Shaka Zulu
SABC3, Channel 193, Wednesday, 20:30
For those of you who are interested in local history, this miniseries about the famous and heavy-handed king of the Zulus should be an enthralling watch. It consists of 10 hour-long episodes and was made in 1986, finding its way onto TV intermittently ever since.
I have vague memories of seeing it myself when I was in primary school, but I can’t remember much about it apart from a few hazy scenes, so it will be good to see it again.
There are a few interesting things about this series, not least of which is that it was filmed during the apartheid era, with some funding from the US television production company Harmony Gold, despite the economic sanctions against South Africa at the time. It also portrays the Zulu warrior ideals of life, death and spirituality that would have been quite alien and challenging to some of the countries in which it was probably syndicated in its early years.
The series is based on US novelist Joshua Sinclair’s novel Shaka Zulu, which he adapted into a screenplay for the SABC. Both were probably embellished historical stories drawing on the information that was available, including the accounts from the British traders who interacted with his kingdom. The role of Shaka went to local actor Henry Cele, who does great justice to the role by making Shaka seem as ruthless and imposing as he is in the historical accounts. I don’t remember too much about it, and information online is scarce, but the lion’s share of the series will focus on his rule. If I remember correctly, we’ll see how he revolutionised Zulu warfare, enabling him to subjugate other tribes and even defeat the British at the Battle of Isandlwana. I hope we get to see his armies employing the bull horn formation for which they were famous.
The series also stars Simon Sabela as Shaka’s mentor Dingiswayo; Edward Fox as Francis Farewell, the founder of the Port Natal colony; Robert Powell as Henry Francis Fynn, an early Natal settler and trader whose diary is one of the best contemporary sources for information on Shaka; and Trevor Howard as Lord Charles Henry Somerset, who was governor of the Cape Colony during much of Shaka’s reign.