Rope of Sand – The Rise and fall of the Zulu kingdom in the 19th century.
R270
John Laband’s magisterial account of the dramatic emergence and tragic decline of the Zulu kingdom in the nineteenth century is the culmination of fifteen years of research and fieldwork.
Professor John Laband teaches European and Zulu history in the Department of Historical Studies, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg.
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Description
The kingdom forged by Shaka KaSenzangakhona was once one of the most powerful and sophisticated black states in Africa. In its mere sixty years of independent existence it weathered rebellions by discontented subjects and ambitious princes, intrusions by traders, missionaries and land-hungry settlers, and a determined invasion by the Voortrekkers.
It took the British at the height of their imperial power six months and a full military campaign to bring the kingdom down.
John Laband’s magisterial account of the dramatic emergence and tragic decline of the Zulu kingdom in the nineteenth century is the culmination of fifteen years of research and fieldwork.
Professor John Laband teaches European and Zulu history in the Department of Historical Studies, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg.
‘The Zulu nation is a collection of tribes, more or less autonomous, and more or less discontented; a rope of sand whose only cohesive property was furnished by the presence of the Zulu ruling family and its command of a standing army.’
– Memorandum by Sir Theophilus Shepstone, 12 August 1887.