Talk:Rondavel

Africa: Botswana / Eswatini / Lesotho / South Africa

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Etymology

I wonder if anybody who reads this has knowledge of the etymology of the word "rondavel"? It is Afrikaans. "Rond" - refers to its "Round" shape. "Davel" might come from 18th century dutch - Could it mean "small dwelling or house?"

The Dutch "havel" is the same word as the English "hovel", thus "Rondavel" means "Round hovel" but without the modern pejorative aspect of the English "hovel", it just means very small and simple dwelling. Roger (talk) 21:24, 14 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

'Rondavel' is incorrect

'Rondavel' is NOT an ethnic Bantu name for the huts which they used to construct. These traditional huts were built using poles, grass, laths and had (in some designs) weatherproofed walls constructed of wattle and daub. White settlers in Southern Africa copied the basic design and westernised it by brick or stone walls, cement plaster, concrete floors and glazed windows, and called these rondavels. The design of round huts using local materials is obviously an ancient one - the design crops up in the roundhouses, which the English blithely claim to have invented, and in primitive societies all over the world. The article needs to be renamed as a rondavel is simply a small subset of huts. Androstachys (talk) 21:12, 9 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Andros is correct in his analysis, anyone who studied Architecture at University of Natal under Professor Barry Bierman, would have learnt about the Traditional Zulu Beehive Hut. Possibly just what people are looking for as the origin of this strange structure. Arthur King — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.177.4.242 (talk) 13:47, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]