25 Death of (February 1840) B2

C2

D N 25 Death of Dingane 26 27 1 25 2

West wall (panel 29/31) 24 3 h. 2.3 × w. 2.4 m 4 23 Badly damaged by continuous vertical and horizontal fractures; numerous patches, e.g. in lower right leg of woman furthest left, left knee and lower leg 22 5 of third woman from left and at Dingane’s right shoulder, front apron and around lower end of tail of genets (‘izinjobo’) 21 Sculptor of clay maquette: Laurika Postma 6

20 Stages of production 7 B1 One-third-scale clay maquette, not extant but replicated in B2 (1942–43) 19

B2 One-third-scale plaster maquette, h. 75.5 × w. 84.7 × d. 9 cm (1942–43) 8 18 C1 Full-scale wooden armature, not extant (1943–46) 17 9 C2 Full-scale clay relief, not extant but photographed; replicated in C3 16 10 (1943–46) 15 14 13 12 11 C3 Full-scale plaster relief (1943–46); not extant but copied in D

(late 1947–49) 0 5 10 m D Marble as installed in the Monument (1949)

Early records SVK minutes (4.9.1937) ― item 4s (see below, ‘Developing the design’) Voorstelle (5.12.1934?) ― item 6 ‘Dood van Dingane, volgens die verslag van Karel Trichardt, aan die Maputa. Trichardt op eilandjie in rivier neem waar hoe die Swazi Sopoeza die voortvlugtende Dingane op die wal van die rivier inhaal en op die punt staan om hom af te maak’ (Death of Dingane, according to the report of Karel [Carolus Johannes] Trichardt at the Maputa. Trichardt on a small island in the river takes note of how the Swazi Sopoeza catches the fugitive Dingane on the bank of the river and stands on the point to finish him off) Wenke (c. 1934–36) ― item II Dr. L. Steenkamp, mnre. A.J. du Plessis en M. Basson, A. ‘MAATSKAPLIK’ (Social), 3. ‘Verhouding met ander volksgroepe’ (Relationship with other ethnic groups), d. ‘Dingaan’ (Dingane), xii.c. ‘Vlug van Dingaan’ (Flight of Dingane)

Open Access. © 2020 Elizabeth Rankin and Rolf Michael Schneider, published by De Gruyter and African Minds. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110668797-030 546 25 Death of Dingane

Figure 25.1: D. Death of Dingane. 1949. Marble, 2.3 × 2.4 m (courtesy of VTM; photo Russell Scott) Description 547

Description

This panel is unique in its focus solely on black people (fig. 25.1). The central figure in the fore- ground is Dingane, distinguished by his features, well-built frame and royal regalia similar to that seen in Treaty. His eyes are closed and his haggard features are marked by strong but controlled suffering. His shield and assegai abandoned beside him, the king, his fist clenched next to his heart, has fallen to his knees and his total collapse is only prevented by his outstretched right arm. With his left leg extended backwards and his shield lying forwards, he occupies the entire width of the panel. His adversary is a virile Swazi who stands tall, his legs straddling Dingane as he stabs him in the back, thrusting the assegai home with his right arm, while the other holds a knobkierie. Behind, four young Zulu women on the left and three further Swazi coming in from the right reinforce the narrative drama. The Swazi stand ready with weapons to support the attack, and their shields provide a martial backdrop for their leader in the foreground. The women who face them are in disarray, mostly turning or moving away in distress from the defeated Dingane. In striking contrast to Dingane’s cruel execution, the three women on the left, wearing only neckpieces and ornamented girdles with a small front apron,1254 are posed like nude studio models, and shown with classical proportions. With supple bodies and limbs, they effortlessly balance supplies from the royal household on their heads: a calabash, a beer vessel, and a light basket filled with house- hold goods.1255 The Swazi are distinguished from the Zulu by more voluminous wig-like hairstyles and short skirts made of a single piece of skin. Their facial expressions are severe, emphasised by their frown lines and high cheekbones. The attackers have their eyes almost closed, not in anguish like Dingane or his women, but to intensify their aggressive downward gaze on the Zulu king.

