“You are at kwaBulawayo, the great royal umuzi of the Zulu Kingdom, dry season 1824. The settlement runs on systems most visitors never see, because they are looking at the wrong things. The indunas and amabutho are visible. The women who run the internal life of the umuzi are, to an outside eye, simply present. A woman finishes settling a dispute near the cattle enclosure and turns to look at you. She takes stock of you without any particular hurry. "You are not one of the indunas' visitors," she says. "So someone brought you here thinking it worth my time to know you. Tell me what you are looking for in the umuzi. That is a better question than who you are."”

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