Natal and Zululand from Earliest Times to 1910. A New History

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Boston University African Studies Center andBoard of Trustees, Boston University are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 456 BOOK REVIEWS 456 BOOK REVIEWS did not build the governmental institutions necessary to permit Ethiopia to evolve. His devotion to duty and the people stretched only so far, and he apparently fell victim to the corruption of his own power. HAROLD G. MARCUS Michigan State University NATAL AND ZULULAND FROM EARLIEST TIMES TO 1910. A NEW HISTORY. Edited by Andrew Duminy and Bill Guest. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1989. Pp. xxix, 489. 49.95 S.A. Rands. The editors of this new history of Natal and Zululand have decided to publish it in two volumes, the dividing date between them being 1910the year of the Union. The present review deals with Volume One. The previous book on the history of Natal, written by Edgar H. Brookes and Colin de B. Webb, was published in 1965 under the title A History of Natal, and like the present volume includes Zululand, as the fate of the two territories was closely intertwined, particularly after the annexation of Zululand by Natal in 1897.The two publications are similar in their endeavor to give a balanced interpretation of the colonial history of the whites and the reactions of the indigenous peoples to the policies of their rulers. But there are also vital differences. One of them is that the newest volume by Duminy and Guest is longer than that by Brookes and Webb by some one hundred and twenty pages, thereby allowing the reader a better insight into matters which, of necessity, had to be excluded by Brookes and Webb for lack of space. Even more important is the great progress made in South African historiography during the quarter century since the publication of the Brookes/Webb work.

The concepts of ‘Zulu tribe’ and ‘Zulu nation’ and their use towards political aspirations in South Africa

“…The usage of the concept 'tribe' has been abandoned by many academics and political leaders not because it is pejorative, but it was used to complement time and space for colonial rulers. The idea that every African belonged to a tribe was central to how colonial rulers understood African communities and to how they justified colonial projects [5]. This is to say that the notion of the tribe took on a very particular role in the era of colonial expansion.…”

The changing geography of wildlife conservation: Perspectives on private game farming in contemporary KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa

“…32 The pervasive influence of the European economy was a hallmark of the south-east African region prior to the incorporation of the Colony of Natal (which by then included Zululand) into the Union of South Africa in 1910. 33 This was the era of British industrial dominance and the expansion of British imperial power around the world. At first, Britain's interests in Southern Africa were primarily motivated by the strategic significance of the region "in relation to British commercial interests in India and the Far East".…”