Studies on a variety of facets of the subject of indigenous African architecture have increasingly received the interest of many post-colonial researchers, in search for indigenous African identity in the international world of architecture. One of the challenges that provoked this project is that not many, if any, of those studies in this subject have attempted to find out where the indigenous traditional architecture of the African people can place itself in modern architecture today and what role it could play in the development of our contemporary modern built environment. This study seeks to identify the primary problem and attempt to find answers to certain key questions. One of the problem areas identified in general observations and literature review is the perception that the architecture of the indigenous people of KwaZulu-Natal belongs to itself only, and is not fit to participate in the development of the contemporary urban physical environment other than as a facility for tourism. What makes up the traditional architecture of amaZulu has been understood to be underdeveloped primitive construction materials only. For this reason, studies on the indigenous architecture of KwaZulu-Natal have been done primarily for historical records. A generally acknowledged factor in the development of some prevailing unfortunate perceptions in this subject is the ideology of European supremacy over every sector of life of the indigenes of the African continent. It is such ideological perception that questioned international wisdom in African indigenous architecture and suppressed it from global participation so far. This study investigates the rich cultural forces that directed the history of the indigenous architecture of this region. It also investigates historical socioeconomic factors that have influenced the direction of evolution of the traditional architecture of the indigenes of KwaZulu-Natal. From the latter, one would question the gap between the sophisticated indigenous artwork found in the informal trade of the province and the struggling state of architecture found in the rural built environments of the same people. ii Given that the indigenous people of KwaZulu-Natal today include several groups of abeNguni that merged into a nation over the history of the province, this study acknowledges the diversity of those various groups, and further searches for its global worth. / Thesis (M.Arch.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

The Msinga magisterial district, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa is notable because it has for many years been regarded socially as a pariah region by residents of the Province. Over the decades it has been a 'dumping ground' for people and cultures, an infertile land where gun-running, the illegal cultivation of marijuana, and continuous stock theft has relieved some of the abject poverty, but has also exacerbated the local incidence of faction fighting. However, the people of the area have responded to this ongoing social submission by reacting with creativity and colour in their clothing, cultural goods and homesteads. The cultural material of the district is, in my opinion, unsurpassed anywhere else in the Province, from the traditional interpretation of the Msinga dolls to the exuberant architecture of the contemporary homestead. The layout and elevational resolution of any type of vernacular homestead, defined by Oliver in the first chapter, is a result of a broad number of factors, most importantly resources in terms of materials, economy, climate and culture. The response of the people of Msinga in the Tugela Valley embraces all of these factors to produce a surprising resolution that distills a fresh response to the architectural depiction of a social emergence from the peasantry. The internationally acknowledged prominent form of Zulu architecture, the beehive hut, has been adequately documented in the past. Biermann, Walton and Knuffel carried out different levels of work on this building type from the 1950s onwards. Nowadays, dwindling natural resources in KwaZulu-Natal have resulted in the creation of a new set of vernacular architectures, responding to the environment and resources available, and reflecting the specific needs of the builders, from the expression of social and economic values, to the pragmatic reality of protection from 'political strife. On the one hand, the buildings. in the Msinga Valley are changing rapidly with the natural life course of each building. However, on the other, the development of new architectural styles with the continual building of new units within homesteads demonstrates a dynamic architectural and decorative tradition. The co-existence of the material cultures of Msinga and their architectural expression has to be documented and an attempt made at analysis. The threat of indigenous vemacular traditions disappearing at the expense of development is visible on the horizon. Regional planning initiatives are pressured to deliver houses and services on a large scale, which would be severely detrimental to the continuance of a vernacular architectural tradition. The architectural culture, although currently dynamic, is at risk, and thus begs for documentation. I aim to present the unique decorative tradition of Msinga as an architecture within the contexts of place and extant material culture. Adopting anything but a broad socio-cultural perspective in this case is both short-sighted and ill-focussed. The architecture of rural areas is a material culture that is embedded in the history, social and political struggles, and economic strife. Yet, in contrast with these negative influences, it demonstrates an exuberance that is continued in the other material cultures in Msinga. I begin with an overview, pull out the thread of Msinga as an area, then distil the material culture and, ultimately, the architecture and the decoration. / Thesis (M.Arch.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.