Episode 59 – Senzangakhona and his son Shaka, Janssens has a plan and American sailors ogle the eastern Cape
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Show notes
The Batavians trying to setup a formal long-term administration that was rooted inside the Cape rather than in Europe. Unfortunately, their tenure was to be short.
International events were conspiring to upset this plan – with the renewal of the war between the English and the French – old enemies with a propensity for blood-letting. While the Cape was safe from immediate attack by the English until 1805, the effect of a world war could not be escaped.
Some would feel the effects less than others, and these some were living in the area we now call Zululand. It’s not generally well-known but African monarchy of various forms is an ancient institution in the continent. There were the Negus of Ethiopia, the Kyabazinga of Busoga, the Mwenemutapa of Mutapa whom we’ve heard about already, the Ngwenyana of Swaziland, the mubongo of Matamba, the ngola of Ndongo, the alafin of Oyo, abosu of Dahomey, the emir of Ilorin, the sarki of Kano, the sultan of Sokoto, the bey of Tunis.
Mostly male, often the societies would be led by a woman of exceptional power despite the patriarchies. Power was localized, in the form of chiefs. A paramount chief ruled more widely although those on the periphery of his power would likely vascillate more than those in the centre. The most powerful of these leaders would be called King, ruling over a large territory in a centralized state and commanding an army.
For the Zulu, King Goodwill Zwelethini who passed away in 2021 was only the eighth Zulu monarch since the Kingdom formally began in 1816. By the standards of the amaXhosa, they are newcomers on the southern African power bloc. Senzangakhona was the father of Shaka, and his father was Jama, and his great-grandfather was Ndaba. Before Ndaba, oral tradition takes over from oral history as John Laband points out and various royal genealogies surface.
