Reconstituting Shaka Zulu for the twenty-first century.

The image of Shaka as one of the Great Men of southern African history was in essence a product of political struggles in the era of colonialism. Black people and white people alike were responsible for producing it. It began to take root after about 1840, and became widespread in southern Africa an...

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Published in:Southern African Humanities Vol. 18; no. 2; pp. 139 - 154
Main Author: Wright, John
Format: Article
Published: Natal Museum Dec2006
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: Reconstituting Shaka Zulu for the twenty-first century.
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        au: Wright, John
        affil: School of Anthropology, Gender and Historical Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, P. Bag X01, Scottsville, 3209 South Africa
      su:
        Saka
        Imperialism
        World War II
        Zulu (African people)
        South African history
        South Africa
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          South Africa
          Saka
          Imperialism
          World War II
          Zulu (African people)
          South African history
      keyword:
        heritage
        mfecane
        Shaka Zulu
        South African historiography
        Zulu ethnicity
        Zulu history
      ab: The image of Shaka as one of the Great Men of southern African history was in essence a product of political struggles in the era of colonialism. Black people and white people alike were responsible for producing it. It began to take root after about 1840, and became widespread in southern Africa and elsewhere in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the period of anti-apartheid struggles after World War II it was uncritically taken up and reinforced by liberal and radical academics, by African nationalists, and especially by Zulu nationalist politicians. In the 1980s and early 1990s the figure of Shaka the Mighty became a central icon in the ideology of Zuluism. The end of apartheid and the establishment of formal democratic rule in South Africa in 1994 led to an unexpectedly rapid decline of Zulu nationalism and, concomitantly, to a rapid fall-off in meaningful invocations of Shaka as a Mighty figure. In the early twentyfirst century the most active proponents of what are increasingly anachronistic ideas about Shaka the Mighty are operatives in KwaZulu-Natal's rapidly expanding heritage and tourism industries.
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    language: English
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      custom: Copyright of Southern African Humanities is the property of Natal Museum and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
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