CHILDREN'S BOOKS; HIS SOLDIERS DARED NOT FLINCH Review

• Published in: New York Times
• Main Authors: Neumeyer, Peter F, Peter F. Neumeyer teaches English and comparative literature at San Diego State University. His most recent book is a children's version of "The Phantom of the Opera."
• Format: Book Review
• Language: English
• Published: New York, N.Y New York Times Company 13.11.1988
• Edition: Late Edition (East Coast)
• Subjects: NEUMEYER, PETER F; Stanley, Diane; Vennema, Peter
• ISSN: 0362-4331

Increasingly, [SHAKA] joined in military forays, gave his counsel in meetings with elders. At his father's death he became chief. He displayed strength and power as he captured thousands of men whom he brought back to swell the ranks of the formidable Zulu warriors. He forbade them to marry until they had acquitted themselves in battle. (Although he had a harem of 1,200 women, Shaka himself left no offspring.) As the 12 years of his rule passed, Shaka assimilated hundreds of thousands from the clans he conquered, and sent whole populations into exile, starvation and desolation as his rule, his demands, his ravages increased. When, in 1827, his beloved mother died, 7,000 mourners were incited to murder one another, until the rivers were swollen with their corpses. Shaka commanded that the world grieve with him, that all milk be poured on the ground, that no crops be planted for a year - an edict that would have meant starvation for his people had he not been talked out of such a suicidal measure in the third month. Overstepping one time too many the bounds of what one can ask of even the most loyal troops, Shaka was assassinated by two of his half brothers soon thereafter. Sic semper . . .