ABSTRACT
In 1975, Inkatha Yenkululeko Yesizwe (National Cultural Liberation Movement), under the charismatic leadership of Mangosutho Buthelezi, was launched in Natal. Although it put itself forward as a national movement, its location within a bantustan (KwaZulu), its links with the administration and politics of that bantustan through its control of the KwaZulu Legislative Assembly, and its very heavy reliance on Zulu symbolism and political imagery limited the degree of its appeal outside Natal. The character of Inkatha has changed since July 1990, when the organization decided to transform itself into a political party and abandon the tag of a cultural movement.1 The Inkatha Freedom Party presents itself now as a moderate (I would argue conservative) nonracial force in South African politics. The degree to which it will be able to take on this role successfully is a matter for another paper. Here I am concerned with the period from 1975, when a women’s wing was inaugurated within Inkatha, to 1990, when Inkatha became a political party. The paper is based on archival research and interviews conducted with members of the Inkatha Women’s Brigade.