1254 Zulu treasures 1996, 150–158 (‘Beads that speak’), 160–163 (neckpieces and girdles), 171–181 (earplugs); a fine speciman of a girdle is illustrated in Giblin and Spring 2016, 158 fig. 51). 1255 Zulu treasures 1996, 128–129 figs c4–c7 (clay-made beer vessels), 140 fig. g15 (grass-woven basket). 548 25 Death of Dingane

Figure 25.2: B2. Laurika Postma. Death of Dingane. 1942–43. Plaster, 77.5 × 84.7 × 9 cm. Maquette (courtesy of VTM Museum VTM 2184/1–28; photo Russell Scott)

Figure 25.3: C2. Death of Dingane. 1943–46. Clay. Full-scale relief (Pillman 1984, 53; photo Alan Yates) Developing the design 549

Developing the design

The subject of Dingane’s death was not included in the list of topics for the frieze drawn up in 1 9 3 7, 1256 for which Coetzer was asked to provide sketches. It had been proposed in the very earliest ‘Voorstelle’ list of c.1934, but, from the point of view of Afrikaner history, it was included as part of the extended story of Louis Trichardt’s trek. That narrative recounted that it was his son, Carolus Johannes (1811–1901),1257 who witnessed the king’s assassination after he had left his father’s party at Delagoa Bay to explore possible sites for them to settle. But in Jansen’s copy of ‘Voorstelle’,1258 this item was scored out, and it did not reappear until the maquettes for the frieze were being made, presumably recalled again because of the need for an additional corner panel. Thus the design of the narrative seems to have been developed entirely by Laurika Postma when she began to make the maquette (fig. 25.2). Here the layout of the composition with Zulu women and Swazi warriors as a backdrop for the central group – a Swazi stabbing a crouching Dingane to death – is for the most part set. Yet, in comparison with the full-size clay (fig. 25.3), there are signifi- cant differences. Back- and foreground figures are more vividly portrayed, with the killing action of the Swazi leader more strongly articulated. The figures are stockier and modelled in a rather fleshy way in the maquette, particularly the women. The figures are also more closely packed together, and the buttocks of a fifth woman are visible on the far left, behind the sturdy female in the fore- ground. While three women wear the small aprons of the final panel, here two have fuller skirt-like aprons. We can also see more of the torsos of the Swazi as they hold their shields lower, and their leader looks down at his victim. Dingane’s weakness is dramatically expressed by his slumped and suffering body, and his left hand splayed over his heart. The central woman in three-quarter view behind him is moving to the left, judging by the way her apron moves, but she turns her head as if she is looking back at the Swazi. However, our reading of the figure is disrupted by the unfortunate overlap of the right arm and assegai of the Swazi next to her. In the full-scale clay the composition was changed in favour of a more ceremonial staging of the figures, although the disturbing overlap mentioned above remained. Dingane is posed parallel to the picture plane and his left hand is no longer splayed but clenched. His regal dress is more fully portrayed and he wears a skin collar instead of crossed bandoliers. His younger adversary now holds his head high. Like his companions in the background, who are characterised by grimmer faces and reduced movement, he is less animated and more statuesque, suggesting a cold and calculated act. In general, all the figures are more slender and less fleshy, yet the nakedness of the women is made more explicit as all wear reduced aprons, and their profiles and buttocks are more pronounced. This is clearest in the foreground figure, as the back view of a fifth woman has been removed. Changes in the female figures may also have been promoted by Postma’s access to a nude model. Although he does not provide the names of any of the models in this scene, Hennie Pot- gieter recounted in 1987 that ‘after much difficulty Laurika [Postma] managed eventually to find a young Black woman willing to pose in Zulu dress of only a hip covering, provided there was a screen erected around Laurika and her’.1259 There are also modifications of pose, as for the woman in the centre background, made more distinct by representing her body in frontal and her head in profile view. But when Romanelli’s sculptors copied the full-scale clay into the stone-hard surface of the final marble (fig. 25.1), they reduced the physical essence of many details such as a nuanced rendering of flesh, the depiction of nipples, the texture of hair and the individual ornaments

1256 ARCA PV94 1/75/1/7, quoted in Part I, Chapter 2. 1257 DSAB 1, 1968, 799–802; Visagie 2011, 498–499. 1258 ARCA PV94 1/75/1/7: the various lists of proposals are discussed in Part I, Chapter 2; see fig. 69. 1259 ‘Na baaie gesukkel het Laurika uiteindelik ’n jong Swart vrou gevind wat bereid was om in Zoeloedrag van slegs heupbedekkings te poseer, mits daar ’n skerm om Laurika en haar opgerig word’ (Potgieter 1987, 47). 550 25 Death of Dingane

decorating the girdles and loin cloths. In the end, the more naturalistic narrative in clay is trans- formed into an idealistic representation in marble. The final marble was badly broken in a fall that happened when the panel was first delivered to the Monument site.1260 The severe damage is still noticeable and has impaired the recognisability of motifs. This is obvious for the raised left arm supporting a calabash of the woman who covers her face in mourning, clearly visible in the full-scale clay but hardly evident in the marble. Here, poorly patched deep fractures run through the arm, whose visibility was anyway diminished by its very shallow relief.

