Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Sharing Our Stories: South African Children's Literature in English
- 2 Reading Outside the Lines: Peritext and Authenticity in South African English Children's Books
- 3 San Tales – Again
- 4 Lessons From the Honey-Guide
- 5 Charles Rawden Maclean, Baden-Powell, and Dinuzulu's Beads
- 6 Two English Children's Authors in South Africa: J.R.R. Tolkien and Rudyard Kipling
- 7 The Chronicles of Peach Grove Farm: an Early South African Children's Book by Nellie Fincher
- 8 Is Pauline Smith's Platkops Children a Children's Book?
- 9 The Fall From Grace of Kingsley Fairbridge
- 10 Cigarette Card Albums and Patriotism
- 11 Cecil Shirley, Author and Illustrator of Little Veld Folk
- 12 “Some Far Siding”: South African English Children's Verse in the First Half of the Twentieth Century
- 13 Cross-Cultural Misreadings: Maccann and Maddy's Apartheid and Racism Revisited
- 14 Memories of Social Transition in Southern Africa: Unity Dow and Kagiso Lesego Molope
- 15 Visual Design in Collections of Writing in English by South African Children
- 16 Refugee Stories: the Suitcase Stories and I am an African
- 17 Sources for Research in South African Children's Literature in English
- 18 A Survey of Research in South African Children's Literature
- References
- Glossary
5 - Charles Rawden Maclean, Baden-Powell, and Dinuzulu's Beads
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 February 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Sharing Our Stories: South African Children's Literature in English
- 2 Reading Outside the Lines: Peritext and Authenticity in South African English Children's Books
- 3 San Tales – Again
- 4 Lessons From the Honey-Guide
- 5 Charles Rawden Maclean, Baden-Powell, and Dinuzulu's Beads
- 6 Two English Children's Authors in South Africa: J.R.R. Tolkien and Rudyard Kipling
- 7 The Chronicles of Peach Grove Farm: an Early South African Children's Book by Nellie Fincher
- 8 Is Pauline Smith's Platkops Children a Children's Book?
- 9 The Fall From Grace of Kingsley Fairbridge
- 10 Cigarette Card Albums and Patriotism
- 11 Cecil Shirley, Author and Illustrator of Little Veld Folk
- 12 “Some Far Siding”: South African English Children's Verse in the First Half of the Twentieth Century
- 13 Cross-Cultural Misreadings: Maccann and Maddy's Apartheid and Racism Revisited
- 14 Memories of Social Transition in Southern Africa: Unity Dow and Kagiso Lesego Molope
- 15 Visual Design in Collections of Writing in English by South African Children
- 16 Refugee Stories: the Suitcase Stories and I am an African
- 17 Sources for Research in South African Children's Literature in English
- 18 A Survey of Research in South African Children's Literature
- References
- Glossary
Summary
Shipwrecked on the coast of Zululand in southern Africa in 1825, a tenyearold ship's boy from Fraserburgh, Scotland, was set for the biggest adventure of his life. Within ten weeks, Charles Rawden Maclean and a small group of his companions were summoned under Zulu escort to the court of the great Zulu king, Shaka kaSenzangakhona, making him one of the first white persons to meet the King. Shaka (1787–1828) had brought together various tribes and founded the Zulu nation. As king from 1816 to 1828, when he was assassinated, Shaka built a huge empire and became the most powerful king Southern Africa has ever seen. His name was held in awe and dread by countless tribes who were subjected to his authority.
Charles was to remain in Zululand for four years, three of them spent at the court, where he stayed as a favourite of the King in his private quarters. Eventually, with the encouragement of Shaka, the sailors finished building a boat out of the wreck of their ship. They named it the Shaka in honour of their benefactor and sailed away.
Charles Rawden Maclean grew up to become a sea captain and a prominent opponent of the slave trade. But in South Africa, his true identity and his adventures became distorted into myth. One of his companions, Nathaniel Isaacs, wrote an account (see Stuart and Malcolm, 1969) in which he called Charles “John Ross”, which was simply a nickname for any redheaded Scotsman. By this name he is remembered for his famous adventure of travelling by foot all the way to the Portuguese settlement at Delagoa Bay (the present Maputo, capital of Mozambique) to fetch medicines and supplies. He was accompanied by an escort of 30 Zulu warriors on what he later described modestly as “a long and somewhat perilous journey” that took six months (Gray 1992:65). To this day, the name “John Ross” appears on a monument in Durban commemorating his journey, and the same name has been given to a highway bridge and even a deepsea tug in his honour. His Zulu companions hardly feature in the legend, as though he had done it all on his own.
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- SeedlingsEnglish Children’sReading and Writers in South Africa, pp. 38 - 44Publisher: University of South AfricaPrint publication year: 2012