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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | They Poured Themselves into the Milk: Zulu Political Philosophy under Shaka |
Author: | Bjerk, Paul K. |
Year: | 2006 |
Periodical: | The Journal of African History |
Volume: | 47 |
Issue: | 1 |
Period: | March |
Pages: | 1-19 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | Zulu polity milk political philosophy oral history History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Education and Oral Traditions |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/4100562 |
Abstract: | The South African colonial historian and administrator James Stuart spent 25 years collecting Zulu oral history from over 200 sources. This article synthesizes metaphors and practices surrounding human and bovine milk and semen appearing in the James Stuart Archive of Zulu oral history. Milk is a constant topic of conversation in the Stuart Archive, and not simply as a food. The King's control of the flow of milk in society was the source of his power and the mechanism by which he controlled the Zulu state. A fluent understanding of this Zulu political philosophy in the Stuart Archive opens up a rich and underutilized source of historical information for Zulu history that adds significantly to prior studies. Parallels to these images in the Great Lakes region suggest a 'milk complex' rather than the common perception of a 'cattle complex'. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract] |