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THEY POURED THEMSELVES INTO THE MILK: ZULU POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY UNDER SHAKA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2006

PAUL K. BJERK
PAUL K. BJERK
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Abstract

This article synthesizes metaphors and practices surrounding human and bovine milk and semen appearing in the James Stuart Archive of Zulu oral history. The King's control of the flow of milk in society was the source of his power and the mechanism by which he controlled the state. A fluent understanding of this Zulu political philosophy in the Stuart Archive opens up a rich and underutilized source of historical information for Zulu history that adds significantly to prior studies. Parallels to these images in the Great Lakes region suggest a ‘milk complex’ rather than the common perception of a ‘cattle complex’.

Keywords

Precolonial South Africapolitical cultureoral narrativessocial organization
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , March 2006 , pp. 1 - 19
Copyright
2005 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Thomas Spear for his guidance and the members of Professor Spear's seminar on the Zulu state for helping to shape this article. Dan Magaziner, Neil Kodesh and two anonymous readers gave crucial comments on the second draft.