Title: Natal, the Zulu royal family and the ideology of segregation
Abstract: Shula Marks initially trained as a historian in South Africa but
emigrated to Britain and established a thriving centre of southern
African studies at the University of London in the 1970s and 1980s.
Working in the context of the rapidly developing subdiscipline of African
History, for which the School of Oriental and African Studies was an
important centre, she and her students emphasized African initiatives in
the making of South African society to a greater degree than the neoMarxist analysts of capital and the state. She notes that the
establishment of African reserves and the survival of African chieftaincy
as central elements of segregation originated not in the Boer republics,
but in Natal, the most British of colonies. The Natal or Shepstonian
system devolved substantial local control to African chiefs who were seen
as the best guarantors of a stable social order, a forerunner of the practice
of indirect rule developed elsewhere in colonial Africa. Although the Zulu
kings were initially exiled and lesser chiefs appointed to control the area,
Marks argues that the colonial authorities became increasingly
concerned about ‘detribalization’ in Natal and Zululand. By the 1920s,
the king-whose supporters were ambitious for him-came to be viewed
by segregationists not as a threat, but as a possible bulwark of
communalism in the face of growing popular protest in town and
countryside. The Zulu-speaking Christian elite, formerly hostile to the
royal family, now began to give the monarchy political support. This
reflected the fact that their attempts to gain equal rights within a
common society were being thwarted by the rise of segregationist
sentiment among whites and they sought instead to secure political
influence by working through the chieftaincy. Marks therefore suggests
that the Zulu monarchy was revived largely because the segregationiststate afforded it the political space to do so. But she recognizes the
capacity of the king to win broader Zulu national support as well.
Publication Year: 1979
Publication Date: 1979-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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