Chaka by Thomas Mofolo

Chaka, right from his childhood, did not have many wishes; his desire was for one thing only: kingship and fame. Now he is very famous and he is a great king. Is it possible that he will be satisfied? Never! Now his greed has been aroused, and he is in search of something which even he himself does not know. Now Chaka was able to decide on matters of war without anything standing in his way, he alone having the power to do as he wished. He looked upon all the nations to the north, up to the places which even he did not know, and he longed to see his kingdom stretch till it reached those very places which he did not know. He looked upon those nations settled among the sea and stretching to the south, and the saw the villages and hamlets; great kings and small, the country adorned with villages built on the foundation of peace, and he smiled to himself.

Masotho (I just learned this is the demonym for someone from Lesotho) author Thomas Mofolo's Chaka is an account of the life of the legendary 19th century Zulu king Chaka, perhaps better known in the Western world as Shaka Zulu. Chaka's life begins ignominiously, as the illegitimate son of a king; though at first it seems that, as the only male son, he will be the king's heir, a sudden spate of issue from the king's other wives sees both Chaka and his mother sent into exile. Chaka is bullied by the other children of the bush until he commits an unthinkable pair of deeds, killing a rampaging lion and hyena, two of the vicious creatures that stalk the villages without mercy. I was struck by the way that Mafolo describes the cowardice on behalf of the villagers, who refuse to run to the aid of anyone taken by these beasts. Chaka's acts are an expression not only of his bravery and cunning but a harbinger of things to come: Chaka will transform his kingdom from cowardice to a highly militarized society that uses violence to establish an empire in Southern Africa.

Chaka's adult life has the shape of ancient myth. Through his bravery and skill, and with the help of a shadowy "sorcerer" named Isanusi and a couple of other mystical personages, he defeats his siblings and becomes king, introducing to his kingdom the new name "MaZulu," or "People of the Sky." But even at the pinnacle of a power that no other king has known, he's greedy for more, and Isanusi advises him that if he wishes to reach the true extent of his greatness, he must sacrifice his beloved, a woman named Nowila, whom Chaka ultimately kills at his own hands. It's a familiar story: a man gains all the power in the world and loses his soul. Chaka exhibits what I understand (from Wikipedia, of course) to be an attitude of ambivalence toward the legendary king, who led the Zulu to become a great empire, but did so by ruling through violence and fear. Chaka's killing of Nowila is reproduced on a broader scale when he has thousands of his own people killed for cowardice or simply perceived cowardice; as the story goes on, Chaka's rationalizations for his killing become weaker and weaker, until it seems that he seeks violence for its own reason.

One of the more fascinating moments of the story comes at the end, when Chaka is finally defeated and killed by his rivals. In his last moments, on the precipice of entering the world of the dead, he prophesies that while his rivals have defeated him, they will soon have to confront a much more dangerous enemy: the coming white man. In this, it's possible to see the story of Chaka not simply as the story a legendary king, but the formation of a culture and a kingdom who will be further defined by their conflict with the imperial powers of Europe.

With the addition of Lesotho, my "Countries Read" list is up to 110!