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Shaka Zulu is back in pop culture – how the famous king has been portrayed over the decades

Shaka Zulu is back in pop culture – how the famous king has been portrayed over the decades

SHAKA Zulu is one of the most famous figures in South African history, even though not much is actually known about him. The subject of a hit 1980s TV show and of many books, Shaka is reframed by each generation. Now he’s back in popular culture with a major new South African TV series, Shaka iLembe. Dan Wylie is an English professor who has written two academic books on Shaka. We asked him four questions. Author DAN WYLIE, Professor of English, Rhodes University Who was Shaka Zulu and what did you learn from writing about him? Shaka kaSenzangakhona is universally…
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The terror of fire

The terror of fire

GREG ARDÉ NOMASOMSON Dlamini isn’t likely to go down in the annals of South African history, but the terror of her death will be permanently etched in the minds of a small group of the country’s most impoverished people. Dlamini, 38, was a domestic worker in Durban.  She lived in the Marikana shack settlement in Cato Crest, one of hundreds of thousands of people who call the city’s 581 shack settlements home. To officials and politicians, Dlamini is a statistic. But her neighbours recall her ready smile. And the horror of her death. Dlamini burnt to death at 3am on…
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