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Description of  Terrific Majesty: The Powers of Shaka Zulu and the Limits of Historical Invention

0674874463 pdf Since his assassination in 1828, King Shaka Zulufounder of the powerful Zulu kingdom and leader of the army that nearly toppled British colonial rule in South Africahas made his empire in popular imaginations throughout Africa and the West. Shaka is today the hero of Zulu nationalism, the centerpiece of Inkatha ideology, a demon of apartheid, the namesake of a South African theme park, even the subject of a major TV film. Terrific Majesty explores the reasons for the potency of Shakas image, examining the ways it has changed over timefrom colonial legend, through Africanist idealization, to modern cultural icon. This study suggests that tradition cannot be freely invented, either by European observers who recorded it or by subsequent African ideologues. There are particular historical limits and constraints that operate on the activities of invention and imagination and give the various images of Shaka their power. These insights are illustrated with subtlety and authority in a series of highly original analyses. Read more