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Dissertation Information for Michael Robert Mahoney

NAME:
- Michael Robert Mahoney

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (1998)

ADVISORS:
- William H. Worger

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Theodore M. Porter
- Christopher Ehret
- Ali Behdad

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Between the Zulu King and the Great White Chief: Political culture in a Natal Chiefdom, 1879-1906

Abstract: In 1879, men from the Qwabe chiefdom in Britain's southern African colony of Natal fought for the British against the Zulu king. In 1906, they rebelled against the British in the name of the Zulu king. Zulu ethnicity was present among these Qwabe men in 1906 in a way that it had not been in 1879.

British colonialists secured Qwabe loyalty before and during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 for two reasons. First, the Qwabe chiefdom had a history of bitter conflict with the Zulu polity extending back to the origins of both, the memory of which was preserved in oral traditions. Second, even forty years after European conquest, colonialism still rested lightly on the shoulders of the Qwabe and their neighbors and they had as yet little cause for complaint.

After 1880, however, the Qwabe and their neighbors felt the delayed economic and social impact of colonialism with a vengeance. Land expropriation made them dependent on migrant wage labor which, in turn, led to social dislocation. Although migrants often challenged the authority of their elders, they also fought each other in the name of their respective chiefs. On the other hand, migration to Johannesburg instilled a sense of commonality among Natal Africans, even as it fostered conflict between them and Africans from other areas. This sense of commonality manifested itself as loyalty to the Zulu king. Before 1906, however, the unifying potential of Zulu kingship was far outweighed by the divisiveness of endemic feuding.

During the Poll Tax Rebellion of 1906, the Qwabe and their neighbors melded the new culture of violence with the new loyalty to the Zulu king. Instead of fighting for their own chiefs against other chiefs, the rebels fought for the Zulu king against the governor of Natal, also known as the Great White Chief. Both the loyalty to the Zulu king and the unity it fostered stood in stark contrast with what had come before. The rebellion failed to end the rule of the Great White Chief, but the hope of unity for Natal Africans under the aegis of the Zulu king survived.

MPACT Scores for Michael Robert Mahoney

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-10-08 10:22:34

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Students under Michael Robert Mahoney

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None