Zulu huts
Baden-Powell often used stories about the famous Zulu people in his writing. Illustrations from Scouting for Boys included sketches of beehive-style thatched Zulu huts, a Zulu warrior dancing, and a Zulu woman carrying a pot, and also a technique he learnt from the Zulu of how to make a toothbrush out of a twig.
The photos show a traditional Zulu healer's hut in the Natal National Botanical Garden medicine (muthi) garden. This hut was built by three traditional healers, led by Tr Dr Londiwe Xulu, who learnt the art from her mother. The hut was made using mostly traditional materials - common thatch grass Hyparrhania hirta, black wattle Acacia mearnsii (saplings for the hut walls) Natal fig Ficus natalensis bark for tying material, and rock alder Canthium mundanium for the central pole support. Unfortunately the floor had to be made of concrete, as the traditional polished cow dung floor did not attract volunteers to do the regular smearing with fresh `polish' that these floors require! In traditional style, the perimeter has been delimited by an indigenous Aloe arborescens hedge.
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Beehive-style Zulu healer's hut in the Natal National Botanical Garden medicine (muthi) garden.
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The soaked bark of the Natal fig being prepared as lashings for the beehive hut frame.
Somali hut
Traditional Somali huts built from natural materials also feature in Scouting for Boys.
Primary sources
- Veld & Flora 83 (3) September 1997, the journal of the Botanical Society of South Africa.
- Sketches by Baden-Powell in Scouting for Boys