Submitted for the fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts In the Department of IsiZulu Namagugu at the University of Zululand, 2002. / The topic of this thesis is informed by the writer's observation of the trend wherein modemist and traditionalist Zulu women tend to wear. as style, colourfully beaded outfits to decorate their fashion and wear. The colourful regalia is found in ceremonial dress, like isidwaba (cow-hide skirt) and other forms of dress made of cloth and textile. and decorated in beads. The decoration. as observed, is often designed to fit in a particular mode of interpretation, thus promoting the notion of fashion as form of communication interaction and definition of status. It is the hypothesis of the present writer that beads. designed and patterned in a specific way tend not only to communicate certain literal and figurative or poetic meanings, but also to declare fashion as a medium of communication, very much like ordinary speech does. In the context of this thesis Zulu womens' beadwork is a form of colour coding, literary and poetic speech communication and a declaration of fashion as a medium of social interaction, status, and social display. Thus, wearing their colourfully designed beadwork and fashion, Zulu women are always highly visible and recognisable. The thesis is thus confined to introducing the angle of fashion as statement and medium of literary and poetic communication in the creation of the modem and traditional status of a Zulu woman through beadwork. Colourcoding is key because the power of beadwork to communicateThe focus on Zulu Women is for the sake of creating a focus group of study and more so due to the observation by the present writer that in the context of modemist and traditionalist Zulu society, real or imaginary, it is women who wear more beads compared, to any other social group. meaningfully very much depends on the design and patteming of colours.

In Natal and Zululand Swedish missions had precedence through the Church of Sweden Mission from 1876 on, the Swedish Holiness Mission from 1889 on, and the Scandinavian Independent Baptist Union from 1892 on. Between 1876 and 1902, thirty-six women were active in these South African missions. The history of all these women are explored on an individual basis in this, for the most part, empirical study. The primary goal of this dissertation is to find out who these women missionaries were, what they worked at, what positions they held toward the colonial/political situation in which they worked, and what positions they held in their respective missions. What meaning the women’s mission work had for the Zulu community in general, and for Zulu women in particular are dealt with, though the source material on it is limited. Nevertheless, through the source material from the Swedish female missionaries, Zulu women are given attention. The theoretical starting points come, above all, from historical research on women and gender and from historical mission research about missions as a part of the colonial period. Both married and unmarried women are defined as missionaries since both groups worked for the missions. In the Swedish Holiness Mission and in the Scandinavian Independent Baptist Union the first missionaries in Natal and Zululand were women. The Church of Sweden Mission was a Lutheran mission were women mostly worked in mission schools, homes for children and in a mission hospital. Women were subordinated in relationship to male missionaries. In the Swedish Holiness Mission and in the Scandinavian Independent Baptist Union women had more equal positions in their work. In these missions women could be responsible for mission stations, work as evangelists and preach the Gospel. The picture of the work of female missionaries has also been complicated and modified.