1260 Dagbestuur 21.4.1949: 7: ‘Mnr. Moerdyk rapporteer dat een van die historiese panele (“Die Dood van Dingaan”) wat buitekant die monument gestaan het, omgeval het en stukkend gebreek het’ (Mr Moerdyk reported that one of the historical panels (‘The Death of Dingane’) which was standing outside the monument, fell over and broke into pieces).

552 25 Death of Dingane

Figure 25.4: Map showing the Maqongqo and Lubuye (not Lubuya as on map) battle sites, Phongolo River and Lubombo Mountains in upper section (courtesy of Laband 1995, 106) Reading the narrative 553

Reading the narrative

Coming after in the sequence of the frieze, Death of Dingane is placed in the correct order historically, as his demise followed a series of grave setbacks for the Zulu after their defeat at in late 1838. About half a year later Dingane launched a full-scale attack against the Swazi, who ruled the land north of Natal, beyond the Phongolo River.1261 It was an ‘attempt at conquest and occupation’, to re-establish his kingdom beyond the reach of the land-hungry Boers who, since their victory at Blood River, had appropriated large parts of Zulu Natal.1262 But again Dingane’s army was defeated, now by the Swazi in the valley of the Lubu stream (fig. 25.4). Even worse was the crushing defeat of his remaining militia by his half-brother Mpande on 20 January 1840 at the Maqongqo Hills, which led to Mpande’s ratification as the new Zulu king by the Boers, depicted in the preceding panel. Here the story is picked up after the Boers had tried in vain to capture Dingane, who had fled with his followers towards the Lubombo Mountains1263 – a desperate move as this was the territory of his Swazi enemies. In 1921, the Zulu Socwatsha ka Papu clarified to James Stuart:1264

When Dingana heard that the Boers were coming, and not Mpande’s , he said, ‘Let us take all (kukula) and go.’ He said that all his people – cattle, womenfolk, amabuto – should go with him to the place of Somkande. He said, ‘Never again will I face up to guns (isitunyisa).’ So his people all went off; they made for the uBombo in the country of the Nyawo.1265

Here Dingane had ordered a traditional homestead to be built in the dense bush on the slopes of the Hlathikhulu hill, which he called eSankoleni, meaning ‘the secluded spot’.1266 This region was ‘in the territory of Silevana, the regent for Sambane, of the heir to the Nyawo chieftainship’.1267 And it was here, probably around March 1840, that Dingane was eventually killed, although most histori- ans are rather vague when it comes to the great Zulu king’s end.1268 How this was later understood to have happened is described at length by several Zulu interviewed by James Stuart between 1898 and 1921, whose reports largely confirm each other and are thus invaluable.1269 Hence we continue with the narrative of Socwatsha, the most detailed of these:1270

It is said that when Dingana’s great men were alone they said to one another, ‘Where are we going? We are being killed by fever (umkuhlane). We are leaving the country of our people, the country of the Zulu.’ They said, ‘Let us kill him, and go back to our own country.’ But some asked, ‘Which people (uhlobo luni) will kill him?’ They said, ‘Let the amankengane [foreigners] be decoyed into doing it. Let them kill him for us, while we go back. For Mpande is a son of [the Zulu chief] Senzang- akona; he will rule us.’ They said, ‘Wo! Let amaSwazi be fetched.’ So men went off to the amaSwazi.

