Zulu Identities: Being Zulu, Past and Present

What does it mean to be Zulu today? Does being Zulu today differ from what it meant in the past? Zulu Identities wrestles with these and many other related questions to show how the characteristic traditions of a pre-industrial people have evolved into different cultural expressions of 'Zulu-ness' in modern South Africa. This authoritative and specially commissioned volume, which contains more collected expertise on the Zulus than is available from any other source, examines the legacies of Shaka, the intrigues of Zulu royalty, gender and generational struggles, cultural and symbolic projections, and spirituality. It highlights the debates in contemporary South Africa over the manipulation of Zulu heritage, whether deployed for party political purposes or exploited to promote eco - and battlefield-tourism. And finally the book contemplates the future of Zulu identity in a unitary South Africa seeking to embrace the forces of globalisation.

Table of Contents:
Contents-Frames of Debate-Introduction: Zuluness in the Post- and Neo-worlds -The Empire Talks Back: Re-examining the Legacies of Shaka and - Reflections on the Politics of Being 'Zulu', 1820-1920 Foundations of Zuluness: Iron Ages to Late 1800s - A Brief Archaeology of Precolonial Farming in Kwa Zulu-Natal-Cattle Symbolism in Zulu Culture-Revisiting the Stereotype of Shaka's 'Devastations'-White Myths of Shaka-The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Kingdom-Zulu Nationalist Literary Representations of King Dingane-A Reassessment of Women's Power in the Zulu Kingdom-Enlightenment Theories of Civilisation and Savagery in British Natal: The Colonial Origins of the (Zulu) African Barbarism Myth- Awaken Nkulunkulu, Zulu God of the Old Testament: Pioneering Missionaries During the Early Age of Racial Spectacle-Faithful Anthropologists: Christianity, Ethnography and the Making of 'Zulu Religion' in Early Colonial Natal-'Bloodstained Grandeur': Colonial and Imperial Stereotypes of Zulu Warriors and Zulu Warfare The Roots of Gathering Struggles: Late Nineteenth Century to Middle Twentieth Century-'What Do You Red-Jackets Want in Our Country?': The Zulu Response to the British Invasion of 1879-The Roots of Gathering Struggles: Late Nineteenth Century to Middle Twentieth Century-Imperial Appropriations: Baden-Powell, the Wood Badge, and the Zulu Iziqu-'Happy Are Those Who Are Dead': Crises in African Life in Late-nineteenth-century and Early-twentieth-century Colonial Natal-The American Mission Revivals and Birth of Modern Zulu Evangelism-Zulus, African-Americans and the African Diaspora, 1879-1945-Chiefs, Cattle and 'Betterment': Contesting Zuluness and Segregationin the Reserves-'You Cannot Destroy a Person by Killing Him': Zulu Cosmopolitanismand the Politics of Zulu Cultural Revival-Changing Meanings of the Battle of Ncome and Images of King Dinganein Twentieth-century South Africa-The Sport of Zuluness: Masculinity, Class and Cultural Identity in-Generating Change, Engendering Tradition: Rural Dynamics and the Limits of Zuluness in Colonial Natal-Hybridities Customary Traditions, Healing and Spirituality, and Contentious Politics Customary Traditions, Healing and Spirituality, and Contentious Politics-Royal Precedents and Landscape Midwives: Claiming the Zululand-Credo Mutwa: New-age Zulu-Healing and Harming: Medicine, Madness, Witchcraft and Tradition-Albert Luthuli and Bantustan Politics of Kwa Zulu-Undivided Loyalties: Inkatha and the Boy Scout Movement-Shaka's Aeroplane: The Takeoff and Landing of Inkatha, Modern ZuluNationalism and Royal Politics-The Roots of Violence and Martial Zuluness on the East Rand, 1980-90-Monuments of Division: Apartheid and Post-apartheid Struggles over Zulu Nationalist Heritage Sites-Divisions and Realignments in Post-apartheid Zulu Local and National Politics-Symbolism's of Culture Beauty in the Hard Journey: Defining Trends in Twentieth-century Zulu Art-Ceremonial Beer Pots and their Uses-The Secret of Zulu Bead Language and Proportion and Balance of the Zulu Headrest (Isigqiki)-'Where's it Gone, Freedom? Composing Isicathamiya in Post-apartheid South Africa in the Age of 9/11-Zulu Names-Poetic Masters of Zuluness: The Dhomo-Vilakazi Literary Debate-Cry, The Beloved Country: A Murder in Alan Paton's Country, 1999-Failed Experiment? Challenging Homogenous 'Zululisation' in South Africa's Museums: The Case of Sisonke in Natal-'So that I will be a marriageable girl': Umemulo in Contemporary Zulu Society-Futures of Zuluness Two Bulls in One Kraal: Local Politics, 'Zulu History', and Heritage Tourismin Kosi Bay-Claiming Community: Restitution on the Eastern Shores of Lake St Lucia-Virginity Testing: A Backward-looking Response to Sexual Regulation in the HIV/AIDS Crisis-Nomkhubulwane: Reinventing a Zulu Goddess-AIDS in Zulu Idiom: Etiological Configurations of Women, Pollution and Modernity-Zulu-speaking Men and Changing Households-A Modern Coming of Age: Zulu Manhood, Domestic Work and the 'Kitchen Suit'-Silence, Death and Memory in the Time of AIDS -The Zulu Warrior Ethic and the Spirit of South African Capitalism-Zulu Identity in the International Context-Index

About the Author :
Benedict Carton is an Associate Professor of History at George Mason University, Virginia; John Laband is Professor of History at Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario; Jabulani Sithole is a Lecturer in Historical Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.