Moving Beyond Ethnic Framing: Political Differentiation in the Chiefdoms of the KwaZulu-Natal Region before 1830

Abstract

In earlier work, we saw the making of social categories in the Zulu kingdom under Shaka, particularly those of 'amantungwa' and 'amalala', as an example of the development of embryonic ethnic groups. In the present article, we move on from our previous discussion in a number of ways. We reconsider the category of 'amalala', pushing back further against the categories of ethnicity that previously dominated socio-political analysis of pre-Shaka chiefdoms. For reasons that we argue out in the article, we now question the notion that groups of this kind were 'ethnic' in character. Rather, they constituted socio-political categories with identities that were moulded under specific historical circumstances from pre-existing notions about relationships between different 'layerings' of people in society. We go on to consider case-studies of political differentiation and social categorisation that took place in the KwaZulu-Natal region before the reign of Shaka. In making our arguments, we...