African Perspectives of King Dingane kaSenzangakhona

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu

   Pages 1-31

3. Magolwane kaMkhathini Jiyane and Mshongweni: Izibongo and the Construction of King Dingane’s Archive

   • Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu

   Pages 33-62

4. Oral Traditions and the Consolidation of King Dingane’s Archive: Mid-Nineteenth to the Early Twentieth Century

   • Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu

   Pages 63-96

5. The Image of King Dingane and Zulu Nationalist Politics

   • Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu

   Pages 97-128

6. ‘Remember Dingaan’s Day: The Passing of African Independence’: Public History and the Counter-Commemoration of King Dingane, 1920–1930

   • Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu

   Pages 129-166

7. African Nationalists and Contending Perspectives of King Dingane: 1916–1980s

   • Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu

   Pages 167-199

8. African Academics and Poets: The Roots of Scholarly Perspectives on King Dingane, 1930s–1980s

   • Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu

   Pages 201-243

9. The Political Images of King Dingane in the Age of the Armed Struggle: 1960–1994

   • Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu

   Pages 245-275

10. Conclusion

    • Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu

    Pages 277-289

11. Back Matter

    Pages 291-303

    PDF

This book examines the active role played by Africans in the pre-colonial production of historical knowledge in South Africa, focusing on perspectives of the second king of amaZulu, King Dingane. It draws upon a wealth of oral traditions, izibongo, and the work of public intellectuals such as Magolwane kaMkhathini Jiyane and Mshongweni to present African perspectives of King Dingane as multifaceted, and in some cases, constructed according to socio-political formations and aimed at particular audiences. By bringing African perspectives to the fore, this innovative historiography centralizes indigenous African languages in the production of historical knowledge.

• King Dingane
• South African history
• African History
• Zulu Kingdom
• Mgungundlovu
• Izibongo
• Zulu people
• African nationalism
• Black Consciousness
• History of Racism
• Race relations in South Africa

“This book makes a considered response to fields that reify the colonial master narratives of Empire today. Over a spread of deftly argued chapters, each with its own lens that draws from disparate sources of the oral tradition and journalism, it provides a compelling case for an alternative historiography of King Dingane, with a locus that is at once in the south and indigenous. Ndlovu has made an invaluable, timely contribution to the recent tidal waves of decoloniality, in South Africa and abroad.” (Kgomotso Michael Masemola, Full Professor of English Literature, University of South Africa)

• University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

  Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu

Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu is an Executive Director at the South African Democracy Education Trust, Professor of History at the University of South Africa, and a member of UNESCO’s Scientific Committee on the General History of Africa multi-volume series.

Policies and ethics