Customer Reviews

Shaka Zulu: The Biography of the Founder of the Zulu Nation

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While Ritter's "masterpiece" is a rollicking good read, it should never have been regarded as a historical document. The content falls short of respectability in many instances, most notably with regard to its inaccuracy. Ritter includes in his book a young woman named Pampata, who he says was the great love of Shaka's life. In fact the name Pampata appears not once in the James Stuart Archives - a comprehensive record of Zulu oral accounts. Ritter ends his book with Pampata committing suicide over Shaka's corpse. Once again, there is no mention of this on record. In other instances Ritter fares just as badly. He describes the "honourable" execution of Mudli kaNkwelo after Shaka took power in 1816. One snag: Zulu oral accounts are unanimous that Mudli was killed before Shaka arrived to assume the crown. Ritter also bandies exaggerated figures around. His estimation of the dead after the battle of Gqokli has been exposed as ludicrous by modern historians. He has used so much of Alfred Bryant's work (particularly from Olden Times in Zululand and Natal)that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the two books. Sadly, too many mythical - and misleading - pictures of Shaka have been formed by this book. It deserves a place in any library - but only on the fiction shelf.

...Do not be swayed by the opinions of some people who dismiss this story as a work of fiction... Ask any griot in Natal Zululand, and they will tell you that the source of this story to the author is well authenticated. Seganada Cube (who was killed in the 1906 Bambatha rebellion) was an 'udibi' or a little boy assigned to take care of an assigned warrior's needs, and it is safe to say that he saw and heard the great emperor himself speak. So to say this is a work of fiction is absurd. And people who suggest that are victims of propaganda. The only thing thats fiction is the mini series "Shaka Zulu", which got only one thing right - the names of the people.

For every European and American interested in Black Africa and the Bantu, Ritters "Shaka" is a "must read", full of high adventure, full of an unknown world. His affection for the Zulus is contagious, and his joy in narrating his story rubbs off on his readers.
It would be eminently unfair to expect of Ritter a strictly "historical" account of Shaka and his time: the only written records to survive are those of white traders and seamen. Oral traditions were bound to be contradictory (Zulu, by the way, held in olden times the largest vocabulary of any unwritten language!), and tales certainly grew taller in re-telling. To boot, Ritter had no access yet to records like the James Stuart Archive. But Ritter eminently succeeds in waking ones interest in this "black Napoleon" and his time, and especially in everything connected with this proud warrior tribe, their way of life, social conditions and their development.
It cannot be gainsaid that the Zulu under Shaka, like the Mongols under Jingis Khan or the French under Napoleon - though on a much smaller scale - left a trail of blood and tears; but up to the present day Shaka is spoken of with awe and venerated by his own people like Napoleon and J.K. are by theirs....

True, if you're looking for historical accuracy, look elsewhere; but Ritter himself claimed he was in a way more concerned with the myth of Shaka as it was told among the Zulu than he was with perfect accuracy; and man, it's a great, great read, and a must for anyone to whom the myth of a man is the matter of interest.

this piece of history will change the way you look at africa and Shaka for ever. this is the only un byast sorce for my report on the great shaka zulu and this book was fantastic. you have to buy it. it was writtian by a european man who got lived with and got this information from the actual zulu tribe...

enjoy this master piece