TERRIFIC MAJESTY: THE POWERS OF SHAKA ZULU AND THE LIMITS OF HISTORICAL INVENTION. Carolyn Hamilton. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 1998. pp. 278, Cloth: $39.95, Paper: $18.95 ^©

The book is both a thoughtful disquisition on the irreducible ambiguity of knowing the past (reflecting the published and unpublished writing of her mentor, David William Cohen), and a work of rigorous deductive empiricism, in which the reliability of particular historical voices is interrogated (reflecting in part the scholarship of Jan Vansina) (1). Hamilton shows the way elements of precolonial African authority were tendentiously apprehended by colonial officials, and contested by Africans, as a "Shaka" tradition. She rejects the idea that historical meaning is produced moment by moment; instead, she shows how all reinterpretations of the Zulu kingdom have been constrained by popular traditions rooted in genuine historical experience.

Hamilton begins by considering the political scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s, in order to elucidate the protagonists and observers of the discourse of Zuluness in South Africa, including the leadership of the Inkatha Freedom Party in South Africa (on whom aspersions are cast, p. 128). In the beginning, she shows that Shaka, the great founder-king of the Zulu polity in the 1810s, was seen as a "benign patron." Of the European traders who routinely wrecked their ships in Port Natal, only James King had reason to stir up opposition to Shaka, and he was discredited. Still, there were already "frightful stories" circulating throughout the Cape about Shaka in the late 1820s. Hamilton then sets out a brief but vital account of Shaka, drawing on the same sources she will critique, as a baseline for her discussions of the history of how Shaka was subsequently represented. In Hamilton's judicious summary, Shaka "carefully managed" a display of despotism as a strategy of statecraft.

Hamilton then turns her analytical eye to accounts in the James Stuart Archive (2), a collection of scores of interviews from the 1900s and 1910s with people who had memories of Shakan times. She patiently validates the essential messages of three main informants by weighing their probable intentions, examining their genealogies, and cross-checking divergent accounts to show that Shaka was an autocrat and did wreak violence in many places. Next, Hamilton looks at Theophilus Shepstone, the central figure in the 19th century administration of Natal, who deftly used pageantry and politics to transform himself into a new "Shaka," but was resisted by the Usuthu faction of King Cetswayo. Shepstone's deeply contradictory views closely anticipated Frederick Lugard's in Northern Nigeria; both men were constrained in the very terms of their understandings of the possible mechanisms of "indirect rule" by indigenous practices. The analysis here adds a good deal to recent explorations of the origins of indirect rule and apartheid, although Hamilton does not fully take the issue up (3). Shepstone's views then influenced H. Rider Haggard--while Haggard drew on the same sources that informed Shepstone--producing the popular association between tyranny, "effectiveness," and racial origin (the Zulu were "intrinsically noble"), especially in Haggard's post Anglo-Zulu war (1879-81) fiction.

Hamilton then returns to James Stuart, who she carefully shows viewed Zulu rule as a "system" and who anticipated the relativistic standards of modern ethnography. Stuart published some material in Zulu, overlapped with Haggard, and influenced men such as R.R.R. Dhlomo and C.L.S. Nyembezi, who then wrote for an educated Zulu-speaking audience. Hamilton concludes her arguments by considering Shaka in the discourse of the 1980s, including especially Bill Faure's 1986 mini-series, "Shaka Zulu", and its cousin, the "Shakaland" theme park. While she occasionally lapses into correcting the film via "the historical record" (p.175), the section is ultimately quite worthwhile, because it recovers the main ideas of the book in popular culture today.

As with any really engaging piece of work, one can quarrel in places with Terrific Majesty. At times the segues between chapters are rough; at times the evidence is pressed a bit hard. For instance, it may be that Haggard drew on oral traditions in depicting Umslopogasas in King Solomon's Mines, but the prophecy of the child destined for greatness, who wanders far from home, is surely central to myths all over the world, from Moses to Sudiata. Nor is there much material on Masizi Kunene's Shaka the Great or Thomas Mofolo's Chaka, and indeed, little enough on Africans' writings about the Zulu generally, which is somewhat surprising. And why is the persistence of rumors about Shaka's sexuality accorded only a line or two of discussion? Finally, while I certainly felt convinced that ideas about Shaka and the Zulu could be traced through the storms of competing interests, I was not fully persuaded by her explanation of why this had to be the case. After all, Shakespeare had no trouble reinforcing Richard III's reputation as the most venal of kings, yet we now all know that he was a decent fellow!

As a piece of scholarship, Terrific Majesty will be indispensible reading for students of the sources for Zulu history. More than this, and almost alone in recent Africanist scholarship, it is an effortless read. While perhaps it is also a bit too specialized for American lecture courses on South Africa, Terrific Majesty is highly recommended for seminars, at either the graduate or undergraduate level, that are concerned with Zulu history, South African popular culture, or simply the persistence of historical knowledge. I know I plan to continue using this book in my teaching for some time to come. NOTES

1. The informed reader in this regard will recognize the text on pp. 207-8, coupled with its footnote, as a deliberate attempt at bridge-building.

2. Colin de B. Webb and John Wright, eds., The James Stuart Archive of Recorded Oral Evidence Relating to the History of the Zulu and Neighboring Peoples, 4 vols. (Pietermaritzburg and Durban: University of Natal Press and KCAL, 1976-86).

3. Mahmood Mamdani, Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996). See also David Welsh, The Roots of Segregation: Native Policy in Colonial Natal, 1845-1910. (Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 1971).

Paul S. Landau
Department of History
Yale University