Career of Shaka Zulu, First King of the Zulus

Carolyn Hamilton has shown that the development of ideas about Shaka--which continue to have an impact today--is more complex than even recent re-examinations of the colonial legacy have shown. Hamilton demonstrates some of the ways in which this image has been shaped in order to meet the needs of groups that, very often, have completely opposite goals in mind. Most tellingly, she demonstrates that nineteenth-century European views of Shaka had their roots in early African views of the man and--even at their most negative--were not entirely the invention of the dominant Europeans, meant solely to serve the ends of colonial administrations. She shows that, in Natal, both Theophilus Shepstone and James Stuart were convinced that "effective native policy had to be based on an accurate understanding and in-depth analysis of indigenous institutions and practices" and. to this end, both of these colonial administrators sought information about and explanations of the Shakan administrative syste

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millions [be] hurt by some [of Mofolo's] distortions when taken literally as historical fact" (xix). Kunene comes to the conclusion that, whether Mofolo intended it or not, such harm to Shaka's image "could be, and probably was" the result of the novel (xix). Late in the book Mofolo remarks that Shaka's activities were both numerous and of great importance "but since it is not our purpose to recount all the affairs of his life, we have chosen only one part which suits out present purpose" (153). That purpose is never precisely stated and Kunene merely concludes that "it must remain an unanswered question whether or not Mofolo intended" to harm Shaka's reputation (xix). In view of the fact that Mofolo's novel is a vigorous and clever condemnation of Shaka, Kunene's introduction displays precisely the type of reading that, as Hamilton argued, was often applied to the material--readings that drew what the reader wished to see from the accounts being presented. There is nothing ambiguous about Chaka's attitude toward its subject, yet Kunene, from some pro-Shaka stance, seems unable to acknowledge, or else unwilling to explore too deeply, the meanings of Mofolo's book. Kunene allowed that Mofolo invented various elements of the
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1876
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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