Chaka

'Chaka' is a fictionalised account of the life of the C19th Zulu king Shaka. It's unusually early for an African novel, originally published in 1925 but existing in manuscript in some form as early as 1910.I wasn't entirely looking forward to reading it. It has started to really bother me when those who rose to power and built empires through force are presented as Great Men, as admirable or heroic. Qin Shi Huang, Alexander the Great, Napoleon: these men were ruthless megalomaniacs who glorified themselves through the misery of others. But we are fascinated by power, and there's never a shortage of people who are willing to read history through rose-tinted bifocals. Hell, the Russians are even doing their best to rehabilitate Stalin.I assumed that 'Chaka' would do the same; but part of the reason I enjoyed it so much is that, on the contrary, its portrayal of Shaka is absolutely excoriating. He is presented as a handsome man of great courage and physical and military prowess; but also as capricious, cruel, violent and terrifyingly, unswervingly power-hungry. In fact the scale of his violence, against his own people as well as his enemies, would seem ridiculously exaggerated, if you'd never heard of Stalin, or Mao, or Idi Amin.Which isn't to say that the novel is historically accurate. It doesn't even pretend to be; it's told very much in a mythic, folkloric style rather than a historically realist one, and it takes substantial liberties with the history for the sake of telling a good story, to the point of inventing major characters -- including Chaka's love interest and a sorcerer who provides him with his power. His life story is tweaked and manipulated to bring out the themes of ambition and power, and present him with decisions which are loaded with symbolic resonance. I would normally shy away from comparing a writer to Shakespeare -- just too much baggage -- but as a piece of myth-making based freely on a historical source, it really reminds me of Macbeth or King Lear.I wasn't immediately gripped by it, but as the action ramped up and Chaka developed into a more and more extreme character, I thought it was electrifying.

The legend of Chaka Zulu is brought to life very vividly - a classic tale of how a heroic leader goes too far.

No I will not write a review.

Profound and moving portrait of this African legend King.

Thomas Mofolo, born in Lesotho [formerly Basutoland] in 1876, was the greatest of the African authors in the early part of the 20th century. He wrote in Sesotho for the Morija missionary training college. In 1927 he bought a store in Lesotho and later acquired a farm in South Africa, but was evicted under the Bantu Land Act. In 1940, in ill halth, he returned to Lesotho, where he died in 1948.This novel, generally regarded as his masterpiece, was published in 1925 [although largely completed in 1909-10] with an English translation appearing six years later. In this edition, from Heinemann’s African Writers Series, the translator is Daniel P. Kunene.The story is a fictional biography of the Zulu conqueror Shaka kaSenzangakhona, c. 1787-1828, who created an extensive empire in southern Africa a during the first quarter of the 19th century. His driving ambition led to extreme ruthlessness and megalomania, and led to his assassination by disaffected family members.The story is written and translated as if being passed on verbally in the African tradition, and combines both an historical outline and the supernatural. The story begins by describing the social and political background in the region, made up of many small warring states. The young Chaka, illegitimate first-born son of Chief Senzangakhona and Nandi, who brings him up. The jealousy of senior wives led the chief disowning his son and, later, to his regular bullying from which he emerges as a courageous and ruthless fighter. Chaka’s future is directed by Isanusi, a mythical sorcerer who according to Kunene is ‘the result of Mofolo’s transformation of Chaka’s ambition into a man.’ The descriptions of the potions with which Chaka is inoculated are particularly interestingChaka, threatened with death by his father, is offered protection byDingiswayo, chief of neighbouring Mthethwa , a benign ruler who promotes innovation, productivity, and beauty in arts, crafts and agriculture. After the chief’s death begins to extend his empire into what would eventually become KwaZulu.After the deaths of of his father, Senzangakhona and Dingiswayo, Chaka ascends the Zulu throne as king and embarks upon expansion and consolidation of his empire with such shocking brutality against his own troops and armies and civilians of other warring states, a characteristic that increases as he gets older. Although attracted by Dingiswayo’s sister, Nolima [who possessed ‘light brown complexion like a cannabis seed,’], However, when Chaka is offered the choice by Isanusi he agrees to sacrifice her in order to ensure his expanding power.The novel ends with Mafolo hinting at the dissolution of Shaka’s empire and anticipating the arrival of Europeans in southern Africa. A fascinating aspect of the story is the inclusion, with translations, of poems and salutations in Sesotho praising Chaka which have a certain musicality, a point elaborated by Kunene in his introduction..Daniel Kunene, 1923-2016, was born in South Africa and taught in the Department of African Languages at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for 33 years. He was a civil rights activist and a leading figure in the struggle against apartheid. His Introduction is absorbing in itself, describing Mafolo, the origins of the novel, the merging of fact and fiction and, especially thought provoking, the many challenges of translation.The African Writers Series, founded in 1962, makes accessible writing by Africans, initially black African authors and introduces many unjustifiably neglected writers, especially from the periods of British and French colonial rule. This book and its translation are both highly recommended.