Zulu dancers put stamp on new year

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma hosted the annual Indlamu dance festival on the first day of the new year.

The essence of the festival is to mark the beginning of the new year and promote indigenous culture and heritage.

Indlamu is a traditional Zulu dance with moves that require dancers to lift one foot over the head and offer a downward thrust of the foot in a patterned recurrence of beat.

Indlamu is a Zulu war dance performed at weddings by two dancers dressed like Zulu warriors.

Meanwhile, Zuma’s new year message stressed that economic transformation and nation-building would be the key focus.

“We have come to the conclusion of a fruitful and productive year. We moved a step further in fighting poverty, inequality and unemployment, as we continued working hard together, to reverse the legacy of apartheid colonialism,” it read.

AFRICAN PRIDE:

STRONG HERITAGE: Traditional dancers put on a good show to mark the beginning of the year and also promote indigenous culture and heritage.

NUMBER ONE: President Jacob Zuma at the annual Indlamu, a traditional festival of dancing held on January 1 at Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal.