Böcker av John Laband

Definitive biography of Lord Chelmsford, the Victorian general who rose to prominence during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. Foreword by celebrated Anglo-Zulu historian and writer Ian Knight. Essential reading for any enthusiast of Anglo-Zulu history. Very successfully fills a gap in this market.

First work in English that covers this war in its full context.

Through the institution of the Zulu monarchy, the distinguished historian John Laband has written a riveting account of the whole sweep of Zulu history. Shaka, Africa’s most famous warrior-king, was the formidable, conquering founder of the Zulu kingdom. Two hundred years later, Goodwill Zwelithini, the current king, is a constitutional monarch with only informal political influence.Beginning with the reign of Shaka, the book follows his successors – Dingane, Mpande and Cetshwayo – tracking their drive to power through assassination and civil war, and charting their resistance to colonialism. Although defeated in war, Cetshwayo and his heir, Dinuzulu, struggled to retain something of their kingly authority during the brutal transition to full colonial control. Laband describes how, in the oppressive century of colonial and apartheid rule, their successors – Solomon and Cyprian – strove to have their abolished royal status restored, and how Goodwill Zwelithini finally achieved this goal when the post-apartheid government recognised his royal rank once more.The Eight Zulu Kings also places the Zulu kings in the context of other African monarchs and discusses their shared royal traditions and their common challenges. By bringing the personalities of the Zulu kings into focus, the book assesses how effectively, within the possibilities of his own era, each ruler dealt with the opportunities and threats of his reign.

The ignominious rout of a British force at the Battle of Majuba on 27 February 1881 - and the death of its commander, Major General Sir George Pomeroy-Colley - was the culminating British disaster in the humiliating Transvaal campaign of 1880-1881 in South Africa. For the victorious Boers, who were rebelling against the British annexation of their

This account of the First Boer War of 1881-1881 shows how the British army was jolted out of its complacency by the effective fire and movement tactics of the Boers and the lethal effects of modern small arms. It emphasises the many divisive political, ideological, racial, social and economic tensions in 19th-century South Africa and more.