Lovedu

Lovedu, also spelled Lobedu, also called Balovedu, a Bantu-speaking people of Northern province, S.Af. Their immediate neighbours include the Venda and the Tsonga. Agriculture is their major economic activity, with corn (maize), millet, squash, and peanuts (groundnuts) cultivated by hoe. Animal husbandry is a secondary means of food production. Cattle are also a form of currency in some social and economic transactions, and in many common daily activities beer is traditionally used to make compensation. For the Lovedu the accumulation of goods is frowned upon, and produce is consumed rather than marketed.

A Lovedu village typically consists of 20 to 80 small structures used for dwelling, work, and social activities. Such a settlement is formed to accommodate several generations of related males but also includes many individuals related through other kinship ties.

Lovedu kinship, politics, economy, and religion are united in the person of the Rain Queen. Her lineage is traced to Karanga (Shona) immigrants from what is now southern Zimbabwe. The Rain Queen is believed to provide the rain crucial to agriculture through rituals and appeals to her divine ancestors. The Lovedu expect a queen’s death to result in natural disasters such as drought, famine, and disease.

Christianity has been embraced only slowly among the Lovedu, but its influences have reached deeply inside Lovedu culture, as such traditional practices as polygyny, spirit possession, and drumming and dancing have come to be deemed unsuitable. Lovedu labourers migrate from their localities to raise money for tax payments, working in South African mines and in industry.