The Legacy of Fire

The flaming core of Zulu culture, conservation, and five-star hospitality at Jumeirah Thanda Safari

Tens of thousands of years ago, across the vast bushveld of KwaZulu-Natal, night would fall and the land would come alive - cicadas, frogs, the furtive steps of predators, a jackal’s distant cry. Above, the Milky Way spilled light across the sky. And then - an ember glowed. A tiny orange spark, alive and flickering in the dark.

In those earliest nights, people learned to coax fire from friction. Two sticks pressed together, spun until heat sparked life. In that moment, humanity crossed a threshold: light against dark, warmth against cold, safety against fear. 

By the time the Zulu ancestors established their kingdoms in these rolling hills and valleys, fire had long been woven into the daily and the sacred. It warmed bodies, cooked meals, warded off predators, and held space for stories, dreams, and prayers. 

At Jumeirah Thanda Safari, fire preserves this legacy: a glow that gathers people, nourishes the land, and carries a spirit of welcome from ancient Arabian deserts to Africa’s wild landscapes - above all, a universal one shared by our forebears beyond language and geography.

Smoke, Song, and Story

Within Zulu culture, the hearth is considered the centre of the homestead, the point around which life is organised. It is here that families come together to share food, listen to elders, and pass on oral histories that carry collective memory across generations. Storytelling by firelight is not only how knowledge survives, but how values, identity, and belonging are reinforced.

Flame and smoke also hold spiritual resonance. The burning of impepho, a sacred herb, is used to call upon ancestors, with the rising smoke believed to carry messages and prayers to the unseen world.

The fire is not only for warmth or ritual but also the place where life unfolds. Warriors perform dances by the flames, re-enacting legendary battles and celebrations, as rhythmic clapping, stamping and call-and-response singing rises from the firelit circles.

And when the stories and songs fall quiet, the same fire turns to its other purpose - cooking the food that nourishes and brings people together once more.

Fire and Feast

Fire has long been, and remains, central to the preparation of food.  Heavy cast-iron pots rest on glowing coals, slowly simmering maize porridge, known as uphuthu, or stewing beans and grains into hearty umngqusho. Meat - often goat, beef, or chicken - is roasted or stewed, and often carries ritual significance when prepared over fire for weddings, initiations, or ancestral rites.

Beyond cooking, it played a role in preservation too. Smoking and drying over the hot coals allowed meat to last longer, helping communities sustain themselves through leaner seasons. At mealtimes, the flames were also regarded as a purifying presence, believed to ward off evil spirits and ensure protection for those present.
That cultural thread runs through South Africa’s braai tradition, where food cooked over wood or charcoal is still a celebrated way of  welcoming, gathering, and  feasting.  At Jumeirah Thanda Safari, fireside comfort is cherished: ritual evening bonfires under the stars and special boma dinners, with refined dishes braaied over coals by private chefs at Villa iZulu and the Royal Residences. 

The Healing Burn
Across the African wilderness, at the end of the dry season, the ground turns black. Stark white ash crackles underfoot, and the air carries the sharp scent of smoke. Yet this dramatic transformation is not destruction – it is rebirth. From this starkness comes renewal. Controlled burns mimic the ecosystem’s natural cycles, and are essential to clear away old, dry growth, returning valuable nutrients to the soil and making space for new shoots to push through. Within days, tender grass appears, soon drawing herds to graze on the fresh growth, and with them, the predators that follow.

For the reserve’s conservation team, controlled burning reduces the risk of runaway wildfires, sustains biodiversity, and mirrors practices that local communities have long understood.

Embers of Hospitality
In another corner of the world, the wilderness took a different form: not grasslands and big cats, but sandy dunes and the steady tread of camels. Across the sands of the Arabian Peninsula, travellers and merchants moved between East and West along the great trade routes. Few completed the entire passage, and so the desert itself became a meeting ground - a crossroads where cultures, stories, and ideas converged. Over time, that gathering place grew into the city we now know as Dubai.

What drew people together at day’s end was the same element that bound communities in Africa - the glow of a flame. In the night, fire was more than heat; it was a signal and a sanctuary, a place where strangers were received, offered food, protection, and rest.

This ancient notion of hospitality, symbolised by fire, is the very essence of Jumeirah, echoed in its three-flame emblem. The name itself comes from jumr, meaning “burning embers” - a beacon of warmth and welcome for travellers across the sands. It is that same spirit which continues to guide every welcome, uniting cultures, sustaining communities, and reminding us that a shared flame has always been where belonging begins.

At Jumeirah Thanda Safari, fire remains elemental - welcoming you to share in meals prepared with care, to walk a land renewed by its cycles, and to be part of circles that honour the traditions of Zulu culture.