1261 Laband 1995, 110 1262 Ibid. 1263 Ibid., 119–121; Etherington 2001, 285; James Stuart Archive 6, 2014, 129–131 (narrative of Socwatsha ka Papu, 30.8.1921). 1264 For Socwatsha, a well-educated Zulu, see Ndlovu 2009, 99–100. 1265 James Stuart Archive 6, 2014, 131 (29.8.1921). 1266 Laband 1995, 119–120. See also Lugg 1949, 163; Bonner 1982, 44. 1267 Laband 1995, 120. 1268 For more detailed accounts, see Lugg (1949, 163–168), Becker (1979, 281–284, 282–283: ‘During the early hours of a morning in March [1840] … the Nyawo had come … to kill Dingane’), and Laband (1995, 120–121). 1269 For the James Stuart Archive in , see Wright 1996. 1270 For additional Zulu reports of the killing of Dingane, see James Stuart Archive 3, 1982, 260–261 (Mmemi ka Ngu- luzane, 20.10.1904); ibid. 4, 1986, 68 (Mtshapi ka Noradu, 3.4.1918); ibid. 5, 2001, 8 (Nduna ka Manqina, 27.4.1910); ibid. 5, 2001, 52–53 (Ngidi ka Mcikaziswa, 5.11.1904); ibid. 6, 2014, 228 (Tikuba ka Magongo, 26.11.1898). 554 25 Death of Dingane

The amaSwazi said, ‘Are these abaNguni coming to kill us?’ The Zulu replied, ‘No. We have come to make a plan. The amabuto [warriors] will be sent off elsewhere. On that day, when they have gone, you must come and stab him and then go back to your caves (izixotsha). The amabuto will never go into the izixotsha.

This was told … only to the izinduna [headmen]; the amabuto did not know of it. They were not told. When the amaSwazi agreed, the order was given to the amabuto, ‘Go out from this place [eSanko- leni]. Go to the cattle posts. There is an impi which wants to eat up the cattle of the king.’ The cattle posts had been built some distance away; none of them were close by. The amaSwazi were told that the amabuto would go off that day, and that they should come in the night. Indeed they came. They made for the isigodhlo [the private royal enclosure] where the king used to sleep. Hau! They surrounded it, and stabbed him, wounding him. He escaped and ran off into the forest at kwa Hlati- kulu. People who did not know that the amaSwazi had been called went running to raise the alarm at the cattle posts. The amabuto came back. When they arrived, not all the amaSwazi had yet gone into the caves (imihume). The amabuto stabbed them, and drove them off … The amaSwazi called out, ‘Why are you killing us, you men of the place of Sikiti, you abaNguni? For were we not invited (ukubita) by you? Have we not gone to kill your king for you, he who has caused you trouble, so that you can go back to your country?’ The amabuto said, ‘Hau! What are the amankengane saying?’ They went back, but they could not find where the king had been stabbed. They looked for him and found him. They found him sitting up; he was not lying on the ground. He said, ‘O! The amankengana have wounded me here,’ and he showed them the wound. ‘Go and fetch my medicines (ubuhlungu) and give them to me to drink.’ The izinduna went to fetch the medicines from his place.1271 They washed a small pot, poured water in, stirred it, and gave it to him. No sooner had he swallowed it than he began to sweat copiously, and his whole body turned black. In a very short while he died.1272 People were killed for the umgando ceremony, together with black cattle for burying him.

The then went back in a body to the Zulu country. They left Godide ka Ndhlela, saying that he should represent the people who had buried Dingana, for he was the heir of his father (the heir of Ndhlela, Dingana’s chief ).1273 The people then went back to Mpande.1274

Socwatsha alone reports that the izinduna had conspired with the Swazi to have Dingane killed. His narrative suggests that the king, after his devastating defeats of Blood River, Lubuye and Maqongqo, had become increasingly unpopular with his own people and lost their loyalty. All the other Zulu accounts agree that Swazi killed Dingane, but do not go into the reasons, and explanations by later historians differ as to why and even who in fact executed the Zulu king.1275 For example, Harry Lugg, a high magistrate of , argued in 1949 against the general belief

that Dingane was put to death by the Swazis, [as] information recently obtained from a number of old men of the Nyawo tribe is to the effect that he met his death at the hands of certain leaders of their tribe, supported by the Swazi. The probabilities appear to favour this version, as he was well within Nyawo territory at the time. By people distantly situated, the Nyawos could easily have been mistaken as Swazi.1276

