Introduction

Abstract

Journal of Southern African StudiesPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:

Kingship, Kinship and the King of Beasts in Early Southern African Novels

“…17 The idea of king-as-lion is again in play, because as Tim Couzens explains in his account of Barolong history, "the fourteenth chief in descent was the great warrior Tau (his name means lion), who became king around the year 1740 […] and the Barolong were at the peak of their power during his reign". 18 In Mhudi, the Barolong chief at the time of the massacre is depicted as an incompetent leader, whose directive to kill two Matabele tax-collectors brings about Mzilikazi's devastating revenge attack. This chief's name is Tauana, which Plaatje translates as "Lion's whelp" (24), an archaic term for cub, and which is used to suggest that it is Tauana's immature kingship that whelps, or brings about, the Matabele destruction of the Barolong and the ensuing events in the novel.…”