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  • Publisher:
    Wits University Press
    Publication date:
    01 September 2022
    01 October 2021
    ISBN:
    9781776141128
    9781776140718
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    • Subjects:
    Drama and Theatre: General Interest, Drama, Theatre, Performance Studies
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    Subjects:
    Drama and Theatre: General Interest, Drama, Theatre, Performance Studies
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    Book description

    Ukufa kukaShaka is a historical drama by Elliot Zondi, first published in 1960 in the Bantu (later, African) Treasury Series. Its plot is based on the events surrounding the assassination of Shaka, the mighty Zulu king, by his two half-brothers, Dingane and Mhlangana, aided and abetted by his paternal aunt, Mkabayi, in 1828. The play explores the classic theme of the tragic hero's fatal flaws: hubris and overconfidence. Shaka's ruthless ambition led him to overstep human boundaries, kill with impunity, bar his warriors from having families and force them into endless wars. His blind spot seems to have been to put the survival and expansion of the Zulu kingdom first and the welfare of his subjects second.

    Against this backdrop Mkabayi, whose ambitions for a remarkable Zulu nation were more tempered, played a decisive role in his downfall. Zondi explores arguments both in favour of and against Shaka’s assassination in a way that allows the reader to sympathise with his greater vision and his thwarted plan to fight impending colonialism. His dramatisation of the conflict between Shaka and Mkabayi highlights questions of leadership and nation-building that continue to be relevant today.

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