What is Culture?

There are different definations of the word Culture as it is interpretated in different ways. Some says culture is, "The culmulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meaning, heirarchies, religion,notion of time, roles, spatiel relation, concept of universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving." And others say, "Culture is the sum of total of the learned behaviour of a group of people the generally considered to be the tradition of that people and are transmitted from generation to generation."

I will be focusing more on the isiXhosa culture. The Xhosa is a Bantu Ethnic group of Southern African living in the south east of South Africa.

Xhosa people are divided into different types of tribes but are related in distinct heritages and those groups are;

• AmaMpondo- amaMpondomise, amaBomvana, amaXesibe
• AmaThembu
• AmaBhaca
• AmaMfengu      

The name Xhosa comes from a legendary leader who was called uXhosa, and it is believed that the word means "fierce" or "angry" in some San language. Xhosa's refers to themselves as;

• Person: umXhosa
• People: amaXhosa
• Language: isiXhosa 

IsiXhosa language falls under the Nguni languages with Zulu and Swati. these languages are called Nguni because they are related, when one speaks another language another person that speaks t\another languages under Nguni can understand and wont need any translation.

The Xhosa culture has it's own way of dressing, a different diet and customs and ritual. Even though they are divided into different ethnic groups their diet, attires n rituals are the same. The picture below shows how Xhosa women dress when there's a ritual, ceremony or a family event.  

    

AmaXhosa women in their traditional attire

Most Xhosas believe in ancestors but there are few Christians and those that follow other religions. They believe that there's a god called Qamata that is mainly a god of amaXhosa. They call him the Son of Sun, the earth goddess, uJobela. 

Xhosa is a diverse culture with a lot of history. There's more about isiXhosa and is a very interesting culture.