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The Assassination of King Shaka: Zulu History's Dramatic Moment

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The Assassination of King Shaka: Zulu History's Dramatic Moment THE ASSASSINATION OF KING SHAKA: ZULU HISTORY’S DRAMATIC MOMENT by JOHN LABAND Cape Town: Jonathan Ball, 2017. ISBN 9781868428076 (paperback) 226 pages, illustrated, general index, reading list, referenced with endnotes, historical time line, list of characters, glossary of Zulu words OHN Laband, for many years a ing of books on Shaka and Zulu history, lecturer and professor in the De- such as Hamilton’s Terrific Majesty: The partment of History at the erstwhile Powers of Shaka Zulu and the Limits of J 10 University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg, Historical Invention and Dan Wylie’s is a well-known writer on the history of 2000 Savage Delight: White Myths of the Zulu kingdom, with his best-known Shaka,11 followed by his 2006 Myth of work probably his 1995 Rope of Sand: Iron: Shaka in History.12 What more, The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Kingdom.1 then, I thought, when asked to review From the 1830s (shortly after Shaka’s Laband’s The Assassination of Shaka, assassination) to today, a considerable could he say about Shaka and his role amount has been written and published in the history of the Zulu Kingdom? on the history of the Zulu kingdom and Laband’s book is unquestionably an its celebrated founder, Shaka kaSenzan- academic history: elegantly written, it is gakhona kaJama. The Diary of Henry meticulously referenced, with an aver- Francis Fynn, eventually published in age of 29 endnotes to each chapter (and 1986,2 has a preface written by Fynn a high of 69 endnotes in Chapter 5). In in about 1833, and Nathaniel Isaacs’s addition to the endnotes, the book has a Travels and Adventures in Eastern general index, a reading list, a historical Africa was first published in 1836.3 time line, a list of historical characters, Other books have followed at regular and a glossary of Zulu terms. While intervals, some of the best-known being the endnotes show how widely Laband Gibson’s 1911 The Story of the Zulus,4 has read to create this work on Shaka’s Bryant’s 1929 (1965) Olden Times in assassination, most of them refer to a Zululand and Natal,5 Bulpin’s 1952 source in The James Stuart Archive, and Shaka’s Country: A Book of Zululand,6 it is clear Laband has gone through the Morris’s 1973 The Washing of the evidence of Stuart’s sources minutely, Spears,7 and Ritter’s 1978 Shaka Zulu.8 seeking out every statement that relates Between 1976 and 2014 six volumes to Shaka’s life, and, of course, his death. of The James Stuart Archive have ap- At the same time Laband’s book peared, with considerable detail about unquestionably belongs to the murder the life and times of Shaka, collected mystery genre, placing him squarely in from Zulu oral sources by James Stu- the company of such greats as Agatha art in the early years of the twentieth Christie, Ellery Queen, Mickey Spillane century and made available to modern and Erle Stanley Gardner.13 All the es- scholars by Webb and Wright.9 There sentials of this genre are present: the have even been books about the writ- detective work, the regular releases 64 Natalia 48 (2018) Copyright © Natal Society Foundation 2018 Book Reviews of clues for the reader to work on, the assassination’. It is of course impos- presentation of possible suspects (each sible to write an entire book about such given plausibility), and the suspense a single event without putting it into leading up to the main murder. This context, and Laband does this, taking suspense is heightened by ending all fifteen chapters to do so before getting the chapters with cliffhangers. See, for to the actual assassination. A good mur- example, the last two lines of Chapter der mystery has at least two murders, 15, the chapter immediately prior to the and while Shaka can only be murdered one that contains the actual assassina- once, Laband does look – in detail – at tion of Shaka: the attempted assassination of Shaka in There was nothing for it now. Mbopha 1824, four years before he lost his life. and the two abantwana must strike Chapter 1 (‘Stabbed while dancing’) immediately or suffer their own deaths. recounts this attempted assassination and ends with To heighten the suspense, Chapter 15 is headed ‘Are You Not Going To Stab The most urgent question in the minds Him?’ of Shaka, his izikhulu and the general throng throughout all this mourning Indeed, all the chapters in the book uproar must have been: who was have similarly intriguing titles, such behind the assassination attempt? Three as Chapter 5: ‘He who beats but is not possibilities occurred to them. beaten’. After a while, the reader be- comes aware