spite of the fact that there are laws in place that are meant to discourage women abuse. Juxtaposing this is the perspective conception of women, looking at themselves as subjects of virtue who deserve equal treatment to any other human being. It is through some oral forms that this reflection could be tested. Praise poetry, in the hands of a creative artist opens up a world of human emotions that could not be easily seen or felt, and yet it can simultaneously be used to manipulate situations. Language therefore could be seen as a powerful double-edged instrument. The patriarchal system, in this thesis, is exposed as that holy ideology turned unholy to achieve condescending agendas against women. The thin light of respect demonstrated by the traditionalist thinking is made to disappear into thin air, especially when contaminated by Western ideas. It is the resoluteness and the fair obstinacy of some both traditional and modern women that determinedly stood up to conscientise the world in terms of respect for human life irrespective. In this research, an exploration of literary elements within four Nguni languages, that is Siswati, isiZulu, isiNdebele, and isiXhosa reveals the singularity of purpose, for these elements to be manipulated to achieve domineering intentions. Be that as it may, tibongo (praise poems/ praises) of outstanding women who have served in traditional leadership in these language groups give reason to challenge any idea that women should by virtue be relegated to the back seat. Through these tibongo it becomes apparent that because of the women leaders’ stubborn fairness and unparalleled foresight, they have become personifications of democratic values and as such, role models and symbolic hope not only for the empowerment of women, but also for their total liberation from all negative perceptions and oppressions. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

Narrative therapy provides an opportunity for children to identify what is important to them. The aim of therapy in this research is to open up space for Nguni speaking children, who in their culture, are not allowed to express their feelings freely. The researcher has found that stories allow children an opportunity to realise that they are all human and that we have come through a process where we have to acknowledge that our existence today is largely dependent on the fact that we are not denying our stories as Nguni speaking people. From looking at the results of study, it would appear that these children have benefited from the therapy sessions. From three clients a sense of pride and self-worth was often evident at the end of a session and the overall comment made was that each one felt far better than when they had started the sessions. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (specialisation in Guidance and Counseling)