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The last time I wrote, I raised a few questions about what defines manhood. To date I am still struggling with finalizing the list of important ingredients that are essential in the make-up of this man character.  Just when I think I am closer to the real identity - a curve ball gets thrown on my face and I have had to recant my earlier opinion.

There is a common literary interpretation of the bible that says sometimes when the bible uses the term man, this is gender neutral and it refers to humankind, both male and female. This understanding of word- man- is the oldest and original interpretation of what man is. W.R.F. Browning, in the Dictionary of the bible says when he explains what word man means:

“In English usage, it is a generic term for human beings in general but also for a male representative of the human species. Because of the ambiguity, morden translations tend to prefer ‘human beings’ or ‘mortals’ where a male person is not specifically intended. This avoids the danger of linguistic sexism which has a discerned bias towards masculine gender”

This is also in line with the Etymology of word man – according to Wikipedia:

“It is derived from a Proto-Indo-European root *man- (cf. Sanskrit/Avestan manu-, Czech muž "man, male").[1] In Hindu mythology, Manu is a title accorded the progenitor of humankind. Sometimes, the word is connected with the root *men- "to think" (cognate to mind). Restricted use in the sense "adult male" only began to occur in late Old English, around 1000 AD, and the word formerly expressing male sex, wer had died out by 1300 (but survives in a few words such as werewolf and weregild). The original sense of the word is preserved in mankind, from Old English mancynn.

In Old English the words wer and wīf (also wǣpmann and wīfmann) were used to refer to "a man" and "a woman" respectively, while mann was gender neutral (as is the case with modern German man; the modern German gender-neutral noun is Mensch). In Middle English man displaced wer as the term for "male human," whilst wyfman (which eventually evolved into woman) was retained for "female human". Man does continue to carry its original sense of "human" however, resulting in an asymmetry sometimes criticized as sexist.

“For you are all the Children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ. And if you are in Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, and heirs according to the promise.”

This means that through Christ, God restores the human relationships to pre-fall times where consequences of sin dictated that each member of human race perform specific functions.  To insist on such dogmatic adherence to these roles in the context of Salvation seems to be an unintended misreading of God’s purpose in creating male and females differently.  The difference was meant to enhance and not encumber His mission of saving souls. God is in the business of saving souls and he says if we do not cooperate with him, He will even make the stones to cry out.  What then would we say when that day come? Will we be concerned that stones cannot be ordained and that God had made them of lesser quality than mankind?

Now, back to my heading – the woman I refer to is none other than my favourite Zulu Princess MKabayi kaJama. To appreciate Mkabayi’s bravery and her showcasing manhood characteristics you need to understand her background. According to her biography as outlined in Wikipedia, Mkabayi kaJama singlehandedly courted Mthaniya(King Shaka’s grandmother) for her father Jama who was aging without having a successor, she did this without her fathers knowledge and when he found out he said "Nenzengakhona" which means you have done accordingly, Mthaniya’s first son was named Senzangakhona "we have done accordingly" after his sisters efforts to find her father a successor.

Mkabayi was a twin and Zulu custom dictated that one of the twins be sacrificed to evade bad luck that would result in the death of one of the parents. Jama KaNdaba refused to kill one of his girls and broke a known tradition consequently his wife died without bearing him a successor. Mkabayi devoted her whole life in looking after the
Zulu
Kingdom due to the sacrifice her parents made for her to live.