Harriet Ngubane

Harriet Ngubane (11 November 1929 – October 2007), formerly known as Harriet Sibisi, was a South African social anthropologist best known for her work on Zulu belief systems. Though educated in England, Ngubane spent the latter years of her career as a professor at the University of Cape Town. She represented the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in the National Assembly from 1994 to 2004.

Quotes

• To be reunited with society through cure was to effect a desired situation in life, whether that be social, biological or spiritual.
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• This deeply anthropological understanding of health considered that it is in fact the process of achieving a desired state is of most significance to the sufferer.
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• the importance of red symbols as representing the change from sickness to good health because of the therapeutic power of symbolism for the sufferer
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• In spite of Christianity the permeating influence in the Nyuswa reserve is based more on Zulu culture than on any foreign culture’
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• In most aspects of daily life, outlook and habits, I am Zulu in spite of my mission background’.
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• Important aspects of Zulu culture were unrecognised and denied by Catholicism, including the recognition of ancestral power, the consulting of a diviner and certain forms of marriage.
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