Shaka's Children: A History of the Zulu People [Hardcover]

Stephen Taylor (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0809592134 | ISBN-13: 978-0809592135 | Publication Date: June 1996

The Zulu are an extraordinary people. Their history, military genius and imperious bearing won them the respect of the 19th-century European colonists, characterized as they were by the Victorians as a warrior tribe and the embodiment of the "noble savage", but today their mystique is as great as ever and their political hegemony is poised to be returned. From the original encounters with two British fortune-seekers who described a hospitable, friendly host in 1824 to the infamous slaughter of the Voortrekkers a dozen years later, from the Zulu War against the British which spawned the lasting icon of the Zulu warrior as a kind of black superman - magnificent in defeat as they courageously challenged the Gatling gun with their spears - through to the urban, radical force politically united as Inkatha today, the tribal orders of this indomitable southern African nation are legendary. This book is a reappraisal of this distorted past of infamy and caricature, a study of the changing tribal orders that have left the elders bewildered, the young disaffected. It is also a portrait of Shaka Zulu, an African Tamburlaine, the founder of the Zulu nation, whose expansionist dreams turned a small tribe of 2000 people into one of the greatest warrior peoples the world has known.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Western literature abounds with histories of nations and their leaders, but few texts have been offered on Africa's fierce and enduring Zulu people. Stephen Taylor, a writer for The Times of London, tells of the rise to power of Shaka, who engineered a bloody conquest of African lands and struggle against British imperialism. In addition, Taylor folds the remarkable history of the Zulu nation into an examination of the tribe's burgeoning nationalism and its relationship with the Xhosa people and whites in present-day South Africa. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

A concise and up-to-date history of the Zulu people intended for a wide readership ... welcomed, all the more so because Shaka's life and heritage have renewed significance in modern South Africa. -- The New York Times Book Review, Noel Mostert --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Borgo Pr (June 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809592134
• ISBN-13: 978-0809592135
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,516,151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and free of academic mumbo-jumbo., November 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Shaka's Children: History of the Zulu People (Hardcover)

Because this book was released at the same time as John Laband released "Rope of Sand" there were bound to be comparisons, but Taylor escaped virtually unscathed. While Laband's masterpiece is majestic and quite brilliant, Taylor has assured his readers of an entertaining journey through nineteenth-century Zululand. Although there is no ground-breaking material contained in the book, it is well-researched and cleverly written. Taylor quotes extensively from the James Stuart Archives and other reliable sources. Sometimes, for instance when he writes about the relationship between the young Shaka and his mother Nandi, the tone becomes cluttered with melodrama. But there is no doubt that the age was one of great drama, and so Taylor is excused the verbose frillings. In conclusion, then, this is a fine historical book, worthy of any library and a tempting setwork for future South African history scholars.