‘I Shall Need to Use Her to Rule’: The Power of ‘Royal’ Zulu Women in Pre-Colonial Zululand

South African Historical Journal

Volumn 43, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 3-23

  Weir, Jennifer ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33645273606     PISSN: 02582473     EISSN: 17261686     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/02582470008671905     Document Type: Article

References (119)

1. C. Doke, D. Malcolm, J. Sikakana and B. Vilikazi, English-Zulu Zulu-English Dictionary (Johannesburg, 1990), 404-5.
2. H. Fynn, The Diary of Henry Francis Fynn, edited by J. Stuart and D. McK. Malcolm (Pietermaritzburg, 1969), 30.
3. M. Gluckman, ‘Rituals of Rebellion in South-East Africa’, in Order and Rebellion in Tribal Africa (London, 1963), 115.
4. H. Bradford, ‘Women, Gender and Colonialism: Rethinking the History of the British Cape Colony and its Frontier Zones, c. 1806-70’, Journal of African History, 37 (1996), 351-70.
5. C. Hamilton, ‘Ideology, Oral Traditions and the Struggle for Power in the Early Zulu Kingdom’ (MA thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 1985), 422-52
6. S. Hanretta, ‘Women, Marginality and the Zulu State: Women’s Institutions and Power in the Early Nineteenth Century’, Journal of African History, 39 (1998), 389-415.
7. Hanretta, ‘Women, Marginality and the Zulu State’, 415.
8. C. Walker, ed., Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945 (Cape Town, 1990), 29.
9. P. Shifferd, ideological Problems and the Problem of Ideology: Reflections on Integration and Strain in Pre-Colonial West Africa’, in H.J.M. Claessen and J.G. Oosten, eds, Ideology and the Formation of Early States (Leiden, 1996), 25-6
10. H. Slater, ‘Transitions in the Political Economy of South-East Africa’ (DPhil thesis, University of Sussex, 1976), 317
11. M. Gluckman, ‘The Kingdom of the Zulu of South Africa’ in M. Fortes and E.E. Evans-Prichard, eds, African Political Systems (London, 1970), 30-1
12. J.B. Peires, The House of Phalo (Berkeley, 1982), 31, 32, 38
13. M. Hunter, Reaction to Conquest (London, 1961), 79-83, 270, 317, 352, 389-427
14. A. Richards, ‘The Bemba Tribe of North-Eastern Rhodesia’, in Fortes and Evans-Prichard, African Political Systems, 83-120
15. S. Redding, ‘Government Witchcraft: Taxation, the Supernatural, and the Mpondo Revolt in the Transkei, South Africa 1955-1963’, African Affairs, 95 (1996), 555-79
16. P. Skalnik, ‘Early States in the Voltaic Basin’, in H.J.M. Claessen and P. Skalnik, eds, The Early State (The Hague, 1978), 471.
17. R. Adams, ‘Power in Human Societies: A Synthesis’, in R. Fogelson and R. Adams, eds, The Anthropology of Power (New York, 1977), 388-9.
18. Adams, ‘Power in Human Societies’, 388.
19. Adams, ‘Power in Human Societies’, 388-9.
20. P. Shifferd, ‘Ideological Problems and the Problem of Ideology’, 26.
21. C. Webb and J. Wright, eds, The James Stuart Archive, vols. 1-4 (Pietermaritzburg, 19761986).
22. Hanretta, ‘Women, Marginality and the Zulu State’, 398.
23. Hamilton, ‘Ideology, Oral Traditions’, 424
24. Hanretta, ‘Women, Marginality and the Zulu State’, 398.
25. D. Bezuidenhout in J. Bird, The Annals of Natal, vol. 1 (Cape Town, 1888), 369
26. A.T. Bryant, Olden Times in Zululand and Natal (London, 1929), 150-2
27. E. Ellenberger, History of the Basuto (Morija, 1992, reprint of 1912 ed.), 124
28. D.J. Kotze, ed., Letters of the American Missionaries 1835-1838 (Cape Town 1950), 193 n.
29. C. Coquery-Vidrovitch, (trans. B. Raps), African Women (Boulder, 1997), 39.
30. R. Moffat, Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa, Second Edition, (New York, 1843), 230.
31. R. Rasmussen, Migrant Kingdom (London, 1978), n 53, 186.
32. M. Fuze (A.T. Cope ed., H.C. Lugg trans.), The Black People and Whence They Came (Pietermaritzburg, 1979), 62
33. Bryant, Olden Times, 40.
34. Madikane in James Stuart Archive, vol. 2, 49.
35. Bryant, Olden Times, 41, 45, 46
36. Fuze, The Black People, 62.
37. Bryant, Olden Times, 42.
38. Fuze, The Black People, 62.
39. Mantshi, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 1, 199.
40. Fuze, The Black People, 72, 97
41. Jantshi, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 1, 196
42. Mkehlengana, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 3, 217.
43. Jantshi, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 1, 196
44. Ndukwana, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 4, 346.
45. Gardiner, Narrative of a Journey to the Zoolu Country in South Africa (Cape Town, 1966, reprint of 1836 ed.), 222-3.
46. Fuze, The Black People, 62, 72
47. Bryant, Olden Times, 45, 46, 669
48. Jantshi, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 1, 196-9
49. Mkehlengana, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 3, 217.
50. P. Kirby, ed., Andrew Smith and Natal (Cape Town, 1955), 89. Andrew Smith noted her importance and authority when he visited Dingane in 1832.
