This research explores ways in which Shaka Zulu (1787-1828), an early-19th-century South African leader of the Zulu people, has been perceived throughout history. In an examination of three monographs dealing with the life of Shaka, the research will set forth the context for evaluating both historical and historiographical treatments of his biography, and then discuss the bases on which a given treatment of the biography appear to be been structured.
The gradual, complex, event-filled, and sometimes violent dismantling of the European colonial apparatus over the course of the 20th century can sometimes conceal the fact that the history of Africa is not confined to the history of Europe in Africa. The European project of colonialism, in the context of transformed opinions of and information about non-Western cultures in the modern period, has met disrepute in all but the most antiprogressive corners of popular imagination. Indeed, the handwriting was on the wall for the colonial powers in Africa as early as 1918, in the aftermath of the Great War. Britain in particular, which had fought World War I to end German imperialism, could hardly reconstitute its colonial policies in toto, at least not in name. Together, the Boer War and the Great War had revealed the delicate balance of political affairs in South Africa in particular because whites turned out to be splintered in themselves, just as tribally separated in their way as various black African peoples were in theirs.
Viewing the decline and discrediting of European colonialism across the 20th century, one can see as inevitable the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa in the mid-1990s. The fact that this dynamic was organized around the charismatic figure of Nelson Mandela appears to have fostered intentions to reshape governance bureaucracy and social structure in terms of reconciliation and transition toward stable and equitable political forms.
The intention has not a...