1271 For Dingane’s antidotes and poisons, see especially James Stuart Archive 6, 2014, 44–45 (Socwatsha ka Papu, 26.9.1904). 1272 In another interview Socwatsha said that he ‘does not know if the izinduna intended to kill Dingana or whether they made a bona fide mistake’ (James Stuart Archive 6, 2014, 45), while Ngidi ka Mcikaziswa claimed (ibid. 5, 2001, 53), ‘I never heard that the king was given the wrong medicine (poison).’ 1273 He was chief of the Ntuli part of the Zulu people; see Knight 1995, 273. 1274 James Stuart Archive 6, 2014, 131–132 (30.8.1921); see also Socwatsha’s other reports on pp.13–14, 44–45. 1275 Henry Cloete (1899, 117) concluded in his 1850s lecture on Retief in Pietermaritzburg that Dingane found shelter by ‘the Amasuree, but who, it is supposed (for I believe there is no actual authentic account of his death), murdered him to ensure their own safety from his constant and fearful forays upon them and the adjacent tribes’. 1276 Lugg 1949, 163 (for Lugg, see Cope 1979). The account on Dingane in DSAB 2 (1972, 196) tends to support this view, saying Dingane ‘fled north across the Pongola, where, it was believed, he was captured and put to death by his old enemy, the Swazi king, although there is now fairly convincing evidence that it was in the Ubombo mountains that D. was killed by members of the Nyawo tribe, possibly supported by Swazi warriors’. Reading the narrative 555

Figure 25.5: Head of dying Dingane in Death of Dingane. Marble, detail of fig. 25.1 (photo Russell Scott)

Figure 25.6: Dying Dingane in Death of Dingane. Marble, detail of fig. 25.1 (photo Russell Scott) 556 25 Death of Dingane

Later John Laband reasoned that the Nyawo supported the Swazi to attack the Zulu king, because he and his people had consumed all the Nyawo’s ‘precious store of grain’, had failed ‘to hand over the cattle they had promised in return’ and were ‘calculated to draw hostile armies into the area’.1277 Laband continues that it was the regional Nyawo chief Silevana who ‘cast his throwing spear at him [Dingane] with all his force’.1278 The varying narratives do not allow us to conclude whether Zulu, Swazi or Nyawo killed Dingane. Finally, a remarkable detail of Dingane’s end was kept secret for over a hundred years: the location of his burial. It was only in the late 1940s that the Nyawo helped Lugg discover Dingane’s last resting place and thus make it public.1279 The visual narrative of the frieze does not engage with the complicated detail of historical accounts, but has everything to do with the Voortrekker view of Dingane as a treacherous villain who deserved to meet an ignominious end. When the Boers gave up on their quest to find him, P.H. Zietsman, their Secretary of War, announced on 8 February 1840 that Dingane had not only fled his city, but across the border to the lands of another nation, who await their ‘old decaying enemy, like the cat awaits a mouse’.1280 Denied direct revenge on their prey, the Voortrekkers – although without first-hand knowledge – circulated sensationalised accounts of Dingane’s death, relishing gory details in lieu of action. Especially repulsive is the narrative of Daniel Pieter Bezuidenhout (1814–95), published in December 1879 in the Monthly Magazine:1281

[On] the other side of the Umguza River, at Bamboesberg, … Sapusa took him [Dingane] prisoner. On the first day (according to the statement of the Kafirs), Sapusa pricked Dingaan with sharp assegais, no more than skin deep, from the sole of his foot to the top of his head. The second day he had him bitten by dogs. On the third day, Sapusa said to Dingaan: ‘Dingaan! are you still the rain-maker? Are you still the greatest of living men? See, the sun is rising: you shall not see him set!’ Saying this, he took an assegai and bored his eyes out. This was related to me by one of Sapusa’s Kafirs who was present. When the sun set, Dingaan was dead, for he had neither food nor water for three days. Such was the end of Dingaan.1282

Apart from the fact that this contradicts Zulu and Nyawo accounts, the Swazi king Sobhuza I, whom Bezuidenhout calls Sapusa, had in all likelihood already died by the time this account claims he had taken Dingane prisoner.1283 In the Official Guide, Moerdyk avoided these gruesome details but commented that ‘after the drama of the death of Retief and his men … it was necessary to punish him [Dingane] for the evil that he had done’.1284 The scene embodies this intention as, although it does not depict any form of torture, it is designed as a merciless end for the Zulu king. The focus of the frieze is on Dingane’s total abasement, all the more acute because he is represented in full regal attire (figs 25.5, 25.6). The tall Swazi standing behind him pushes an assegai with ease into the king’s back and forces him, like a wounded animal, to crawl, dragging himself along the ground, his suffering captured in his death portrait with anguished facial expression and closed eyes. The king’s impotence is underlined by a last futile attempt at resistance when he raises his clenched left fist to his heart.

