África & História - ‘THE RISE & FALL OF THE ZULU NATION’, by John Laband - South Africa 1997 - RARO;

Africa & History - A historical look at the Zulu nation portrays a politically sophisticated, administratively integrated, and militarily effective polity which was overthrown by the British Empire only because it was a pre-industrial society which lacked firepower

África & História - Uma análise histórica da nação Zulu que retrata uma organização politicamente sofisticada, administrativamente integrada e militarmente eficaz, que foi derrotada pelo Império Britânico apenas por ser uma sociedade pré-industrial carente de poder de fogo.

‘THE RISE & FALL OF THE ZULU NATION’ 

By John Laband 

Edition by Arms and Armour 

South Africa 1997 

Livro com 518 páginas, muito ilustrado (mapas, desenhos e fotografias da época) e em muito bom estado de conservação. Excelente. 

De muito difícil localização. 

RARO. 

The Author / O Autor: 

“JOHN LABAND is a South African historian and writer, specialising in Anglo-Zulu and Boers wars. He is Professor Emeritus and Chair of History at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada, and is a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, England.”

Da contracapa:

"The kingdom forged by Shaka kaSenzangakhona was once one of the most powerful and sophisticated black states in Africa. In its mere sixty years of independent existence it weathered rebellions by discontented subjects and ambitious princes, intrusions by traders, missionaries and land-hungry settlers, and a determined invasion by the Voortrekkers. It took the British at the height of their imperial power six months and a full military campaign to bring the kingdom down. Thereafter, Zululand was broken up, consigned to bitter civil war, and eventually annexed piecemeal, its land given over to white farmers, in a poignant saga of humiliation and loss. . To understand contested developments in KwaZulu-Natal today, it is imperative to comprehend the troubled course of Zululand as it was wrested away from its own kings and passed into the hands of colonial masters. This book provides the key". 

About the book:

“South African historian Laband is a distinguished scholar of Zulu history whose work remains unknown in the U.S. outside specialist circles. That should change with the appearance of this book. Initially published in South Africa in 1995 as Rope of Sand, this is the finest analysis to date of the Zulu kingdom's origins and nature, its complex internal politics and the conflicts with Boer and Briton that finally laid it low. Without neglecting such cultural elements as the importance for the Zulu warrior of purification after battle, which frequently influenced the conduct of campaigns, Laband treats the Zulu polity in a historical rather than an anthropological context. He demonstrates that, at its height, the Zulu kingdom was the most politically sophisticated, administratively integrated and militarily effective polity, black or white, south of the Zambesi. Laband emphasizes the central political and ritual role of the king while establishing the cultural restraints on royal power and the constant challenges from royal relatives and other great chiefs. Not only Shaka but his successors, notably Mpande and Ctsehwayo, emerged as skillful politicians and sophisticated diplomats. Laband's perceptive analysis of the relationship between war and politics in the Zulu system shows that the Zulu kingdom neither decayed from within nor conquered itself to destruction. Instead, it was overthrown by a British Empire whose superiority in a specific aspect of warmaking--the application of firepower to the battlefield--proved too much for a pre-industrial society by no means at a dead end when it faced the Gatlings and Martinis at Ulundi. Illustrations.”

Do ÍNDICE: / CONTENTS: 

List of Maps 

PREFACE 

Acknowledgments 

PROLOGUE - The killing of a King 

PART I - THE PLAITING OF THE ROPE 

1. - A Land and its people 

2. - Climbing the long rope 

3. - He who thunders as he sits 

4. - Go every one to war ! 

PART II - THE BREAKING OF THE ROPE 

5. - Black horn that devours men 

6. - You are the quiet one, O Great Elephant 

7. - ‘You thrust in an Evil Spear’ 

8. - Blood river 

9. - The Maqonqqo hills 

10. - Between the English and the Boers 

11. - And the Thukela turned red 

12. - The young tiger 

PART III - WARDING OFF THE FALLING TREE 

13. - Mr shepstone crowns a king 

14. - He who builds homes with spears 

15. - The eagle and the four hawks 

16. - The whistling of winds 

17. - ‘You will attack by daulight !’ 

18. - Bread smelling of people’s blood 

19. - The fight at Jim’s 

20. - ‘The small guns are the worst’ 

21. - While the white people were still tired 

22. - Breaking the neck of the Zulu power 

23. - ‘The English Burrow in the ground like wild pigs’

24. - I ask for peace 

25. - What is there to stop them ? 

26. - We may now plough again 

PART IV - LIKE WATER SPLIT ON THE GROUND 

27. - Until the Queen restores me to Zululand 

28. - Am I run away from my dog ? 

29. - The calabash and its contents were shattered 

30. - Like a calf tied up on one side of the hedge 

31. - We cannot live together with the man who killed our king 

32. - Applying the torch of war 

33. - Summoning the fire engine 

34. - The Queen alone disposes the land 

EPILOGUE - Towards the New Kingdom 

Glossary 

Notes 

Picture Acknowledgments and sources 

Select Bibliography 

Preço: 62,50€;