A Jacana Pocket Biography: Shaka

We all picture Shaka as a lean, mean, assegai-wielding warrior-king, the military genius who founded the Zulu nation. In fact, we don't actually know when he was born, what he looked like, or exactly when he died. Almost every other story you've heard is probably either wrong or contested. This biography draws on the last two decades of historical research to reassess the eyewitness accounts and use newly available oral traditions. The picture that emerges is astonishingly different from the popular stereotype.

About the author
Dan Wylie teaches English at Rhodes University, Grahamstown. His book Myth of Iron: Shaka in History (2006) is the first full-length scholarly biographical study of Shaka.

Author Dan Wylie
ISBN 9781770099623
Format Paperback
Pages 155p.