Zulu, Bantu-speaking people of southern Africa. Numbering between 8 and 10 million, they live mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In the past their economy was based on cultivating millet and raising cattle. They also made millet beer, tanned hides, smelted iron, and wove baskets. Traditionally the Zulu lived in beehive-shaped huts grouped in a circular compound, or kraal, with the cattle in the center. Today many Zulu have become urbanized, or are dependent on wage labor from farms and mines.