that most of these intrigu- These three possibilities occupy the ing chapter titles are taken from some next three chapters: Chapter 2 (‘A royal quote in the text within the chapter. spear?’), Chapter 3 (‘An Ndwandwe Chapter 11 (‘Splasher of water with spear?’) and Chapter 4 (‘A Qwabe an oxtail’), for example, comes from a spear?’), with Laband leaving it to the Cope translation of a line in the praises reader to sift the evidence and make of Sothobe kaMpangalala, leader of up their own minds as to the guilty Shaka’s delegation to the Cape, and party. The book then proceeds through Chapter 12 (‘Buffalo that stood glaring much of what has already been written with a spear’) is from a Cope translation previously about Shaka by other writers: of a line from Shaka’s own izibongo, his character (was he a nation-building and relates to accompanying his army warrior king or a savage monster?), on their campaign against the Mpondo. his battles with and his eventual Identifying the origin of the chapter conquest of Zwide of the Ndwandwe, titles eventually becomes a kind of a his relationship with the earliest white game for the reader, a sub-mystery as traders at Port Natal, and so on. The it were, in a book that is itself a murder death of his mother Nandi and the mystery. subsequent excessive mourning decreed Laband says in his preface (p. x) that for the nation gets two whole chapters. he does not intend to undertake ‘another There is also detailed treatment of scholarly investigation into the forma- Shaka’s dispatching of a delegation tion of the Zulu kingdom in the reign to establish relations with officials at of King Shaka’. Rather, he says, he is the Cape (and ultimately with King attempting ‘a focused inquiry into a George), not to mention to acquire the single pivotal event in Shaka’s life: his famed Macassar oil to keep his hair 65 Natalia 48 (2018) CC-BY-NC cc Natal Society Foundation 2018 Book Reviews permanently dark. Chapter 12 (‘This the conspiracy?’ and once again the is King Chaka’s name’) concludes the testimony of all those who believed lead up to the major event of the book. that Dingane was the actual assassin Part IV (‘Are you stabbing me, the king is recorded. of the Earth?’) then follows, although The murder mystery then comes two more anticipatory chapters must to an end with two chapters detailing be gone through before we get to what how Dingane eventually eliminated the title of the book promises: the the opposition to end as the ruler of assassination of King Shaka – Zulu the Zulu kingdom. In a repeat of the history’s dramatic moment. incident several years previously, when The actual dramatic moment is not Shaka arranged the drowning of his at all clear. Laband points out (p. 138) half-brother Sigujana so as to clear the that there are ‘divergent versions as to way for him (Shaka) to take over the what happened next’, and the reader is chieftaincy of the Zulu clan, so too did treated to a full and detailed account of Dingane arrange for his co-conspirator them. First Mbopha is presented as the and brother Mhlangana to be drowned person who actually killed Shaka: while bathing. Laband puts it like this There were those that pinned the (p. 151): major role on Mbopha. Maclean was Dingane’s izibongo recalled the deed convinced that because Mbopha alone in these chilling words: carried a spear he ‘stole behind and Deep river pool at Mavivane, Dingana assass inated his master’. Despite The pool is silent, and overpowering, the active participation of the two It drowned someone intending to wash abantwana Isaacs had no doubt that it And he vanished, headring and all. was Mbopha who actually ‘speared him to death’. Some oral traditions similarly Laband frequently uses extracts from pointed the finger at Mbopha. Makewu praise poetry (izibongo) to illustrate or related that when Shaka turned his back justify a point, as he does here. While on Mbopha the inceku threw a spear, this unquestionably adds value to the which struck him, while Ndukwana text, there are also certain dangers. Two stated it was Mbopha who ‘actually such can be mentioned here. stabbed’. Likewise, Jantshi declared that it was Mbopha who stabbed Shaka, First, Dingane’s izibongo did not re- though he had the integrity to admit call the drowning of Mhlangana in the that he was not in a position to ‘speak English words given above. Dingane’s accurately on this matter’. imbongi would have bonga’ed him in Zulu, and what Laband has given above Next is Mhlangana – Laband immedi- is an English translation of the original. ately goes on to say: Rycroft and Ngcobo14 have given the Others believed it was Mhlangana who Zulu version as: stabbed first, including Jantshi, thus contradicting his assertion that it was ISizib’ esiseMavivane, Dingana, Mbopha.
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