Battling with Banality

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Periodical article

Title:	Battling with Banality
Author:	Guy, Jeff
Year:	1998
Periodical:	Journal of Natal and Zulu History
Volume:	18
Pages:	156-193
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	South Africa Natal
Subjects:	Zulu Anglo-Zulu War 1879 historiography colonialism History and Exploration Ethnic and Race Relations
Abstract:	This article deals with the history of nineteenth-century KwaZulu Natal, in particular the history of the British invasion of Zululand in 1879. While it used to be apartheid which threatened critical South African history, today it is competition and the free market. This article examines the way in which imperial memories have articulated with market forces in South Africa, and in so doing work towards the perpetuation of a weak, uncritical, misleading historiography unable to challenge colonial customs and imperial traditions which market opportunities have revived. After two introductory sections, on imperial glory and the British, and historians and dependency, the article focuses on different interpretations of the Anglo-Zulu war: the imperial narrative, which has remained dominant for a century now, and, in this neo-imperial era, is gaining ground once again, as well as variant narratives and counternarratives. The author's conclusion is that a new history of the invasion, when it is written, will have to include what he calls the silenced narrative: the story as told by the Zulu. Notes, ref.