Bøger af Carolyn Hamilton

Edward Said described a public intellectual as someone who uses accessible language to address a designated public on matters of social and political significance. The essays in this volume apply this interpretive prism and activist principle to a South African context to tell the stories of well-known figures and some that have been forgotten.

Since his assassination in 1828, King Shaka Zulu has made his empire in popular imaginations throughout Africa and the West. Shaka is the hero of Zulu nationalism, the centerpiece of Inkatha ideology, a demon of apartheid, the namesake of a theme park, even the subject of a TV film. This book explores the reasons for the potency of Shaka's image.

Was the ""mfecane"" a figment of historians' imagination? How large a responsibility do Shaka and the Zulu people bear for the social turbulence in South-central and South-east Africa in the early decades of the 19th century? These are some of the issues explored in this collection.