The Battle Over Shaka
by Dylan Bergeson

South Africa has been defined by a long history of violence dating back to the late eighteenth century Shaka-Zulu Empire. Shaka’s fateful reign marked the first example of wide scale militaristic expansionism as he sought to unite all the tribes of southern Africa by conquest. It was also during Shakan rule that Europeans took an interest in occupying and influencing Zulu society. These factors have made Shaka the most important and controversial symbol during the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

Author Daphna Golan believes that an understanding of the “battle over symbols… and the reconstruction of Zulu history” are imperative in understanding current violence between Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress. Her book Inventing Shaka: Using History in the Construction of Zulu Nationalism, a 1994 Lynne Rienner publication, is a short but thorough read, highly useful for anyone seriously studying the conflicts in South Africa . The book is a collection of anecdotal evidence which details how different groups choose to remember the past by examining several versions of Zulu history and the political purposes they have served.

One such group is the IFP, whose leader, Gatsha Buthelezi, claims to be the heir of Shaka. As the inevitability of the return to black majority rule became apparent, IFP support slowly gave way to the ANC. To protect the party from dissipating Leader Buthelezi began to use violence (13). The exaggeration of the Zulus as a warlike people became central to the IFP’s movement, as demonstrated by a quote in which Buthelezi equates Zulu nationalism with using violence: “Zulus today are the product of a warrior nation… that no force in history has ever been able to cower… We are Zulu and we will fight for the preservation of the Zulu nation” (15).

IFP historians have also referred extensively to a folk tale in which Shaka tells his assassins that “sparrows are coming.” Many have interpreted sparrows as meaning Europeans. Inkatha activists assert that if Shaka had not been killed he would have conquered and united all of Africa, creating an empire too strong for European forces to exploit, and use this to justify their demand for a separate ethnic nation for the Zulus (81).

By demonstrating how and why the Zulu past has been reinvented Golan reminds us that any version we subscribe to is a conglomeration of multiple stories told by many different individuals, often for self serving reasons. Shepstone and Buthelezi happen to portray Shaka with similar characteristics; both recall his expansionistic militarism. However, the reasons they reinvent these stories are vastly different.

By collecting a vast repertoire of written and oral histories Golan does a thorough job of showing that the ways in which these stories have been told are key in understanding violence that plagues South Africa today. The book is not intended to be a light read meant for a general audience, but the density of information contained in the 146 pages makes it a necessity for any academic study or dissertation into the subject.

Dylan Bergeson is a junior at Fairhaven College and Western Washington University. He is studying to be a freelance journalist with a focus on Palestinian issues.