The Other Zulus

by Mahoney, Michael R.

• ISBN13: 9780822353096
• ISBN10: 0822353091
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-07-04
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

The British-ruled colony of Natal successfully invaded the Zulu kingdom in 1879. The British victory was enabled by the many Natal Africans who fought with them against the Zulus. Less than thirty years later, in 1906, many of these same Africans (and their descendants) rebelled against the British in the name of the Zulu king. In The Other Zulus, a thorough history of Zulu ethnicity during the colonial period, Michael R. Mahoney shows that the lower classes of Natal, rather than its elites, initiated the transformation in ethnic self-identification, and they did so for multiple reasons. The resentment that Natal Africans felt toward the Zulu king diminished as his power was curtailed by the British. The most negative consequences of colonialism may have taken several decades to affect the daily lives of most Africans. Natal Africans are likely to have experienced the oppression of British rule more immediately and intensely in 1906 than they had in 1879. Meanwhile, labor migration to the gold mines of Johannesburg politicized the young men of Natal. Mahoney's fine-grained local history shows that these young migrants constructed and claimed a new Zulu identity, both to challenge the patriarchal authority of African chiefs and to fight colonial rule.

Author Biography

Michael R. Mahoney is Adjunct Professor of History at Ripon College and Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Lawrence University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Maps	p. xii
Introduction	p. 1
The Failure of Zulu Ethnic Integration in the Precolonial Zulu Kingdom	p. 21
A Zulu King Too Strong to Love, a Colonial State Too Weak to Hate, 1838-1879	p. 47
Increasing Conflict among Natal Africans, 1879-1906	p. 83
The Role of Migrant Labor in the Spread of Zulu Ethnicity, 1886-1906	p. 117
Natal Africans' Turn to Dinuzulu, 1898-1905	p. 150
The Poll Tax Protests and Rebellion, 1905-1906	p. 182
Epilogue	p. 217
Notes	p. 225
Bibliography	p. 261
Index	p. 277
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