Racialised Masculinity and the Limits of Settlement: John Dunn and Natal, 1879–1883

Abstract

Southeast Africa in the latter half of the nineteenth century witnessed the entrenchment of a settler colonial polity in Natal as well as the invasion and later annexation of the Zulu Kingdom by British forces. British settlers sought to make good their claims to control the land and labour of the region, particularly following the defeat of the Zulu military in 1879. Yet, these claims were frequently negotiated between erstwhile colonists and colonised peoples; such assertions of power took place in an atmosphere of constant negotiation, as evidenced in the life and career of Natal settler and ostensible Zulu chieftain John Dunn.