51. J. Wright and C. Hamilton, ‘Traditions and Transformations: The Phongolo-Mzimkhulu Region in the Late Eighteenth Century and Early Nineteenth Centuries’, in A. Duminy and B. Guest, eds, Natal and Zululandfrom Earliest Times to 1910: A New History (Pietermaritzburg, 1989), 66.
52. J. Wright, ‘Political Transformations in the Thukela-Mzimkhulu Region in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries’, in C. Hamilton, ed., The Mfecane Aftermath (Johannesburg, 1995), 177.
53. Bryant, Olden Times, 46.
54. P. Shifferd, ‘Ideological Problems and the Problem of Ideology’, 25-6.
55. C. Maclean, Nautical Magazine (Feb. 1855), 67. I am grateful to Julian Cobbing of Rhodes University for this reference.
56. J. Guy, The Destruction of the Zulu Kingdom (Pietermaritzburg, 1994), 252.
57. C. Faye, Zulu References (Pietermaritzburg, 1923), 51
58. Bryant, Olden Times, 46.
59. Ndukwana, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 4, 278, 327
60. Madikane, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 2, 57
61. Bryant, Olden Times, 42-3, 46, 642-3
62. Mangati, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 2, 216
63. Gardiner, Narrative of a Journey, 116
64. Baleni, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 1, 20
65. Mgidhlana, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 3, 105, 108
66. Jantshi, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 1, 199
67. Mmemi, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 3, 248.
68. D. Leslie, Among the Zulus and Amatongas (New York, 1969, reprint of 1875 ed.), 70
69. Ndukwana, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 4, 292.
70. Hamilton, ‘Ideology, Oral Traditions’, 340.
71. H.J.M. Claessen and P. van de Velde, eds, Early State Dynamics (Leiden, 1987), 15-16.
72. C. Hamilton, ‘Restructuring Within the Zulu Royal House’, in P. McAlister, ed., Culture and the Commonplace (Johannesburg, 1997), 106.
73. Ndukwana, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 4, 305-6.
74. Mgidhlana, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 3, 108
75. Bikwayo, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 1, 69
76. Mayinga, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 2, 253
77. Ndukwana, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 4, 290-1.
78. Mtshapi, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 4, 77.
79. Mpatshana, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 3, 303-5
80. Mkebeni, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 3, 203
81. Mtshapi, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 4, n. 83, 101, n. 118, 103
82. Ndukwana, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 4, 283, 360
83. Mayinga, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 2, 253.
84. Mtshayankomo, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 4, 117, 144.
85. Claessen and Van de Velde, Early State Dynamics, 15-16.
86. Maclean, Nautical Magazine (Jan. 1854), 27
87. E. Krige, The Social System of the Zulus, (Pietermaritzburg, 1965), 172.
88. Fuze, The Black People, 63-4
89. Jantshi, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 1, 194-5
90. Lunguza, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 1, 307, 337
91. Ndukwana, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 4, 292-3, 327
92. Isaacs, Travels and Adventures, vol. 1, 196
93. Fynn, The Diary of Henry Francis Fynn, 131-3
94. Bryant, Olden Times, 608.
95. H. Fynn, in J. Bird, ed., Annals of Natal, vol. 1, 91-3
96. J. Shooter, The Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country (New York, 1969, first published 1857), 242-9
97. R. Cohen, ‘State Origins: A Reappraisal’, in H.J.M. Claessen and P. Skalnik, eds, The Early State (The Hague, 1978), 64.
98. Mkebeni, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 3, 200.
99. Mangati, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 2, 206.
100. Adams, ‘Power in Human Societies: A Synthesis’, 388-9.
101. Mangati, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 2, 204-5, 216
102. Bryant, Olden Times, 41-2
103. H.C. Lugg, A Guide to the Zulu Social System (Durban, 1978), 24.
104. Gardiner in J. Bird, ed., The Annals of Natal, vol. 1, 302.
105. M. Gluckman, ‘The Rise of a Zulu Empire’, Scientific American, 202, 4 (1960), 167.
106. Mangati, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 2, 216.
107. Ndhlovu, in The James Stuart Archive, vol. 4, 198
108. C. Hamilton, Terrific Majesty (Cape Town, 1998), 57.
109. Mtshayankomo, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 4, 144.
110. Mmemi, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 3, 245.
111. Maclean, Nautical Magazine (Jan. 1854), 26.
112. W. Rees, Colenso Letters From Natal, 108.
113. Mtshapi, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 4, 63
114. Mgidhlana, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 3, 106
115. Mangati, in James Stuart Archive, vol. 2, 207-8.
116. Fuze, The Black People, 105.
117. C. Hamilton, ‘Authoring Shaka: Models, Metaphors and Historiography’ (PhD thesis, Johns Hopkins University, 1993)
118. C. Hamilton, Terrific Majesty, 75-80.
119. Bryant, The Zulu People, 459-60.