Table of Contents

1. Political history in precolonial Africa: the case of the AmaZulu Kingdom; 2. Powerful chiefs before Shaka; 3. Shaka's early life: oral traditions, tales, and history; 4. Shaka as warrior; 5. AmaZulu expansion and repercussions: early conflicts and migrations; 6. Chiefs, chiefdoms, violence, and political reconfiguration; 7. Challenges and consolidation, 1824–7; 8. Royal women: authority and subservience; 9. Zulu voices, Zulu meanings: ancestors, praises, and history; 10. Shaka's rule: social configuration and social control; 11. Shaka's ambitions; 12. The legacy of Shaka's reign; Appendix: James Stuart interviewees.

Promotional Information

This scholarly account traces the emergence of the Zulu Kingdom in South Africa in the early nineteenth century.

About the Author

Elizabeth A. Eldredge is an independent scholar. She has published A South African Kingdom: The Pursuit of Security in Nineteenth-Century Lesotho (Cambridge, 1993) and Power in Colonial Africa: Conflict and Discourse in Lesotho, 1870-1960 (2007).