Proprietor of Natal
” Henry Francis Fynn and the Mythography of Shaka
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12003066 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Diana Wylie (0000-0002-0148-8525, Rhodes University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1995 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Pages | 409-437 |
| Publication date | 1995-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History in Africa (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0361-5413 • E-ISSN: 1558-2744 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/3171924 |
| OpenAlex | W2010919986 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 10 |
If ever South Africa could boast of a Robinson Crusoe of her own, as affable, shrewd, politically sagacious, courageous and large-hearted as Defoe's, here is one to life... “Mr Fynn” [Fynn is] a greater ass and Don Quixote than one could possibly conceive. The fictional referents in these diametrically opposed judgments of Henry Francis Fynn (1806-61) alert us to the “constructed” nature of the reputation of this most famous of Shakan eyewitnesses. Although Nathaniel Isaacs' Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa (1836) first introduced Shaka and his Zulu people to the British reading public, and had easily the profoundest influence on popular conceptions, Fynn was the more widely acknowledged “expert” on the Zulu. Having pursued an extraordinarily tortuous, violent, and well-documented career through forty formative years of South African frontier history, he left a body of writings which belatedly attained authoritative status in Shakan historiography. Since 1950, Fynn's so-called “Diary” has become the paramount, and until recently largely unquestioned, source on Shaka's famous reign ( ca . 1815-1828). As recent political power struggles centered on the “Shaka Day” celebrations in Zululand have amply demonstrated, there is no more appropriate juncture at which to reassess the sources of this semi-mythologized Zulu leader's reputation
Adventure · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Frontier · Historiography · Literature · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Reading (process · Reign · Reputation · Social science · Sociology · Zulu · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Classics · History · Law · Philosophy · South African History and Culture
| Citations per year | 0.17 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1996 - 2024 (29) |
| Highly cited | No |