There is no doubt but that the underlying intention of the order to kill pigs and white fowls and discard European utensils was that the Natives of Natal and Zululand should rise against the white man. Its purpose was to warn, as well as to unite, by the use of a threat. In the absence of positive evidence, which may yet be forthcoming, it would be wrong to draw any precise inference as to its origination. On the whole, it seems to us more likely to have sprung from the imagination of some Native obsessed with the idea that the conditions of life under European rule were intolerable, than from that of Dinuzulu.
By this time, the temper of the people had undergone a considerable change. A sullen demeanour was assumed by them as soon as the poll tax was proclaimed. To use a Zulu metaphor (without equivalent in English), and one that exactly expresses the position, the new tax had caused them to qunga.[83] This sullenness is, indeed, characteristic of the people under abnormal conditions. Until satisfied that any action in regard to them is oppressive or betrays neglect of their interests, they are, however, slow to take offence. They prefer to wait and observe the effect on others. If these, too, become morose, the tide of sullenness rises to resentment, and then to anger and open defiance. That the whole community was more or less charged with this ugly spirit, will presently be seen from the contemptuous manner in which Magistrates and other officials were treated in various parts of the country.
It is curious to note in this connection an almost total absence of belief among the Europeans (including those with expert knowledge of the Natives), that actual rebellion was imminent.
But although sullenness is characteristic of the people, it would be a libel to describe them as otherwise than exceedingly patient and long-suffering, equable and philosophic. Once conquered, they become loyal and devoted subjects, even of a race radically different from their own. They are profoundly conservative—the conservatism of ages—content with a simple life, simple pursuits and pastimes. But once such ideal has been destroyed or abandoned, they become restless, unstable and unhappy.
From what has been said, it can be seen that the direct and indirect association of Dinuzulu with the incidents immediately preceding the Insurrection was of the deepest and most subtle character. The part actually played by him during the rising, in some respects that of a kind of Zulu Hamlet, will be gradually unfolded as the narrative proceeds. A brief account of his antecedents has already been given. It is proposed now to consider the kind of life led by him in Zululand after returning from St. Helena, because an understanding thereof will enable the reader to appreciate the position better than he might otherwise do.
Attention should, in the first place, be drawn to the fact that during his stay at St. Helena (1889-1897), Dinuzulu was subjected to influences that contributed in no small degree to his subsequent undoing. The Governor of the island, with no sense of the fitness of things, treated him just as he might have done Napoleon. The result was that when he returned to the land of his fathers, he was neither savage nor civilized. He had been "spoilt."
With a "spoilt" young Zulu the Government of Natal had to get on as well as it could. Without going into the terms of his repatriation, which will be dealt with later, it may be pointed out that, after spending a few weeks at Eshowe, he was allowed to return to his tribe near Nongoma, where he erected his Usutu and other kraals.
As soon as he got away from the restraining influences of civilization, he relapsed more or less into a state of barbarism. He became a "freethinker." He married more wives than one, and kept more concubines than a dozen. He cast aside the European clothes he had so long worn, not, however, to don once more the picturesque garb of his youth, but something which was neither one thing nor the other. His morals became lax. He grew indolent. His life, being of an unsettled, invertebrate and isolated type, caused many of his actions to appear ambiguous and mysterious. This, in a man naturally cunning, was ascribed to duplicity. He wallowed in such luxury as the £500 a year allowed by the Government and what remained of his patrimony could command at his semi-barbarous, semi-civilized kraal, and sated himself with inordinate quantities of European spirits. He presently became so extraordinarily obese, that it was with difficulty he could move about unassisted. The affliction of "expansion," to which members of the Zulu royal house are notoriously liable, came upon him at an age earlier than usual.
The sorry picture that has been drawn of a man, not without estimable qualities, could not, we venture to think, have existed had better judgment been exercised by the authorities and his friends in St. Helena, and, to some extent, those in Zululand as well. And yet, in St. Helena, counter influences had not been wanting. Ndabuko, for instance, strenuously resisted all endeavours for his own so-called "improvement"; if Tshingana was less obdurate, he had sufficient judgment and sagacity to prevent his benevolent preceptors from carrying him too far.