The Eight Zulu Kings

In Eight Zulu Kings, well-respected and widely published historian John Laband examines the reigns of the eight Zulu kings from 1816 to the present. Starting with King Shaka, the renowned founder of the Zulu kingdom, he charts the lives of the kings Dingane, Mpande, Cetshwayo, Dinuzulu, Solomon and Cyprian, to today's King Goodwill Zwelithini whose role is little more than ceremonial. In the course of this investigation Laband places the Zulu monarchy in the context of African kingship and tracks and analyses the trajectory of the Zulu kings from independent and powerful pre-colonial African rulers to largely powerless traditionalist figures in post-apartheid South Africa.

JOHN LABAND is the author of several books on the Zulu kingdom, including the seminal Rope of Sand: The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Kingdom in the Nineteenth Century and The Assassination of King Shaka. He is associated with a number of eminent institutions, including the universities of Cambridge, Wilfrid Laurier in Canada, and KwaZulu-Natal and Stellenbosch. He lives in Greyton in the Western Cape.