Chaka The Zulu

This novel is the first of many works of literature which takes the great Zulu leader, king and emperor as its subject. The story is well known, partly due to Mofolo but also to works of literature by Badian, Senghor and Mazisi Kunene. O. R. Dathorne has said 'The historical Chaka is only the impetus for Mofolo's psychological study of the nature of repudiation.' Mofolo presents it as a study of human passion, of an uncontrolled and then uncontrollable ambition leading to the moral destruction of the character and the inevitable punishment.