Business Day, 27 November 1998, Heather Mackie:
In this densely argued work, anthropologist Carolyn Hamilton sets out to deconstruct the facts and fictions of this central Zulu icon. Separating the myth from the man is only part of her intent; the greater part of her study analyses why and how Shaka’s memory has been used by successive politicans since his assassination in 1828 from colonial authorities to apartheid apologists.
She has marshalled an impressive array of detail, drawing on the great philosophical debates among social scientists and literary theorists, and the recent controversy on whether or not the mfecane, or wars of extermination, really existed.
Does any of this matter? Emphatically yes, Hamilton, argues; the writing of history is a political act, and the legacy of Shaka’s militarism can be seen in recent ethnic politics and violence, particularly in KwaZulu–Natal. The Zulu nation and other contenders have claimed Shaka’s memory for themselves as an example of strength, and her analysis of how thefacts were twisted and the emphasis changed calls to mind the spin doctors of today’s political world and their use of sophisticated public relations exercises to manipulate reputations.
Shaka, the legendary warrior king, the man who turned the Zulus into a fighting force, the man who allowed no child to succeed him, is a contradictory metaphor for both order and chaos, she argues; demonised as a savage, admired for his military tactics. In the 1970s Inkatha proclaimed September 24 Shaka Day; Shaka was the role model for Umslopogaas, ‘the bravest Zulu of them all’ in Rider Haggard’s novel Allan Quartermain, and his system was used by Shepstone as a blueprint for native administration in the last century …
Much of it is quite heavy going, as befits a PhD thesis, but Hamilton lightens up in the chapters on the making of the TV series, and Shakaland, the TV set–turned tourist resort …
Weekly Mail & Guardian, 4 February, 1999, Dan Wylie:
…Hamilton’s critical faculties are sharpest in her treatment of Bill Faure’s television series Shaka Zulu … and of its touristic offspring, the "cultural" theatrics of "Shakaland". She parses much of the tortuous politicking behind the series and the sad absurdity of "Shakaland" … In all, in serviceable if unenterprising prose, Hamilton provides an extremely important addition to Shakan studies …"
Die Burger, 16 September, 1998, Mariette van Manen:
…Hamilton se boek is n belangrike bydrae oor die plek van Shaka in die Suid–Afrikaanse geskiedenis. Sy stel op wetenskaplike wyse verskillende perspektiewe, wys op ooreenkomste en afwykings, en plaas die gegewens binne die konteks van die ideologie en politiek van die verskillende tydperke, ook binne die konteks van die hedendaagse Zoeloe kultuur en politiek. Sowel mondelinge oorlewering as geskrewe tekste word ontleed en talle onderhoude is gevoer …