Title: The roots of Ndebele culture and the belief structures that condition it, extend back into a time long before whites penetrated the hinterland of Suthern Africa.  But this fact not withstanding, the culture that we would identify today as distinctively Ndebele is, however ironically, one which came into being during colonial and post-colonial times, and in many important ways bears the imprint of, responds to, and has been conditioned by the dominant culture of whites.