Custom and common sense: The Zulu Royal family succession dispute of the 1940s
Date
1996-05-06
Authors
Costa, Anthony
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Abstract
In November 1981 the historian Nicholas Cope tracked down Tandayipi Absolom kaSolomon
Zulu to a bottle store outside Nongoma, Zululand. Once a contender for the royal throne
of the Zulus, Tandayipi was now an alcoholic who spent 'most of his days in the bottle
store.' But the ravages of liquor had not completely stripped the memory of those times
from Tandayipi's mind. 'I was displaced', the old Zulu recalled of his abortive succession,
'If I was another chap... I had followers... I should have done a great mischief', But the
mischief never happened. As Tandayipi admitted, 'I simply put my head down like a worm,
till now', Almost forty years later he was still reluctant to talk, and steered the interview
onto other topics.
The disputed succession to Solomon kaDinuzulu Zulu forms the subject of this paper. It is
a story with a fair share of drama, sex and violence. As the Chief Native Commissioner of
Natal remarked of the affair, 'The history of the Zulu Royal House is one long story of
intrigue'. Yet the fascinating realm of Zulu politics Cbyzantine' was Shula Marks's
adjective) is only background to the story told here. The focus, rather, is on the dispute as
a window into the creation of a form of customary law ('native law') in Natal, and its
application by Native Commissioners and the 'native courts'.
Description
African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 6 May, 1996
Keywords
Zululand (South Africa). Kings and rulers. Succession