1277 Laband 1995, 120. 1278 Ibid. However, Ngidi ka Mcikaziswa (James Stuart Archive 5, 2001, 53) reported on 5.11.1904 that, after Dingane was stabbed by a Swazi, the ‘Nyawo people now armed … [had] chased off the Swazis’. 1279 Lugg (1949, 164–168) found the grave on 27 February 1947. 1280 Bird, Annals 1, 1888, 591; Breytenbach c. 1958, 334: ‘als een oude verrottende vyand, gelyk de kat de aankomst van eenen muis, verblydend inwachten.’ 1281 For Bezuidenhout, see Visagie 2011, 58. 1282 Bird, Annals 1, 1888, 375–376. For further outrageous stories about Dingane’s death circulated at the time when the frieze was conceived, see Nathan 1937, 294 (repeated, without question, by Bonner 1982, 45). 1283 Though the year of Sobhuza’s death is not known, it has often been linked to 1836, while Philip Bonner (1982, 41) argues that it was ‘much more probable … in 1839’, still preceding Dingane’s death. 1284 Official Guide 1955, 52–53. Reading the narrative 557

Figure 25.8: Jan Juta. 1700. … native life … as developed under Christian and governmental teaching. 1934. Oil on canvas, 150 × 58 cm ( House, London; Freschi 2006, 217 fig. 27)

Figure 25.7: Dingane’s wives in Death of Dingane. Marble, detail of fig. 25.1 (photo Russell Scott)

His women turn away helplessly, and no male supporters can be seen. In contrast to Treaty, which portrays the Zulu king in full power, here Dingane is doomed to die in wretchedness. This reading acquires an even sharper edge when we compare Death of Dingane with Murder of Retief. While the Boer is shown upright like an unfailing Christian martyr, the collapsed Zulu king is his exact opposite. While Retief’s men were with him to the end, Dingane has been abandoned by his soldiers. While Retief witnesses his men being brutally slaughtered around him by the Zulu, Dingane’s wives and the Swazi form a line of spectators who attest to his final downfall. And only one of his women, covering her face with her hand, seems to mourn him, while his enemies are grim-faced eyewitnesses to his demise. He who had been an assassin is now the victim. In one key respect, however, the scene is not a reversal of Zulu vengeance on the Boers, for, as recounted above, the Boers failed finally to defeat and put an end to Dingane: it was Mpande who decisively defeated the king’s army, and it was the Swazi and/or the Nyawo who killed him. The focus of this scene is therefore on black people only, and thus absolves the Voortrekkers from complicity in a cold-blooded murder. It surely implies that only blacks undertook ruthless assassi- nations, while the Voortrekkers fought openly and fairly, and only when provoked. The inclusion of Dingane’s women serves to make another point: they highlight his heathen polygamy, and the women’s lack of loyalty as they prepare to leave him, carrying his possessions, in contrast to Christian Voortrekker women who always stood by their men. And there is telling otherness in the nakedness of the Zulu women also, a nakedness that is expressly accentuated 558 25 Death of Dingane

in those figures who, like Greek and Roman caryatids,1285 raise their arms to support the objects on their heads (fig. 25.7). It is a common trope for the depiction of African women, and one that can be seen in Juta’s depiction of three women carrying calabashes in his 1934 murals at South Africa House in London (fig. 25.8) – although they are clothed as a sign of the influence of colonial Christianity, albeit with clinging sarongs which accentuate, and even in one case expose, their full breasts.1286 Perversely, while Death of Dingane is virtually denying that black people are capable of civil conduct, the scene invites the viewer to take pleasure in the nude female forms. Moerdyk himself seems to indulge in this kind of colonial voyeurism when he writes about the marble relief:

The exceptionally fine modelling of the native figures should be noted. It is noteworthy that through- out the frieze natives are never depicted as inferior beings – they are always represented as worthy opponents, very well developed as far as their physical characteristics are concerned.1287

While self-righteously disclaiming any partisan prejudice, this outrageous statement in fact implies that a well-developed physique is an African’s only outstanding quality.

1285 Although different to the famous maidens (korai) of the Erechtheion in Athens, the gesture of the Zulu women echoes numerous other caryatids of the Classical tradition; see Schmidt 1982; Schneider 1986, 103–108; Vickers 2014. 1286 Freschi 2005, 24–25 fig. 10; the mural is labelled in clear-cut colonialism ‘native life … as developed under Christian and governmental teaching’. 1287 Official Guide 1955, 53.