BOOK REVIEWS 193Perhaps this is because many of these stories stem from the author'sexperiences as a child. Childhood memories may be more vivid than laterexperiences and, with the passage of time, become romanticized. I certainlyenjoyed a wave of nostalgia while reading about many of the same things that Idid as a youngster, including sampling that most wonderful of indigenous fruits,the snot apple (I much prefer its delightfully onomatopoeic Sindebele name -ŠXaguxagu).The third part of the book ('Abdul') is about an injured Abdim's Storkwhich the author rescued and cared for until it was able to fly away. This is aninteresting and well-written piece which taught me something about these birds,but I feel that Abdul's story does not deserve such a large proportion of the bookand that one or two chapters could have been eliminated without much loss.University of Zimbabwe B. E. MARSHALLThe Praises of Dingana: Izibongo zikaDingana Edited by D. K. Rycroft andA. B. Ngcobo. Pietermaritzburg, Univ. of Natal Press, Killie Campbell AfricanaLibrary Series, 1988, xiii, 258 pp., ISBN 0-86950-629-7, R46,50.It is a fitting tribute to Dingane (Dingana) that Rycroft and Ngcobo should havereproduced his praise-poem (izibongo) in written form. This poem brilliantlyillustrates the genius of the Zulu izimbongi, perhaps most memorably expressedin the following immortal lines (p. 74)Vezi kof abantuKosal' izibongoIzona zosala zibadalulaIzona zosala zibalil' emanxiweniVezi, though people may die, praises remainThese will remain and bring grief for themRemain and lament for them in the empty homes.The book is also a tribute to James Stuart's extended study of Zulu historyand culture. The present izibongo, a tremendous 432 lines, were collated by JamesStuart from sixteen different sources and have never been published before inthis full form. The present transcription was made from six recordings made byStuart for the Zenophone Record Company in London between 1927 and 1930,of which only the first was ever issued commercially. Accompanying thetranscription is an English translation with a detailed line-by-line commentaryto aid the literary historian and the literary critic. It provides the reader withmaterial as near as possible to the nineteenth-century recitals of izibongo, and thesound recording has been diagrammized to represent the way in which theimbongi recited the poem, thus animating the frozen izibongo as much as possible.But for a reader seeking ground-breaking research on izibongo, this book isa disappointment. There is a lack of rigorous analysis that such a subject nowrequires. For example, Rycroft and Ngcobo do not defend their definition of194 BOOK REVIEWSizibongo as 'eulogies" beyond simply telling us that it was a term James StuartŁfavoured' (p. 11). The term is ideologically inadequate, thinly selective, andmay cause misunderstanding of the institution of izibongo. Gunner,' Mapanje andWhite,2and Opland,1 among others, see the need for a more informed definition.Rycroft and Ngcobo's work is deeply concerned with the question ofauthorship (see Chapter Three and Appendix). They recognize Magolwana as'the greatest imbongi of all time" (p. 38) and maintain that he was Dingane'simbongi, who later served both Mpande and Cetshwayo. but who did not serveShaka. Cope quotes Kunene,4 who 'attributes the perfection of the stanza[structure of izibongo} to Shaka's famous praiser, Magolwana'. Since Rycroftand Ngcobo concede Magolwana was the greatest imbongi, it is sensible toassume that Magolwana in fact predates Dingane and that he could have composedthe beautiful praise-poem of Shaka. There is need for further research into thematter of Magolwana.For the Zimbabwean reader there are numerous references to Mzilikaziwhich are very interesting, sometimes because they are misleading; for example,line 65 'Wadl' uMlomo-wezinqaba kwaMashobane' (You killed Mlomo-wezinqaba among the Khumalo), means that Mlomo-wezinqaba was killed byDingane, but in fact Mlomo-wezinqaba was still alive at the time of Mbiko'srebellion in 1870 in which he (Mlomo-wezinqaba) took Lobengula's side.Despite the detailed commentary, there is a nagging feeling that we neversense, any more than we do in Nyembezi's collection/ the presence of Dingane,the usurper who, history has shown, was able to maintain the Zulu martialculture that Shaka had built.This book is, however, important as a contribution to the literary studies ofZulu.University of Zimbabwe T. NKABINDE1 E. Gunner, 'Forgotten men: Zulu bards and praising at the time of Ihc Zulu kings' AfricanLanguaxeslLanguages Africainex (1976). II. 72-3.- J. Mapanje and L. White. Oral Poetry from Africa (London. Longman. 1983). 7.' J. Opland, Xhosa Oral Poetry (Cambridge. Cambridge Univ. Press. 1983).4 R. Kunene, 'An Analytical Survey of Zulu Poetry. Both Traditional and Modern'(Pietermaritzburg. Univ. of Natal. MA thesis. 19621. quoted in hibonfio: Zulu Praise-Poems collJames Stuart, trans. D. Malcolm, ed. T. Cope (Oxford. Clarendon. 196K). 53.' C. L. S. Ngembezi. Izibongo zamakhosi (Pietermarit/burg, Shuter and Shooter. 1958).