Insila, the Eyes and Ears of the King is a fresh, modern translation of the Zulu novel, "Insila kaShaka", which was first published in 1931, the first novel by a Zulu writer. Dube's narrative is an extraordinary, gripping and haunting window into Zulu life as it was lived before the land was lost to the Europeans. It tells of a young man, Jeqe, who is summoned by Emperor Shaka to his Royal Residence at Dukuza to be his Insila. There is no accurate translation of the word, insila. The only way to find out what it entails is to read Dube's book. An earlier translator, J. Boxwell, translated it as 'bodyservant'. This captures only one aspect of the Insila's role. The word insila means body dirt and conveys the fact that the Insila becomes very close to and inseparable from the king.When Shaka is murdered by his half-brothers, Jeqe must be buried along with Shaka's wives and his earthly possessions. Jeqe's Buthelezi ancestors come to him in a dream. They tell him he still has much to accomplish - and he flees. This is the start of an enthralling adventure involving traversing dangerous bushveld teeming with wild animals of all kinds, crossing mighty rivers and negotiating lands populated by foreign peoples. The story includes some wonderful and thrilling encounters - the courting of Zakhi, the love of his life; the island school of Nkosazana, the female mistress of traditional medicine and divining in the swamps of the Usuthu River between what is now South Africa and Mozambique; and an apocalyptic landscape of abandoned villages and dying people on a plateau in the Ubombo Mountains.Dube is anxious to record the culture and social conditions of the time as well as to tell the story. It is thus a Zulu novel in a real sense, quite different to the form that developed in the West. This translation of Insila kaShaka by Thembani Ndiya Nene and Robert Mshengu Kavanagh, comes with a substantial introduction and a glossary.
About the Author: Dube was born in 1871 and died in 1946. During his relatively long life he registered a number of extremely impressive achievements, among them being the establishment in 1901 of the Christian Industrial School, later to change its name to the Ohlange Institute; the founding two years later of Ilanga laseNatali [the Natal Sun], the first newspaper in isiZulu, which still operates to this day; another two years later his election as the first President of the South African National Native Council [SANNC], later to become the African National Congress [ANC]; and finally the publication of the first novel in isiZulu. He was a prolific writer with most of his works being of a polemical or political nature. His only literary works were Insila kaShaka and biographies on, among others, King Dinizulu and Isaiah Shembe, founder of the independent Shembe Church or Ibandla lamaNazaretha [literal translation 'church of the people of Nazareth'].